Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America's Destiny (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 179 ofLatin America. This theme would have added a more personal, human dimension tothebook thatismissing—howdidLatin Americansfeeltowardsthe Commission? Did the presence of the Commission empower the citizens of each country? After all, both systems were developed for the victims of human rights abuses. Insight from such individuals is often forgotten and is in dire need. These criticisms aside, Mower's book is a thoughtful, contextual comparison ofboth regional organizations. Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America's Destiny. By Joshua Muravchik. The AEI Press, The American Enterprise Institute: Washington, D.C, 1991. 258 pp. 1991. Reviewed by Jennifer A. Lind, SAIS MA., 1992. The end of the Cold War has allowed democracy to flourish in much of what was its central battleground: Eastern Europe. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many ofthe former Warsaw Pact countries have already held internationally monitored, free and fair elections. The Third World, however, will pose a much more difficult challenge to those who strive to establish pluralist political institutions in undemocratic states. Many Third World governments are increasingly vulnerable to domestic pressures to reform their political and economic systems. However, the sudden end of superpower rivalry has left former recipients of American and Soviet aid without the funds to secure their power base. Democracies are not created quickly or easily: they require stable institutions and processes such as electoral and constitutional codes, a free press, voter protection laws, civil rights legislation, and an impartial judicial system. The United States is currently in a unique position to encourage the success of this worldwide wave of democracies. Exporting Democracy, by Joshua Muravchik, is a counter-revisionist account ofAmerican foreign policy since 1945. According to Muravchik, U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was aimed not only at the containment ofcommunist aggression through military deterrence, but also at the suppression and annihilation of communist ideology through the promotion of democratic ideals. He argues that the peaceful end of this fifty year old rivalry was America's greatest triumph. Muravchik's thesis is that democracy is the "natural centerpiece" ofAmerican foreign policy. He takes his argument one step further, suggesting that U.S. purposes are not only morally justified, but that they also coincide with its national interest. He draws two conclusions from the relationship between democracy and American foreign policy. First, the spread ofdemocracy would create a world more congenial to the U.S. since democracies are both pro-peace and pro-American. Second, as the world's leading example of democracy, the U.S. would gain support for both its domestic and international policies more easily. For these reasons, the author argues that post-Cold War American foreign policy should be based on democratic principles. Exporting Democracy clearly challenges the traditional realist notion that international relations are determined by independent states pursuing national self-interest. Muravchik begins by stating his case as to why promotion ofdemocracy is the centerpiece ofAmerican foreign policy. Placed in the context ofAmerican diplomatic history, Muravchik's argument refutes realism, neo-realism and ideal- 180 SAIS REVIEW ism as doctrines that underestimate the role ofideology in policy-making. Specific examples of how the promotion ofdemocracy entered into American foreign policy during the Cold War, however, are not offered. The author devotes considerable attention to the likelihood that democracy will spread across large parts ofthe globe, notwithstanding significant differences in history, culture, and levels of industrial development. The U.S. has contributed to this trend in a variety of ways, including the military occupations of Germany, Japan, and the Philippines, the conduct of covert action in Eastern Europe and the Third World, and the rendering of economic assistance to under-developed countries. Muravchik, however, misjudges the extent to which these policies were motivated by the goal ofspreading democracy. Although moral considerations were not irrelevant to policy formulation, U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was primarily concerned with its strategic and economic interests. The text concludes with the notion that in order to make democracy the centerpiece ofits foreign policy, the U.S. should simply increase its support for newly democratic and democratizing countries through diplomatic, military, and economic assistance. Muravchik's conclusion is weakened by his failure to specify how...