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Map of Middle East |
Email this citationCIAO DATE: 03/04
Democratizing the Middle East: Are we up to the task?
Mumukshu Patel
November 2003
Executive Summary
On November 6, 2003 in a speech at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), President George W Bush enunciated his Middle East Doctrine: democratization of the region as the first priority of U.S. strategy, irrespective of past policy considerations. It was the most ambitious policy overhaul for the region, since President Eisenhower's commitment to defend the Middle East against Soviet Communism. Following the Eisenhower doctrine all U.S. Middle East policy reflected strategic U.S. concerns: as long as states in the Middle East cooperated with the U.S., shunned Communism and later rejected theocratic regimes - at least nominally, the United States would ignore their domestic policies, and support them - via foreign aid, military technology and personnel etc. This was the status quo that characterized U.S. policy toward the Middle East.
