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At first glance, the words appear interchangeable – democratization and democracy. In his Mar. 10 lecture, however Middle East Report editor Chris Toensing cautioned against confusing the two, especially in regard to the current U.S. military occupation of Iraq. Toensing’s lecture, titled “Democratization without Democracy: U.S. Policy in the Middle East,” addressed President Bush’s “forward strategy of freedom for the greater Middle East” and the ways in which the Bush administration uses the situation in the Middle East to further its own political agenda.
“The devil we know is better than the devil we don’t,” Toensing said, stating that often, the establishment of true democracies in lesser-developed countries would result in conditions unfavorable to U.S. interests. He doubted that a democratic Bahrain would allow the United States to use its harbors or a democratic Saudi Arabia would lower oil prices for the United States, as it has done in the past.

Toensing stated that though many Middle Eastern countries assert themselves as democracies, special interests of those in power often override any attempt to fairly run these countries. “All Arab countries have parliaments, many allow political pluralism and suffrage in most Arab countries is universal at 18,” he said. “Many have constitutions, yet these often have no power vis-à-vis the strong executive.”

Toensing mentioned that many of these parliaments are skewed, using techniques like gerrymandering and vote-buying. “Like elections, constitutional rights are honored and then breached,” he said.

According to Toensing, the United States has a long history of backing anti-democratic regimes in the Middle East, in order to further its own political goals. He also said that U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East is outdated, guided by the 1980 Carter Doctrine. The Carter Doctrine was established by President Jimmy Carter, when he stated that any attempt to seize control of the Persian Gulf would be met with force.

Toensing argued for a major re-thinking of the Carter Doctrine and admonished both Republicans and Democrats for their stagnation on the issue. “There is no prospect of all that a second [George W.] Bush administration would remove the Carter Doctrine…and a scant prospect that Kerry would,” he said.

Furthermore, Toensing analyzed Bush’s rhetoric towards the Middle East, labeling it as “propaganda.” “I use that word in a value neutral sense, as a collection of arguments to gain support for Bush’s programs,” Toensing said, before stating that Bush bases many of his arguments about the Middle East on a basic level of truth. “Certainly everything that has been said about the tyrannical nature of Sadaam Hussein has been true.”

He attributes much of the current governmental crisis in the Middle East to fact that “the wave of democracy that swept across Latin American and Eastern Europe swept past the Arab world.”
In addition, Toensing commented on the future of Bush foreign policy, should the president win reelection in November; “All of its Middle Eastern policies will ride on its plans to build democracy in Iraq,” he said.