Power and Democracy
Democracy is a form of government that permits citizens to exercise their rights and enjoy the individual freedom to the fullest. It is also a bridge that connects the relationship between countries around the world. The government is a governing body in a democratic world, while the people are watchdogs. Therefore, the government is responsible for legislating laws, and the people act according to the laws. If the government legislates any laws that are illegitimate or laws that violate human rights and individual liberty, the people protest and stand up against them. However, not all countries are in favor of democracy. For instance, amongst the superpower countries such as Russia, China, and the United States, the United States is the only country that has fully developed a democratic government. This is also why the United States is well known as a country that stands in the spirit of democracy and stands against any forms of violations that are against the human rights and individual liberty.
After the World War II, the United States stands as the most powerful country and a country that thrives to promote liberal democracy around the world. According to my understanding, the motive of the United States to promote democracy around the world is not only about gaining power, protection of human rights and creating a peaceful world. But, the most important aim and thrive to nurture its international interest and tackle the rise of international threats that threaten the United States and other countries around the world. To achieve this goal, the United States uses the soft power to create a connection between countries around the world. The strategy to ally with other countries around the world stabilizes to stand still as the most powerful country in the world. The interdependency between countries benefits both the United States and its allies, and it makes the United States to highly influence over international policymaking. Ikenberry said, “Alliances, partnerships, multilateralism, democracy-these are the tools of U.S. leadership, and they are winning, not losing” (2). It is through these tools that make the United States have a greater number of allies than any country in the world. For instance, Russia has seven allies, China one, but the United States has more than 60 allies around the world. This strategy makes the United States standstill as the most powerful country in the world today. If the United States continues to use this strategy, it will and always be the most powerful country in the world in years to come.
We see that the ally strategy tools works perfectly for obtaining power. The United States is still highly concerned about the rise of power of other countries, and the rise of international threats. In this scenario, balancing of power is necessary. Therefore, the United States aligned another strategy, “promoting democracy to protect human rights”. To successfully make this strategy work, the United States uses both soft power and hard power but utilizing more hard power. The soft power was used during the Obama administration, such as stopping Iran to develop its nuclear program, and the hard power was used during the war in Iraq, Afghanistan or maybe the war in Syria. It is ambiguous to concisely make a point whether the United States started a war in Iraq is because Saddam Hussein violated human rights, or because the United States feels threatened by Saddam’s regime. Scholars have made their arguments on both sides of the aisle. However, either way, Iraq war is believed to be a good approach because Saddam Hussein was known for his brutality and his aggression against the innocent people. The strategy adopted by the United States is certainly worse because it had failed to smoothen the transition to democracy, and it has failed to protect the innocent lives..
In conclusion, I strongly believe that the motive of the United States to promote liberal democracy around the world through various strategies benefits both its national interest and power. “the spread of liberal democracy throughout the world, beginning in the late 1970s and accelerating after the Cold War, has dramatically strengthened the United States' position" (4) It is also clear that the democratic countries rise, the more they tend to follow towards the United States’ because they see that the United States’s policy is a better approach to protect human rights and the individual liberty.
I enjoyed reading your blog post, as it was full of a lot of interesting information! I also agree that the U.S. has strengthened its national interest and power through its implementation of democracy in its own state and through advocating the spread of democracy throughout the world. Additionally, I agree with the notion that democracy itself does a good job at protecting human rights and individual liberties from violation. It is quite obvious that the recent U.S. intervention in Syria utilized hard power in order to protect the human rights of Syrians, due to the use of weapons. Do you believe that a soft power approach to this situation in Syria would have resulted in a better outcome? In other words, would a non-military approach have had more of an influence on the al-Assad regime’s treatment of its own people?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good analysis of US relations on the international stage. The standstill that you mention is a very effective way to keep peace in the world. Do you think that if a state becomes one of the US allies, it sacrifices its own soft and hard power as a means of showing superiority to the US? Since this strategy is so effective at stopping war, do you think that it may allow smaller conflicts to thrive across the globe? Could they be the weakness of this alliance?
ReplyDeleteThe style in which this post was written was refreshing and easy to understand. I found it quite informative in a well rounded way since it focused on the facets that construct the U.S.'s approach to liberal democracy. From your argument I got the sense that you believe the United States' interest in democracy spans much farther than "freedom for all" in an effort to gain and maintain international power. the U.S. utilizes both hard power and soft power and has over 60 allies- it is considered the most powerful country in the world. Hypothetically, if a third world war occurred do you think it would be possible for a country with a lot of power such as China or Russia to use the U.S.'s tactics of power and become more powerful than the U.S.?Obviously the process of exceeding the U.S.'s power could include many variables but I am curious to know if you find this situation at all feasible?
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