The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion - Live Discussion - ...

Thomas Carothers, director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of the book "Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: In Search of Knowledge," was online Tuesday, March 7, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his Foreign Affairs article on increased resistance to attempts to spread democracy in nations around the world. In "The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion" Carothers describes foreign leaders who have associated democracy with American intervention and meddling to strengthen their own grip on power.

Highlighted by timmycoke

Houston, Tex.: How is the president's "freedom agenda" perceived around the world? Do the inconsistencies in the administration's rhetoric/spin account for the lack of credibility for its democracy endeavor referenced?

Thomas Carothers: The president's freedom agenda is not being met with much enthusiasm in most places, for a whole set of interconnected reasons -- association of the freedom agenda with a war in Iraq that is disliked in most parts of the world, perceptions of U.S. double standards in pursuing freedom, resentment at the idea of the United States telling other people how to live, and uncertainty that freedom per se (without justice and other more results oriented concepts) is the answer to the problems many societies face.

Highlighted by timmycoke