Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 10/5/2007
Challenges to Freedom's March: Regional Democracy Trends and US Foreign Policy
2007
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
Abstract
Speaking in his weekly radio address on March 5, 2005, President Bush proclaimed that “the trend is clear: in the Middle East and throughout the world, freedom is on the march.” He pointed to the so-called “rainbow revolutions” in Lebanon, Georgia, and Ukraine, as well as to the democratic progress made in Afghanistan and post- Saddam Iraq as examples of this trend. Inspired by the president’s proclamation, the Schlesinger Working Group embarked on a yearlong series that examined the status of democratic trends in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, with a final discussion focused on U.S. democracy promotion and Middle East democracy trends.
