How Obama Can Restore Democracy Promotion

After a century of democracy promotion, from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush, many Americans today no longer believe democracy is a realizable global ambition. Whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Gaza Strip, the Bush administration's single-minded drive to install democratic institutions hasn't worked as planned, and Americans are frustrated and fatigued by the ensuing chaos. Indeed, a recently leaked national security memo from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to President Obama suggested that we should give up on the promotion of democracy in Afghanistan. "Democracy fatigue" might be an understandable reaction to the Bush administration. Yet turning away from freedom as a touchstone of our national security policy--especially today--would be dangerous. The neocons in the Bush administration focused primarily on structural elements such as elections in their attempts to support democracy, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Gaza Strip. Instead, we ought to make the cultivation of constitutionalism--a vibrant, anti-authoritarian civic culture that acts as a sort of self-sustaining bulwark against instability--a primary goal of a post-Bush foreign policy.