A riposte to Henry Jackson There is a post on the Progress Blog by James Rogers of the Henry Jackson Society I have sent a comment to which I thought was worthy of reproduction here.


If you take a historical view democracy in the span of human history is very much the exception. We are very luck to be living in times when it is considered to be legitimate you must be democratic. The question should not be are we in favour of democracy we can take it as read that we are. The question should be how democracy is promoted throughout the world? The position of the Henry Jackson society is that they are in favour of using military force to promote democracy yet I regard military action as a startlingly ineffective way to create democracies.

Take for instance the 3 biggest US interventions post WWII - Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. As yet only South Korea can lay claim to a fully functioning democratic state. Iraq may have had an election but presently has as much chance of internecine civil war as stable democracy for its future path.

What prospects for their doctrines future application? Would military action in Iran strengthen or weaken the hand of pro western reformers in that county? Want to help the case for human rights in China? How about bombing Beijing. It could also help clear some of the sites needed for the olympics. Two birds one stone. Ridicule is not the most high minded of political attacks but then the absurdity of some political ideas make it inevitable.

So how do we create democracies? Firstly was should keep our own democracy in good health. Our citizens should be given the opportunities to lead fulfilling lives. We should maintain our civil liberties. Essentially we are trying to create in the mind of the citizens of totalitarian state that there is a better way to conduct their affairs therefore we should make our societies attractive enough for them to want to change their own. This is essentially how the cold war was won.

Second we should be promoting the rule of law across the globe as the accountability of power to law is a vital step in the creation of democracies. A democracy is not fit to bear the name unless it has an independent judiciary. We should also promote civil society and economic growth in non democratic countries because both will promote the civil institutions separate from the state itself that are needed for the creation of democracy.

Further we should use methods covert and overt in the support of dissident movements in totalitarian states. This can take many forms, free reporting on the BBC world service, diplomatic isolation and elite sanctions on states that transgress multilateral norms and the supply of cash and intelligence to pro democratic movements abroad.

Moreover the single most successful example of peace and democracy has been the integration of western Europe in the EU and NATO we should work with other multilateral bodies to ensure they are successful in promoting democracy amongst their members. An immediate example would have been the proper funding and logistical support to the African Union mission to Darfur.

No single state not even the United States let alone the United Kingdom has the moral authority to send it's military forces to the other side of the world and impose its favored method of social organisation on a country. There are however key principles that we need to purse in order to promote democracy; Peace is better than war, multilateral better than unilateral, engagement better than isolation. The prize is not the total elimination of war, even democracies go to war with each other sometimes, but rather that war becomes the exception rather than the norm of international relations which is a prize ironically worth fighting for.  ¶ 7:06 pm