Whither to, Obama? U.S. democracy promotion after the Cold War

In PRIF Report No. 96 Annika E. Poppe compares Obama and his two most recent predecessors – Bush and Clinton – in terms of their democracy promotion policies.

Democracy promotion is an issue at heart of U.S. national identity and no U.S. president can afford to ignore or disregard it completely. Nevertheless, there has been considerable debate over how recent presidencies have addressed this issue.

 

In PRIF-Report Whither to, Obama? Annika E. Poppe assesses how Obama is handling the legacy of the Bush administration: the global promotion of democracy. Is he retaining his predecessor's project with slight modifications or is he taking up a completely new approach?

 

The author concludes that the Obama administration is more pragmatic in assessing democracy promotion's chances and seems to be pursuing a new foreign policy valuing partnership and engagement – even with authoritarian governments – over normative dogmatism and unilateralism.

The report can be ordered at PRIF for EUR 10,- and is also available as free pdf download.