DISADVANTAGE/DEMOCRACY PROMOTION

ANSWERS

SANCTIONS PREVENT DEMOCRATIC TRANSITIONS

Gibson, 1999 (Lt. Col. Susan S., Judge Advocate General's Corps, US Army, Emory International Law Review, Spring)

To be effective, democracy enlargement must be more than a "democracy nostrum." According to Carothers, who coined the phrase, "It is through over-simplification and overreaching that historical lessons are reduced to foreign policy nostrums. And it is from policy nostrums that errors of conception and execution are often born. " 83 In short, we must make a long-term commitment to democracy enlargement that includes strengthening the elements of civil society that accompany democracy, such as the rule of law, an independent judiciary, private property and free markets, freedom of the press, civic education, and a host of other conditions that nurture democracy. Unfortunately, the effect of economic sanctions is often to tear down the very conditions that are required for democratic transition.

SANCTIONS ARE AN OBSTACLE TO DEMOCRACY ENLARGEMENT

Gibson, 1999 (Lt. Col. Susan S., Judge Advocate General's Corps, US Army, Emory International Law Review, Spring)

If democracy enlargement is one of the United States' principal foreign policy goals, and if international economic sanctions unleash forces that can run counter to the requirements for democratic transitions, then in any given case we must ask whether sanctions can promote goals that are more important than democracy enlargement. If so, sanctions are still a viable foreign policy tool. If not, it is time to dramatically alter sanctions regimes to mitigate or eliminate the negative effects on democratic transitions, or to abandon sanctions and search for alternatives.

As one caveat, it should be noted that for totalitarian nations that clearly are not making a transition to democracy, the above logic is largely irrelevant (although the effects of sanctions on developing sending states must still be considered). For these nations, the more pertinent question is whether sanctions bring about the desired change or whether sanctions are an effective deterrent to aggression. The remainder of this section examines four prevalent goals for economic sanctions and assesses the ability of sanctions to meet these goals without undue harm to other legitimate foreign policy goals. Specifically, sanctions that severely undercut transitions to democracy or that fail to add to effective deterrence should be critically examined.

SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRACY IS A CONSISTENT BIPARTISAN AMERICAN PRIORITY

Michael McFaul, assistant professor and Hoover fellow at Stanford University, January 23, 2001, The Washington Post SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A17 HEADLINE: Moscow, Misreading Bush //VT2002acsln

From Wilson to Reagan, American support for democracy abroad endured as a bipartisan theme of American foreign policy, and it will not disappear with a change in administration. The sooner the new Bush team communicates this message to the Russians the better.