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Featured Commentary

Encouraging Pragmatic Reforms in the Middle East

By Brian Katulis, senior fellow, Center for American Progress; adviser, Middle East Progress. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.

posted on 04/04/08

If President George W. Bush has had one core, consistent theme in his foreign policy rhetoric, it has been the notion that the expansion of freedom and democracy would defeat the forces of terrorism and extremism. Yet elevating the rhetoric of freedom has resulted in creating unrealistic expectations about how quickly sustainable political reforms could be implemented and great disillusionment when they are not. Some have argued that it is necessary to return to foreign policy “realism,” to a realpolitik “balance of power” diplomacy that disregards ruling authorities’ performance and practices on rule of law, anti-corruption and respect for basic rights. They argue that given the complicated issues on the three key tracks in the Middle East—Iraq, the Arab-Israeli peace process and Iran—the United States will have to put democracy and governance reform on the back burner. But doing so would be a mistake.

Just as we should reject the false choice presented by some who claim that economic support to Palestinians through loan guarantees and risk insurance initiatives takes the wind out of the sails of real progress in negotiating a comprehensive peace settlement, we should reject a false choice between political reform in the Middle East and making advances on the Arab-Israeli peace front and in Iraq and Iran. Structured properly, efforts to encourage democratic governance can reinforce initiatives to address the broader challenges. How can the United States do this? Three key shifts are necessary:

First, the United States working in tandem with other powers and leaders in the region, must reshape reform efforts to make them more practical and pragmatic rather than seeing them as a crusade. This means developing efforts at reform in close cooperation with key stakeholders and lowering the temperature (and expectations) on the freedom rhetoric.

Second, democratic development groups will need to begin thinking outside of the box. In many ways, the tools used by democracy promotion groups and the U.S. agencies and foundations that support them are stuck in the 1980s and 1990s with the standard tools in the democracy promotion toolkit largely unchanged: a menu of election monitoring, political party development, parliamentary development, civil society support and women’s empowerment programs. These approaches have value in and of themselves because of the potential they offer for boosting individual leaders and building ties to the United States, but whether they have long-term sustainable impact is an open question.

The challenges of democracy promotion in the twenty-first century, particular those in the Middle East, require a new approach. A cottage industry of think tanks and researchers in academia has sprung up in the Middle East democracy promotion field over the past few years; if their expertise is combined with the practical experience of those who have worked on the ground, a new approach could be developed to advance sustainable reforms—reforms that move the ball forward on the other important fronts in the Middle East.

Third, building on the need to think outside the box, the United States should look to develop more integrated approaches across sectors to advance reform. For example, in recent years, the United States has begun to make substantial investments in security sector reform and support in a range of Middle Eastern countries—Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. It has also had long-standing programs of security sector support in Egypt and several Gulf countries.

By working to connect these systems to the broader executive, judicial and legislative authorities that can provide oversight and accountability, the United States could create initiatives that help build a stronger fabric of better governance and anti-corruption through governing. Security sector reform is not just an essential cornerstone of stability; it can also be a platform to promote better practices within governing systems—including fair and balanced oversight from democratic legislative branches and better working relationships with judicial authorities. Achieving progress in this area will require building the right set of incentives to advance reform in implementing the rule of law, and it will also mean developing a more integrated approach that avoids the “stovepiping” that all too often exists in multifaceted bilateral assistance programs.

In the end, the United States faces a difficult balancing act as it takes stock of the full range of interests and priorities it has in the Middle East. Rule of law and democracy promotion is not a cure-all. But with the right approach and necessary tact, modest expectations about the timelines for sustainable reform and proper integration with other policy initiatives, U.S. efforts to promote democracy and the rule of law can be one of several vital engines driving progress in the Middle East for years to come.