Exporting Democracy

One of our favorite authors is Joshua Muravchick who has two outstanding books that speak out against the weak and wimpy thought of most people that democracy cannot exist in many countries and that America should not be so aggressive. He teaches that America should have the guts and heart to be a world policeman. In his book Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America's Destiny he counters many arguments people have. We are not going into those now. We hope you read his books. Robert Kagan in Commentary magazine said this in his review: "{This is a} powerful and well-argued call for an ambitious American foreign policy based on democratic internationalism. . . . No one would claim, and Muravchik certainly does not, that the United States must engage in a feverish and uncompromising democratic crusade in every country in the world at all times, regardless of the cost or risk or likelihood of success. . . . What America can practice is the prudent support of democracy, using all the many tools at its disposal, most of them well short of military force. Muravchik carefully lists these tools, describing their strengths and weaknesses, and the appropriate times and places for their use. . . . Muravchik examines important moments in the histories of several countries, including Nicaragua in 1978-79, El Salvador in the early 1980's, and the Philippines in 1986, to show how relatively subtle American actions at the appropriate moment can make the difference between the success and failure of democracy." American Leadership Muravchik's other book is The Imperative of American Leadership: A Challenge to Neo-Isolationism. He writes that his view "flies in the face of the shibboleth that America cannot be the world's policeman." He says his "message will not fall on welcoming ears in America. Here are a few reviews of the book: Muravchik presents a spirited argument for a US foreign policy that is 'engaged, proactive, interventionist, and expensive.' . . . The primary goal, apart from preserving America's survival and freedom, is to prevent the outbreak of another large-scale war. . . . Well reasoned and logical, Muravchik's argument will inevitably raise the hackles of those who see a different post-Cold War world and advocate a lesser international role for the US.

Peter W. Rodman in The Times Literary Supplement writes: Muravchik, a young neoconservative at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that America has a moral duty to promote human rights and the global democratic revolution. . . . The book is a heartfelt appeal to the American people to shake off their current self-doubt and take up their international responsibility with the self-confidence they have displayed in the past, especially in the Reagan years. . . . {Muravchik is} on to something. American involvement in the world has indeed . . . required a certain impetus from a sense of mission that at times reached far beyond what would have been required by more prudential calculations. American self-confidence has always been rooted in this moral conviction. Our friends abroad may deplore the presumption, if not arrogance, that this self-confidence often seems to reflect. On the other hand, America's periods of introspection and self-flagellation (as over Vietnam) can be just as excessive and self-absorbed--and far more destabilizing for the rest of the world. Booknews, Inc. , December 1, 1996 This book is a neoconservative argument for a U.S. foreign policy that is engaged, proactive, interventionist, and expensive. Muravchik posits that there is no authority higher than America, and pushes for America to accept the role of world leader rather than wallow in "peacetime aloofness," unwilling to give up security for the reins of power.

Midwest Book Review In The Imperative Of American Leadership: A Challenge To Neo-Isolationism, Joshua Muravchik, a leading foreign policy expert, warns that the post-cold war period resembles the conditions following World War I, when Americans perceived no apparent threat and retreated into isolationism that paved the way to a Hitlerian Armageddon. The Imperative Of American Leadership will shake Americans from the lethargy and its terrifying consequences as makes a compelling argument for an active, interventionist American post-cold war policy. The Imperative Of American Leadership offers the general reader (conservative or liberal, hawk or dove) a post-cold war foreign policy in pursuit of American security and world peace. Muravchik tells us where our current policies are taking us; where an active, interventionist foreign policy could take us; and why the latter is in our best interest. The Imperative Of American Leadership is highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in American foreign policy development and implementation.

Washington and Jefferson

America has been wrong to read into Washington's Farewell Address and Jefferson's First Inaugural Address that America should be isolationistic. Jefferson said, "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." The Libertarian Party is right on domestic issues of limited government but they are wrong in interpreting that Jefferson would want us to not fight in such wars as WW1, WW2, Korea War, etc. They are wrong. Jefferson and Washington would have had the character to see that we would have to fight outside our borders.

Walter Lippman in his book U. S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic rightly says that America misread Washington and Jefferson. He argues they were not isolationists.

The subject of democracy is a vast and important one. Sadly, most who write on it do not understand it deeply enough. A scholar and popular writer on democracy, Robert Alan Dahl, is an example of this. In his book, On Democracy, muddies the water with his liberal thinking. In a review of his book in Booklist, they write, "Market capitalism, Dahl suggests, is a two-edged sword: although it supports many elements of democracy, market capitalism, by generating economic (and thus political) inequality, demands democratic regulation." He is wrong. Democracy, to really work, needs to embrace laissez-faire capitalism.

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