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Freedom's Unsteady March: America's Role in Building Arab Democracy.

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Freedom's Unsteady March: America's Role in Building Arab Democracy, by Tamara Coffman Wittes. Brookings Institution Press, 2008. 176 pages with notes and index. $26.95.

This compact, readable work of policy advocacy argues that, despite widespread skepticism about democracy promotion resulting from the Bush administration's botched "Freedom Agenda," Arab democratization should become an even more central objective of U.S. policy. Countering the spread of Islamist terrorism remains an important justification for Tamara Coffman Wittes, but she makes the more ambitious case that Arab democracy is vital to avert looming political disasters and, most controversially, would be supportive of other American interests. Dismissing fears that democratization will bring to power America's enemies in the region, she contends that the United States approach of propping up Arab dictators has had the side effect of bolstering Islamists, the only oppositionists who flourish in non-democratic, Muslim polities. Before these authoritarian systems finally crumble, it is imperative that the United States support reforms so as to empower other opposition elements to stand up to both Islamists and authoritarian governments. These elements, presumably secular liberals, will ultimately found stronger political orders based on popular participation and consensus. According to Wittes, these postauthoritarian political orders would be more capable of and maybe even more willing to forge mutually beneficial relations with the United States, a controversial conclusion that is not systematically supported with evidence or argumentation.

The component of this optimistic assessment easiest to sustain is that the United States has yet to engage in full-bore democracy promotion in the region. Despite its ambitious rhetoric, the Bush administration's Freedom Agenda has been disappointingly passive in the face of Arab authoritarianism. Noting the negative consequences of identifying Iraqi regime change with democratization, an identification she contends was made more by opponents of...

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