New version of the Kirkpatrick doctrine in the post-Soviet space

Abstract

A growing number of political scientists notice worrying deficiencies of new democracies in Georgia and Ukraine. Looking for possible reasons they usually focus on internal factors. However, external factors may have also played their part. This article draws attention to the US foreign policy which, it is argued, did not further democratic consolidation goals in post-revolutionary Georgia and Ukraine. The Bush administration's policy towards these two countries is described as a manifestation of a new version of the Kirkpatrick doctrine which instructed US foreign-policy makers to choose the lesser evil of the two: unconsolidated, yet pro-American, democracies in the post-Soviet space.