Hey all- I hope you’ve enjoyed the first week or 2010, which here in Kunming has been sunny, nice, and warm.
Here’s a good article to start the year off- in the Financial Times Gideon Rachman writes that democracies such as Turkey, India, Brazil, and South Africa have increasingly turned their backs against US foreign policy in support of policies supported by China. Here’s the key finding:
So what is going on? The answer is that Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and India are all countries whose identities as democracies are now being balanced – - – or even trumped – - – by their identities as developing nations that are not part of the white, rich, western world.
Just another example of how neo-conservatism’s blind devotion to democracy promotion as the end-all and be-all of international relations was so wrong-headed.
Comments 1
One of the things I love about China is the remarkable amount of psychological freedom that comes with being an expat. This is just one of many intangible benefits seeking the American Dream abroad€¦
It seems the Neo Con party line is something like this: “We will force-feed your country democracy whether you like it or not. Shut up and take your medicine.”
Well, they got their dose of democracy all right. And they elected people who are turned off with U.S. foreign policy. Or maybe the Hindu majority in India doesn’t like McDonald’s fattening up their children on BigMacs? Maybe other countries see the Big Sand Grab in the Middle East, and are scared they’ll be next with all our flying killer robots and Blackwater (Xe) mercenaries? Or maybe they just want to make nice to THE manufacturing center of the world – - – The Middle Kingdom?
It is as if the only manufactured good still being produced in America and exported is “democracy.” While an Obama Whitehouse seems like the picture perfect advert for democracy, it doesn’t take a political science major to see that the original land of the free and home of the brave seems to resemble the very fascist dictatorships the U.S. had been warring against (and in cases on behalf of) for the last hundred years.
Posted 09 Jan 2010 at 8:50 am ¶Post a Comment