By Khairunnikman Khairul Anwar
In this Part II of International Relations series, the author will continue to present and analyse about the case study based on the theory of democratic peace that has been covered in the past series. The author chose two set of cases which are the promotion of democracy by United States and also the Arab Spring incident. The reason behind the choices made was because the author believes both cases are related and best represent the theory of democratic peace in particular.
United States’ Democracy Promotion
United States has long known for its promotion of democracy around the world. The U.S. foreign policy is the best example to see this case. The belief in democratic peace theory that the spread of democracy around the world will help to establish international peace as well as give a positive result on the US national security has been a reason why the promotion of democracy has been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy for much of the twentieth century.
Promoting democracy is a vital interest of the United States. Throughout history, when United States presidents have sought to explain US military interventions in foreign countries, few goals, with the exception of the national security of the United States, have been through the reason of promotion of democracy. For instance, the efforts to spread freedom to Iraq and around the world during George W. Bush presidential era have been seen as a medium to end tyranny and fight terrorism, as a move to promote stability in troubled regions, and as a mechanism to increase prosperity in poor countries. Moreover, it can be seen in one of President George W. Bush’s stated reasons for starting the war in Iraq which was to bring democracy to that country. He stated in December 2006 that “We are committed to a strategic goal of a free Iraq that is democratic, that can govern itself, defend itself and sustain itself”.
The United States provides democracy assistance to many countries in a variety of circumstances and with mixed degrees of success. In general, analysts have viewed U.S. democracy aid as facilitating transitions either from authoritarian or communist rule, as in Latin America and Central Europe, or from conflict, as in Bosnia and African nations such as Sierra Leone and Liberia.
In conclusion, in the case of United States’ promotion of democracy, pursuing a policy of democratization can often be perceived as expansionist and interventionist by the people inside the countries. As in the case of Iraq, it clearly demonstrates that the main lesson to be learned is that while the development of democracy can be aided from outside, it cannot easily be imposed by force. Thus, even though we cannot deny the benefit of the increasing number of democracies within the international system, there is a real risk of instability and conflict if the transition does not establish the institutional preconditions for effective and accountable governance prior to mass political participation and elections, and if it occurs in an unstable regional or international environment.
The Arab Spring
It is important to include the case of Arab Spring as it covers the democratic transitions from the bottom- up perspectives. The Arab Spring was a series of pro-democracy uprisings that happened in several largely Arab countries, including Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Bahrain. As a result, rulers in some parts of the Arab world such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen have been dethroned from the mantle of leadership, civil rebellions have erupted in countries like Syria and Bahrain and major protests to show dissatisfactions with the government have broken out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan
Arab Spring is generally believed to have been caused by the way and manner by which rulers ran the administrative affairs of local governments, though others have attributed it to the general income inequality. Activists in other countries in the region were inspired by the regime change in Tunisia where the country’s first democratic parliamentary elections were held in October 2011 and began to protest similar authoritarian governments in their own nations. The resistance movements took various forms which included rallies, sit-ins, and strikes.
The reformers demand a change from the autocratic regime to democratic, fair and human rights- based regime. The movement also encourages people who live under dictatorship rule to voice out against such dictators to demand more freedom, political rights and economic justice. This emergence of reformers paves the way for revolution against dictatorship.
The Arab Spring incident has proved that democratisation through the bottom-up approach seemed possible. During early years, the Arab world appeared to be set on an unstoppable movement towards democratization where hopes for a new era of stable and democratic rule were high as mass protest movements led to the end of longstanding authoritarian regimes. Nonetheless, these hopes eventually stumbled as transition processes failed, authoritarian forces doubled down, and conflict keep increasing in many in parts of the region. To make it worse, the conflict has resulted in armed and bloody conflicts rather than led to peaceful revolution. This situation is in line with the criticism of democratic peace theory that the author highlighted in the Part I where the path of democracy is not an easy way, indeed.
Conclusion
This article has reviewed and discussed the theory of democratic peace. Philosophers and scholars such as Emmanuel Kant and Michael Doyle have remarkably contributed to the understanding of democratic peace theory. However, it is indeed a challenging task to simply assume whether the democratic peace theory is
only a myth or a fact. Both the proponents and critiques have strong arguments to support their views on whether the spread of democracy makes the elimination of war possible. The on-going war between Russia and Ukraine is an example of how ‘war is more than a true chameleon’, as said by Clausewitz, which means it was more complex and variable. Indeed, it is majorly down to the use of certain but different definitions of democracy, war, and peace themselves.
In the case study that the author provided, we can see the different perspectives of democratic peace theory where in one hand, the promotion of democracy around the globe is important for international peace but on another perspective, it is also can be viewed as a justification of democratic intervention to other sovereign states. In certain cases, democracy by force has often failed to establish peace whether through international or domestic democratization.
In conclusion, the idea behind democratic peace theory’s proposition provides a very clear, logical reason why the global spread of democracy will result in greater international peace. Domestic political institutions that are democratic make it difficult for governments to initiate war without the consent of the public. Besides, it is also essential to encourage the establishment of political institutions before promoting democracy in autocratic countries prior to mass political/electoral participation in transitional states.
References
Abdelsalam, Elfatih. 2015. “The Arab spring: Its origins, evolution and consequences… four years on.” Intellectual Discourse, June.
Ali, Ali Gh Saeid, Madya, Zamri Arifin, and Md. Sapar Hasim. 2012. “The challenges of tourism in the countries of the Arab Spring Revolutions.” Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences 1162-1171.
Bailey, Alison. 2017. The end of spring? Democratic transitions in the Arab world. December. https://www.britishcouncil.org/organisation/policy-insight-research/end-spring-democratic.
Epstein, Susan, Nina Serafino, and Francis Miko. 2007. “Democracy Promotion: Cornerstone of U.S. Foreign Policy?” CRS Report For Congressional Research Service.
Editors, History.com. 2018. Arab Spring. https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/arab-spring. Manan, Munafrizal. 2015. “The Democratic Peace Theory and Its Problems.” Journal Ilmiah Hubungan
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Meernik, James. 1996. “United States Military Intervention and the Promotion of Democracy.” Journal of Peace Research.
Jr, Joseph S. Nye. 2005. Does increasing democracy undercut terrorists? September 22. https://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0922/p09s02-coop.html.
Placek, Kevin. 2012. The Democratic Peace Theory. February 18. https://www.e-ir.info/2012/02/18/the- democratic-peace-theory/.
The writer is the analyst at Arthos Sdn. Bhd.
