The Command Post - Global War On Terror - The E.U.'s plan for Middle East Democracy

November 08, 2004

The E.U.'s plan for Middle East Democracy

Very good review of the “Barcelona Process” can be found here. For those who do not know, the Barcelona Process is the European Union’s initiative to foster Democracy in the Middle East. Reading this is invaluable to understanding how Europe sees the situation of the Middle East, and why our approach is upsetting them so much.

Here is the bulls-eye quote form the document…

The United States and the European Union may find themselves clashing fairly often on whether or to what degree to engage these nations, creating opportunities for such states to play the United States and the European Union off one another.

A related key difference concerns the issue of enforced regime change. The United States argues that the only option for dealing with certain recalcitrant regimes (e.g., Saddam Hussein's regime) is to remove them from power. Immediately after the invasion of Iraq, some U.S. officials warned of the potential for a similar fate for the government of Bashar Assad in Syria. In contrast, most Europeans favor a gradual, long-term approach to reform. They regard political reform in the Middle East as a generation-long challenge that will require patience and a need to work with entrenched regimes. Many Europeans have voiced fears that the United States has a far shorter attention span and is unwilling to commit to a decades-long endeavor. Strong differences over Iraq between the Americans and the Europeans starkly illustrate the damage to transatlantic relations that the issue of regime change can inflict

U.S. policymakers tend to seek out individuals who can serve as "champions" of reform, looking for an Arab Gorbachev who might spearhead regional reform. The Europeans are leery of identifying individual reformers as recipients for EU support, concerned that such choices will inevitably politicize aid.

This post was cross-posted here.

Stay Free.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at November 8, 2004 02:47 AM | TrackBack

Comments

While this is a serious document, there are times when it lapses into some hilarious unintentional self-parody. Like this quote…

By and large, the European Union (like the United States) has not translated its calls for the promotion of democracy and human rights into concrete action.

… Really? So sending 130,000 soldiers into the region and toppling two oppressive regimes in an attempt to install democracies does not count as concrete action for the promotion of democracy and human rights? Even if you were against the war, I can hardly imagine that you would not call it a concrete action…

A variety of reasons explain this failure, including differing interests among EU members, the great reluctance of EU members to use conditionality, and the fact that the original intent of the Barcelona Process was not to promote political reform.

… Yeah, relying on a process that no one can agree on, no one wants to follow through with, and was not intended to produce the results you are trying to achieve has a tendency to be ineffective…

… most Europeans favor a gradual, long-term approach to reform. They regard political reform in the Middle East as a generation-long challenge that will require patience and a need to work with entrenched regimes. Many Europeans have voiced fears that the United States has a far shorter attention span and is unwilling to commit to a decades-long endeavor.

… Yeah, spending two decades watching the Islamic Fascists take over several countries, kill a couple million Arabs, Persians, Jews and Africans, and performing a series of escalating attacks against America culminating in the death of 3,5000 people and the destruction of one of the world’s most cherished icons tends to sour one on a “decades-long endeavor” that involves working with “entrenched regimes” who would like to destroy us. Maybe they should ask Theo Van Gogh if he is willing to wait for a decades-long endeavor – oh, that’s right, they can’t… he’s dead.

I am perfectly willing to entertain reasonable arguments that our approach needs to change direction, but after reading this, I cannot imagine anyone in the “reality-based” community can still argue that we should look to Europe for leadership.

Stay free

Posted by: Jason Ramsey at November 8, 2004 03:05 AM

hmm

Posted by: Richard T at November 8, 2004 12:08 PM

Many Europeans have voiced fears that the United States has a far shorter attention span and is unwilling to commit to a decades-long endeavor.

I knew we should have pulled the troops out of German in '51 when we needed them for our bried invasion of Korea.

Posted by: Mr. Davis at November 8, 2004 05:49 PM

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