Op-Ed Proposes Ways in Which US and EU Should Promote Democracy

 In a September 7, 2005 op-ed in the Financial Times , Craig Kennedy, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States , outlines three steps American can take so that the promotion of democracy becomes a viable goal.  He uses his organization's recent poll of Americans and Europeans as evidence that a transatlantic coalition supporting democracy promotion is possible.

Kennedy argues that the first step is to make the promotion of democracy a “bipartisan priority in the US .”  He maintains that since only 43% of Democrats support the idea that the US should be involved in promoting democracy, president Bush ought to reach out across the partisan divide on this issue.  Kennedy reminds us:

In the early 1980's, Ronald Regan rose above extreme partisan divisions over Central American policy and forged a bipartisan coalition for the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy.  He reached out to key democratic leaders and turned his agenda into a common vision for how the US should promote democracy in the latter years of the cold war.  Mr. Bush needs to follow this path.

The second step is to go beyond domestic unity and make democracy promotion a “global cause.”  Specifically, Kennedy urges that European countries must become allies in promoting democracy.  He points out that an “overwhelming majority of Europeans, 71 per cent, support…European involvement in the promotion of democracy.”  Kennedy cautions that European public support falls drastically when the promotion of democracy is associated with the US or Bush.  This leads him to recommend that the US must make Europe an equal partner, and that in many cases the US must allow Europe to take the lead in democracy promotion.  Kennedy acknowledges the political difficulties of such a move, noting:

Taking a back seat to Europe will not be easy for American policy-makers, but, if the president and his advisers are to be faithful to their rhetoric, they will have to do so to advance the cause of democracy.

The third and final argument Kennedy advances is that “the promotion of democracy must be clearly separated from the use of military force.”  If this cannot be done, he argues, public support in both the US and Europe will plummet, and a transatlantic coalition would not be sustainable.