*Topicality/Definitions Democracy Promotion Includes Military Intervention
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- *Democracy Assistance Bad/Case Turns*
Democracy Assistance CoerciveUS DEMOCRACY PROMOTION POLICIES HAVE ALWAYS MIXED COERCION AND PERSUASION E. Doyle Stevick, Education Professor- University of South Carolina, 2008, Advancing Democracy Through Education: US influence abroad and domestic practices, eds. E. Stevic & B. Levinson, p. xx-xxi If the general feeling within the United States that the country had a positive influence around the world, at a peak following the transformations of Germany and Japan, waned during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, it was certainly reinvigorated with the collapse of the Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa and the military engagements of the First Gulf War and the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Skepticism about the use of American power and the agendas driving it vary around the world and shift over time, but reached a summit with the ongoing conflict in Iraq. The sense that the US might be advancing hidden agendas through its policies, particularly the promotion of Christianity, emerged again as rhetoric of a “Crusade” presaged the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite perceptions that the U.S. feels a sense of entitlement to remake the world through violence, without regard to or understanding of foreign cultures or countries, or that economic agendas of expanding markets trump true support for democracy, many who operate within the U.S.’s broader involvement in promoting democracy adamantly oppose their contemporary administration’s foreign policy and simultaneously advocate different values, even as they are caught up within larger geopolitical agendas. This seemingly bifurcated view is not new, however; President Dwight Eisenhower, who warned the country of the growing “military industrial complex,” also provided the country with the notion that it was in a global struggle to “win hearts and minds.” Indeed, whether seeking to stem the tide of spreading communism or militant Islam, American engagement with and influence in the world has been an oscillating formula and diplomatic means, wedding coercion with persuasion in different ratios.
US Democracy Promotion Rejects Preferred Outcome for Arab CountriesUS DEMOCRACY PROMOTION REJECTS POLITICAL ISLAM WHICH PEOPLE IN THE MIDEAST VIEW AS A COUNTER-HEGEMONIC IDEOLOGY Dionysis Markakis, Center for International and Regional Studies- Georgetown University, 2016, US Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: The Pursuit of Hegemony, p. 92-3 The unprecedented success of the Muslim Brotherhood raised its profile as a viable opposition movement, hinting towards the very real possibility of an Islamist party eventually assuming power electorally in the Middle East. This was in fact realized shortly afterwards in the January 2006 elections in the Palestinian Territories. Hamas, an Islamist group designated as a terrorist organization, won in elections widely acclaimed as free and fair. The fact that both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas have traditionally adopted stridently anti-Western postures led to fears that, by encouraging political reform in the Middle East, the US might aid parties fundamentally opposed to its interests. This also reflected a more basal concern though, that of a rival ideology in the form of political Islam. As Adam Shatz argues: “Islamism has provided the Arabs with an idiom of resistance, one with an even stronger claim to cultural authenticity than secular nationalism.” He notes that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the democratically elected Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey, and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of the Islamist Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, are “folk heroes” in Egypt. Islamism constitutes one of the few viable alternatives to the ideology promoted by the US in the Middle East and, because of its grounding in the Islamic faith, also beyond the region’s borders. Its potential to serve as a counter-hegemonic ideology has subsequently been regarded by successive administrations, in particular since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, as a compelling threat. Fawaz Gerges claims: “Security and strategic calculations lie behind America’s suspicion of Islamists. US officials appear to view political Islam as a populist movement with historical roots similar to those of revolutionary third world nationalism. Washington has not been disposed toward populist third world groups and states.” POLITICAL ISLAM IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO BOTH US DEMOCRATIC MODEL AND RADICAL ISLAMIC POLITICS Dionysis Markakis, Center for International and Regional Studies- Georgetown University, 2016, US Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: The Pursuit of Hegemony, p. 59 A third, final premise behind the US’s support of authoritarian governance has been the emergence of political Islam as a force. As the political opposition in the Middle East, and one that has come to power recently in Tunisia and Egypt, Islamists have stood to gain the most from reform, at least over the short -term. This is partly due to the nature of authoritarian rule, which invariably limits the political “spaces” available, with religion affording one such space in the context of Middle Eastern societies. This has benefited Islamist movements, since as Jason Brownlee notes in the case of Egypt: “a competitive multiparty system would…reduce, rather than increase, Islamist representation in parliament by offering anti-NDP [National Democratic Party] voters alternatives to the Muslim Brotherhood.” A significant part of Islamists’ political platforms is based on the so-called Occidentalist paradigm. This broadly, although by no means exclusively, entails a rejection of the liberal democratic model promoted by the US as well as opposition to the introduction of Western political, economic, social, and cultural values. As such, these parties pose a considerable challenge to US efforts to extend its hegemony in the region, particularly given their potential to serve as a counter-hegemonic bloc. Adam Schatz argues: “Since the collapse of Nasserism in 1967, Islamism has provided the Arabs with an idiom of resistance, one with an even stronger claim to cultural authenticity than secular nationalism. The luster of Islamism has also been burnished by concrete achievements: the success of the AKP in Turkey and Erdogan’s growing stature as a regional leader who has defied American wishes; the 2006 ‘divine victory’ of Hizbullah in Lebanon, which washed away some of the humiliation the Arabs have felt since the 1967 defeat.” Islamism therefore appears as one of the few ideological alternatives to that promoted by the US, both in the Middle East and beyond. 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