Carothers on the League of Democracies
The article came out a few months ago, but the Carnegie Endowment’s Thomas Carothers did an excellent article in Foreign Policy magazine over the summer called “A League of Their Own” that summarizes most of the key reasons why John McCain’s idea for a “League of Democracies” is deeply misguided and why we should be glad that the left-of-center supporters of this idea seem to have scaled back their vision to something more realistic. I’m going to do some key excerpts. First, on the misbegotten heritage of the whole thing:
No doubt much of the world is probably yearning for such a tack in U.S. foreign policy. Sadly, however, though a League of Democracies looks like a new idea, it is not. It embodies the same instincts that lie behind the made-to-order multilateralism that the world has grown so tired of under President George W. Bush. This includes a desire for American control over the group’s membership, a lack of interest in the actual views of others, and an insistence on projecting U.S.-centric ideas onto countries that are increasingly less willing to follow America’s lead. A League of Democracies, as its backers envision it, is not what the world has in mind when it dreams of a new era of international cooperation.
Second, on the point that you can’t start a club that nobody wants to join:
Nor do calls for a League of Democracies appear to be born out of any genuine effort to canvass policymakers in other countries
to find out if the idea interests them at all. The muted response coming from fellow democracies in reply to U.S. pronouncements about the need for a league is notable. When [Robert] Kagan wanted to point to the support the league garners in Europe, the most he could muster was
one conservative Danish politician. This lack of apparent consultation in the formulation of the idea helps explain its remarkable tone-deafness
to the current international mood, particularly with regard to democracy and democracy promotion. Thanks in large part to President Bush’s insistent characterization of the war in Iraq as the centerpiece of his “global freedom agenda,” people the world
over now see democracy promotion as a dishonest, dangerous cover for the projection of U.S. power and influence. Given this, trying to bridge
the gap between the United States and the world by proposing yet another U.S.-led, democracy-focused global initiative reflects an almost willful obliviousness to how such an idea would be perceived and received outside the United States.
And last, on the weird idea that a “democracies only” club would somehow be eager to rubberstamp American military ventures:
And when it comes to including such diverse democracies as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, and South Africa, the prospect that the United States would find in such a league a forum ready to toe the U.S. line on a host of security, economic, and political issues is dim. As former British ambassador to the United Nations David Hannay recently pointed out, the U. N. voting records of Brazil, India, and South Africa—among the most successful democracies in the developing world— reveal that “they are among the most anti-inter- ventionist of all U.N. members and the most hesitant about authorizing the use of force.”
Meanwhile, this isn’t a merely hypothetical issue. One of our Presidential candidates has put this idea at the center of his international agenda. And yet thus far the merits of the proposal have received radically less scrutiny than the issue of whether or not “lipstick on a pig” is a sexist phrase.
45 Responses to “Carothers on the League of Democracies”
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October 6th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I have to agree with your point here – it’s shameful that this idea has not been talked about much (at all?) by the MSM.
But then, it probably entails actual thinking and/or criticism of McCain, which they tend to not like doing.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Several years ago, Canada’s ill-fated Prime Minister Paul Martin floated an idea of a “G-20″ (maybe it was L-20, I can’t remember) as a multilateral organization that would fill a niche between the G-8 and the UN (i.e. it would be more nimble than the UN but more multilateral than the G-8). Clearly, Martin’s conception didn’t involve the US setting the agenda.
So is this really a bad idea? Or is it more a question of who, in the US, implements it? Certainly no one would trust a Neocon administration and I doubt you’d have many countries signing on to such an organization under Bush (and maybe McCain) auspices. But if the push came from a middle power–Canada or, say, Germany–and had the backing of other smaller countries, might this not be a workable idea?
October 6th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I’m sympathetic to the criticisms of the idea for the additional reason that it would incentivize authoritarian regimes to unify in opposition, but doesn’t Matt’s third point undercut the first two. If the US was comitted to restraining itself by the sensible reluctance of other democracies to intervene militarily (a big if), then the LoD would be perceived less as a tool for the assertion of US power.
I still think the better approach would be to reform the UN by expanding the Security Council and getting rid of the requirement that the SC’s decisions be unanimous.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Matt, I wonder whether your Manichean outlook on life can digest something like this?
Read and think:
The former House Majority Leader veers off message in an interview with PolitickerCA: “If McCain wins the election, we’ve got just as much work to do as if Obama won,” DeLay said. “I’ve known McCain for 23 years, and McCain’s hard to swallow.”
More: “His stance on global warming, immigration, campaign finance, affirmative action,” DeLay said, “it’s just a whole list of things that is not going to appeal to conservative Republicans. And if he becomes president, teaming up with the Democrats, we’re going to have a lot of work to do to stop them.”
This is actually not a bad thing for McCain vis a vis independent voters as it allows his campaign to note that he’s taken on and angered members of parties.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
It’s been said before, but… does the USA qualify to join a League of Democracies? Our government has held rigged national elections, abandoned the Constitution, violated international law, waged a war of aggression, committed war crimes and tortured people to death.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
SC’s decisions be unanimous.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the security council’s decisions need to be unanimous. What they have to be is not vetoed by any of the five permanent memebers.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Well, if McCain were actually a functional conservative, then point three would be a positive for the LoD idea. I recall a phony conservative along about 8 years ago decry nation-building and the interventionist foreign policy of a certain phony liberal’s previous presidency.
On a more serious note, it is not surprising that new democracies are “among the most anti-interventionist” — America was pretty isolationist through it’s infancy, too.
Maybe we’re finally growing out of our ugly, fist-swinging post-adolescent swagger now and settling into a more mature outlook akin to our sibs in Europe?
October 6th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the security council’s decisions need to be unanimous. What they have to be is not vetoed by any of the five permanent memebers.
You are correct. I don’t think the difference matters much from a practical standpoint, but there’s value in technical accuracy. So thanks for the correction.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Here is Chuckles Krauthammer on the League of Nations proposal. Money Quote: “What I like about it, it’s got a hidden agenda….the idea here, which McCain can’t say, but I can, is to essentially kill the UN.”
October 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
This may just be me but doesn’t point three, and to a lesser extent point two, mitigate point one. If such a league were created, it wouldn’t do what McCain wants.
So the whole thing seems like a waste of time and shows McCain’s lack of judgment. However, it also seems like one of the Senator’s least dangerous ideas, because it won’t do what he wants.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
The League of Democracies sounds like an idea that is at worst harmless, but the second block of text that Yglesias quotes convinces me otherwise. If McCain becomes President and pushes this idea, it may reinforce the idea is that the United States doesn’t listen to other countries, and that’s the last thing we need at this point.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
This idea will go nowhere. Most of the “democracies” we might want to invite are suffering from Amerifluenza and will be more concerned with trying to just keep their own economies afloat and could care less about joining in on John & Sarah’s Excellent Adventures.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Glad to see folks thinking critically about this topic.
I challenge the idea that it’s harmless though, because it is a waste of time and money desperately needed elsewhere in American diplomacy. The political capital needed to create such a “League” would be much better spent trying to reform the UN’s institutions or reforming our dilapidated foreign assistance apparatus.
To me, McCain’s support for this venture is evidence of his inability to think critically about anything before committing to it. (eg: Palin Choice, Campaign Suspension, Debate Cancellation, Various Indictments of Officials in Financial Crisis, and many more)
October 6th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
So, would Iran be allowed to join ? And, if not, on what basis ? They are arguably just as much a democracy as any other country in Central Asia, and more of one than Egypt. And what about Bolivia ?
October 6th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
The Security Council has 15 members, 5 permanent and 10 elected. Passing a motion requires 9 votes in favor and no vetos from the big 5 (abstentions don’t count). So, passing a motion requires (in general practice) 5 big power votes, and 4 out 10 of the elected members.
I am not sure, but I believe that Israel is still not subject to election to the Security Council.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
A League of Democracies would only be worth its name if the individuals assigned to the League were directly elected by the populations of their member states. Otherwise, what we are really talking about is a League of Really Friendly National Governments (that might or might not have been democratically elected).
The latter would be completely useless, even for the US. The former, on the other hand, has some possibilities.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:03 am
I think McCain just wants to start a club so he can threaten to exclude nations and throw nations out of it. Visceral fella’ that he is—he needs vehicles with logos to exercise his belligerence in a demonstrably physical sort of way…
…when bombing just isn’t an option.
Naturally, he assumes that everybody that’s anybody wants to be in his club.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
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