Measuring Efficacy of Democracy Promotion

The Washington Post reports on the credibility gap seen in Bush’s stated goal of democracy promotion, quoting Amr Hamzawy of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as saying,”Governments and opposition movements alike, no one is listening — governments because they were very quick to understand U.S. policy shifts devaluing democracy promotion, and opposition movements because the U.S. has done very little to act on its promises.” Secretary of State Rice disagrees, says the world is safer than it was six years ago due to Bush’s efforts to end “extremism in the Middle East.” The Daily Star’s Michael Young is looking for a libertarian foreign policy.