Democracy Promotion in the Age of Obama

Описание: Over the past several years, democracy promotion has stood at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy. The Bush administration's Freedom Agenda brought increased resources for promoting democracy overseas and created new programs like the Millennium Challenge Corporation, geared toward spurring democracy and encouraging good governance.

Unfortunately, the Freedom Agenda has not only failed to fulfill its promise, it has likely set back America's democratization agenda. While the inauguration of Barack Obama has brought with it great hope of a new approach to democracy-related issues, signs so far are unclear.

To date there is still no head of USAID or an undersecretary for democracy, human rights and labor at the State Department and the rhetoric on democracy has been decidedly turned down. Is the country exhausted from trying to promote freedom overseas and will the cause of democratization take a back seat under an Obama Administration? Will the Congress have to take the lead by finally rewriting the Foreign Assistance Act and pushing the Administration to fix what has become an overly fragmented and unwieldy foreign assistance bureaucracy? And after the challenges of the past eight years, what principles and objectives of democratization should be influencing this policy debate?