Word: arabism
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...spectacle of Eastern Europe-style ?people power? demonstrations erupting in a major Arab capital is a sure sign that momentous changes are afoot in the Middle East. And the street protests in Beirut aimed at forcing out Syrian troops are only the most dramatic of a series of developments that underscore the pressure on the region?s longtime autocrats. Many of those autocrats, of course, are traditional U.S. allies who now find themselves wedged between a mounting democratic clamor from their own people and a cold shoulder from their traditional backers in Washington, whose leader has warned friend...
...growing popular demand for Arab democracy also presents a major strategic challenge to the U.S. to put the democratic process above its outcome, as the Bush administration has done thus far in Iraq. If Washington accepts that given the choice, Arab electorates will most likely choose candidates quite different from those the U.S. would prefer to see in power, we could be in for a profound change in the region's prospects. But that requires dispensing with the Cold War mentality that puts the outcome above the process, i.e. better a pro-U.S. autocrat than a democratically elected socialist...
...related, challenges facing advocates of Arab democracy are to accept that it will involve parties that the U.S. might regard as beyond the pale, and that the results may be quite different from those Washington would prefer. It's unlikely that most of the key U.S. allies in the Middle East would fare much better than Iraq's Allawi in genuinely democratic elections. But allowing Arab electorates the right to choose their own leaders is still healthier in the long run. The burden of governing is almost always a moderating experience. (Just ask Turkey's crypto-Islamist government...
...policy towards the Arab world since World War II was largely guided by Cold War calculations that not only forgave friendly authoritarian currents in the Middle East, but in some cases actually helped them seize power or propped them up. In most of the U.S.-friendly Arab autocracies, the citizenry is not only burning with frustration at the authoritarian and repressive nature of their governments and the stasis of the societies they rule; they are also enraged by their rulers' close relationships with Washington...
...interim prime minister Iyad Allawi polled only 14 percent of the vote. It is to the Bush administration?s credit that it has repeatedly insisted it will accept the choices of the Iraqi voters, even when those obviously conflict with U.S. preferences. Such flexibility will be indispensable if the Arab democracy project is to be much more than a slogan, because if Iraqi voters who arguably owe their new democracy to U.S. military intervention nonetheless voted against the U.S., there's no reason to believe the outcome would be different in the other key Arab autocracies - genuine democracy would likely...