POLI 354 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Condoleezza Rice, Larry Diamond, Authoritarianism
13 May 2018
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POLI 360 Mon, Feb 12, 2018
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Lecture 11: Democratic Ideals and US Foreign Policy
• Post-WWI, Woodrow Wilson founded League of Nations, pushed for global
democratization
• Democracy as the antithesis of communism during the Cold War
o Democracy would counter-balance communism
• Democracy post-9/11 as solution to extremism
o Bush administration adopted the democratic peace theorem as an excuse for
invading Iraq
US Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice
Washington Post, Dec. 11, 2005)
• "Though the broader Middle East has no history of democracy, this is not an excuse for
doing nothing. If every action required a precedent, there would be no firsts. We are
confident that democracy will succeed in this region not simply because we have faith in
our principles but because the basic human longing for liberty and democratic rights has
transformed our world."
Lessons from Iraq (Larry Diamond)
• The US overthrew Saddam Hussein with a small military force, inadequate for securing
the peace
• Widespread looting and violence immediately after Saddam's overthrow
o No measures to secure peace
o US military force was not big enough
• US expected its troops to be greeted as liberators; met fierce resistance and insurgency
instead
Key US Missteps in Iraq
• US dawdled in agreeing to a timetable for elections; met with Iraqi mistrust
• Post-conflict interventions face a fundamental contradiction: they seek to build
democracy and sovereignty by imposing foreign military domination
• Would the Iraq occupation have succeeded if the US handled it differently? Or was it
doomed to fail?
Iraqi Elections of January 2005
• Widely hailed as a breakthrough, a vindication of US invasion
• But violence by, against US occupation continued for years afterward
• Strengthened sectarian divisions (especially between Sunni and Shi'a)
• Unprecedented persecution of Christians, women in Iraq
