Intervention into the 1990s: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Third World (review)

Abstract

180 SAIS REVIEW ism as doctrines that underestimate the role ofideology in policy-making. Specific examples of how the promotion ofdemocracy entered into American foreign policy during the Cold War, however, are not offered. The author devotes considerable attention to the likelihood that democracy will spread across large parts ofthe globe, notwithstanding significant differences in history, culture, and levels of industrial development. The U.S. has contributed to this trend in a variety of ways, including the military occupations of Germany, Japan, and the Philippines, the conduct of covert action in Eastern Europe and the Third World, and the rendering of economic assistance to under-developed countries. Muravchik, however, misjudges the extent to which these policies were motivated by the goal ofspreading democracy. Although moral considerations were not irrelevant to policy formulation, U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was primarily concerned with its strategic and economic interests. The text concludes with the notion that in order to make democracy the centerpiece ofits foreign policy, the U.S. should simply increase its support for newly democratic and democratizing countries through diplomatic, military, and economic assistance. Muravchik's conclusion is weakened by his failure to specify how such an idealistic policy would further America's national interest. For example, his argument calls into question the propriety of American diplomatic ties to Arab allies in the Middle East. Should the U.S. stop supporting such undemocratic states as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait? Muravchik avoids such difficult questions. During the Gulf War, the U.S. sought to secure its oil supply, not promote democracy in the Middle East. Despite Muravchik's idealism, the enormous American effort and risk to American lives undertaken to guarantee the sovereignty of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (two very undemocratic states) confirms that even in the postCold War era, democracy will not and cannot be the centerpiece ofAmerican foreign policy. As John Quincy Adams said in the 1820s, we are the friends of liberty everywhere, but the guardians only ofour own. American foreign policy has proven John Quincy Adams correct. Intervention into the 1990s: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Third World. Edited by Peter J. Schraeder. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 1992. 453 pp. $14.95/Paperback. Reviewed by Jonathan L. Schwarz, MA. Candidate, SAIS. In this second edition of Intervention into the 1990s, Peter Schraeder adapts a comprehensive collection of essays first published in 1989 to the developing aftermath of the Cold War. Added to this edition are more complete analyses of the Bush administration's policy to pursue a "new world order," the American interventions in Panama and Kuwait, the tumultuous situation in Iran, the Philippines, Nicaragua and South Africa, and case studies of Panama, the Persian Gulf and the Arab-Israeli conflict. According to Schraeder, the primary aim of this book is to assess the failings ofpast American policies in the Third World, in the hope that the analyses might provide the foundation for new, improved policy. The author's focus on the future is evident in the sweeping definition of intervention as the "calculated use of BOOK REVIEWS 181 political, economic, and military instrumentsby one countrytoinfluencethe domestic or the foreign policies ofanother country." This expansion ofthe scopeofanalysis of power politics clearly seeks to enhance the relevance of the book by providing an analytical framework which anticipates the future direction and nature of interventions. Several themes guide the collected essays toward this objective. United States policy has overemphasized a "globalist" approach to international politics while it should have pursued a more "regionalist" position. Military force has become significantly less relevant and fungible. The United States has been powerless to regulate nationalist impulses in the Third World, and must be more tolerant of social change. To support these assertions, the text begins with an examination ofthe historical development of the American interventionist mindset which regarded itself as universalist and just, followed by a similar discussion of historical background since the Second World War, especially the development of low-intensity conflict doctrine. A chapter on the globalist-regionalist debate supports the theme that the regionalist approach more satisfactorily deals with issues relating to the status and problems of the Third World. The analysis then...