None of this means that Obama’s record on democracy promotion has been perfect. In 2009, he may have waited too long to back the Iranians protesting their country’s stolen election, though at least some in the Green Movement wanted America to keep quiet so as not to discredit them. In Egypt in 2011, by contrast, Obama publicly demanded a rapid transfer of power even though Hillary Clinton and others in his administration feared the consequences of showing Mubarak the door too quickly.
But the key insight missing from commentaries like Baker’s is that Obama’s greatest act of democracy promotion was his insistence that the United States stop behaving as if it is permanently at war. By declaring a “war on terror” bounded by neither time nor space, and thus justifying torture and a vast expansion of secret, unlawful spying, Bush significantly undermined American democracy at home. Obama has not gone nearly far enough in subjecting American anti-terror policy to the rule of law. But simply by declaring the war on terror over, he has paved the way for some restoration of democratic control. He’s also made the United States slightly less eager to jump into bed with whichever dictator claims to be fighting a “war on terror” of his own.
Putting the United States on a permanent, global wartime footing, as Harry Truman did with NSC-68, and Bush did in response to 9/11, may be great for democratic rhetoric. After all, presidents must find some way of convincing Americans to pay in blood and treasure for wars that aren’t directly necessary for their own safety. But cold wars and wars on terror are bad for democracy promotion itself, since they rationalize an assault on democratic norms at home and become a magnet for foreign dictators seeking American help in brutalizing their own people.
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