The Goal Becomes Muslim Democracy
(A priority shift in Washington)
Richard Haass on Promoting Democracy in the Muslim World
(International Herald Tribune, 12/11/02)

The Arab Human Development Report, written on behalf of the UN Development Program and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, portrays an Arab world that is lagging behind other regions in individual freedom, women's empowerment and economic and social development.

The report points to disturbing trends, such as a youth bulge combined with youth unemployment reaching almost 40 percent in some places, thereby portending potentially explosive social conditions.

The Arab world faces serious problems that can be met only by more flexible, democratic political systems.

Muslims cannot blame the United States for their lack of democracy. Still, the United States does play a large role on the global stage, and its efforts to promote democracy throughout the Muslim world have sometimes been halting and incomplete. In many parts of the Muslim world, and particularly in the Arab world, successive U.S. administrations, Republican and Democratic alike, have not made democratization a sufficient priority.

At times, the United States has avoided scrutinizing the internal workings of countries in the interests of ensuring a steady flow of oil, containing Soviet, Iraqi and Iranian expansionism, addressing issues related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, resisting communism in East Asia or securing basing rights for the U.S. military.

By failing to help foster gradual paths to democratization in many of our important relationships - by creating what might be called a "democratic exception" - we missed an opportunity to help these countries became more stable, more prosperous, more peaceful, and more adaptable to the stresses of a globalizing world.

It is not in the U.S. interest - or that of Muslims - for America to continue this exception. U.S. policy will be more actively engaged in supporting democratic trends in the Muslim world than ever before.

We will do this in full knowledge of the fact that democracies are imperfect. They are complicated. Leaders in some Muslim states contrast democratic systems to their own more orderly systems, and point with satisfaction to the seeming stability that they provide. But stability based on authority alone is illusory and ultimately impossible to sustain.

We saw in Iran, in Romania and in Liberia what happens when the pressure cooker explodes. Rigid authoritarian systems cannot withstand the shocks of social, political or economic change, particularly of the kind or at the pace that characterizes the modern world.

Yet as we make democratization a higher priority in our dealings with the Muslim world, like medical doctors we must above all obey the Hippocratic oath and first do no harm. Unrestrained zeal to make the world better could make it worse.

The United States must undertake this task with humility, understanding that the stakes for others are greater than for ourselves. As Muslim countries and peoples move toward more open and democratic development, we must not only encourage and help them, we will need to listen to those most directly affected.

There is no hidden agenda. America's rationale in promoting democratization in the Muslim world is both altruistic and self-interested. Greater democracy in Muslim majority countries is good for the people who live there. But it is also good for America.

Countries plagued by economic stagnation and lack of opportunity, closed political systems and burgeoning populations fuel the alienation of their citizens. As we have learned the hard way, such societies can be breeding grounds for extremists and terrorists who target America for supporting the regimes under which they live.

Equally important, the growing gulf between many Muslim regimes and their citizens potentially compromises the ability of these governments to cooperate on issues of vital importance to the United States. Such domestic pressures will increasingly limit the ability of many regimes in the Muslim world to provide assistance, or even to acquiesce, to American efforts to combat terrorism or halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

America will support democratic processes even if those empowered do not choose policies to our liking.

But U.S. relations with governments, even if fairly elected, will depend on how they treat their people and how they act on the international stage on issues ranging from terrorism to trade and from nonproliferation to narcotics.

The United States will work more energetically than ever before to promote democracy in partnership with Muslim peoples and governments.