Should Democratic Promotion Be a Top Priority of the United States?

Promoting democracy has been a key part of the United States foreign policy prescription for more than forty years. After the defeat of the fascist regimes during the second world war and the fall of the Soviet Union after the cold war, the United States government latched on to the idea of democratization because it became widely accepted that this is how our national security is best protected. This new ideology is very different when compared to what Secretary of State John Quincy Adams stated in 1821: “Where the standard of freedom and independence has been unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she does not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.” The United States has not always forcefully campaigned change, but led by example in order to try to inspire the world (Hook 2008, 383-7). While this type of approach to international relations may not fit our current time period, it is beginning to look as if our current policy approach is fading into history as well. Here is the issue at hand: should promoting democracy abroad be a top United States priority? Argumentatively, no, it should not. Democratic nations are said to be less prone to making war, more economically stable, and more peaceful internally. This premise comes from what is known as the “democracy-peace theory.” Unfortunately, this theory is not completely sound. Democracies are just as likely to participate in warfare, especially if they are a newly democratized state. Studies show that within the first ten years of being established, new democracies are likely to engage in conflict with other democratic states as well as with authoritarian states (Bin. 2007). America began its road towards democracy while fighting for its freedom in the Revolutionary War. A short distance down the time line, the northern and southern parts of the

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