The Terminal Decline of American Democracy Promotion in the Middle East

Abstract

Over a fifteen-year period, successive US administrations sought to institutionalise the Freedom Agenda for the Middle East and North Africa. The objective of this policy was to promote democracy and provide a renewed way of engaging with the region in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. For the G.W. Bush administration, this was characterised by the creation of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), the Broader Middle East and North Africa Agreement (BMENA), and the Middle East Free Trade Agreement (MEFTA). These were built upon by the Obama administration in the wake of the Arab awakening with the MENA Trade and Investment Partnership Initiative (MENA-TIP), the creation of the Office of the Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions (D/MET) and pushing the G8 Deauville Partnership. Analysing the evolution of these institutions reveals the Freedom Agenda’s turbulent institutionalisation as it rose to the top of the political agenda under the G.W. Bush administration, only to fall in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab revolutions and the collapse of the regional security architecture. What this demonstrates is the US reliance on, and preference for, the regional status quo remains in place as the Trump administration frustrates the last vestiges of credibility the US had as an exemplar for liberals in the region to follow.