My Hanukkah Memo to President Elect Barack Obama:
Dear President-elect Obama,
Every Washington think-tank has its foreign policy wish list. We'll do our part at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on January 8, when we hold our "Passing the Baton" event. Still, I want to say something directly to you, something that is both a bit personal and wonkish.
On the personal side, I want to say that the giddiness I felt the day after your election lingers. Yet my excitement is tempered by my sense that your foreign policy team's chief asset—its pragmatism—could become a liability. Pragmatism must be linked to a vision that comes from the heart as much as it does from the head.
Recently, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, I chaired a talk given by Dr. Hany al-Banna, an Egyptian doctor, humanitarian activist and advocate of inter-faith cooperation. In his concluding remarks, Dr. Hany described the thrill that so many young Muslims are feeling as they watch America's political drama unfold.
Your election has rekindled hope in a very big idea: democracy. Yet I don't quite see where the question of democratic change fits into your administration's global agenda.
Don't get me wrong: I am all for focusing on geo-strategic issues, or what we—at USIP's Study Group on Reform and Security in the Muslim World call the "architecture of peace and security." I believe that the foundation for that architecture is a comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace. The notion that Washington could promote political reform absent such a peace, or in the presence of a war process, was always crazy.
Still, the peace process is not the only thing that matters. Let's not forget that when a new generation of young people in the Middle East look at their regimes, they see institutions and leaders that are ineffective, unaccountable and even worse: meaningless. But this new generation is also taking a second look at America, and at themselves.
When you to travel to Indonesia, millions will cheer you in the streets. But I doubt that Arab leaders will want to see such a display repeated in their countries. Instead, they will remind you of the security challenges, and of the enduring dangers of Islamist extremism.
Those are real and pressing challenges. But lets not give Arab leaders a blank check. Instead, lets work with our real partners in the Middle East—genuine regime reformists, party leaders, civil society activists—to re-envision a road map for democratic reform that is as hard-nosed as it is inspiring. The window for such an initiative has opened, but it could close fast. Don't miss the chance.
Daniel Brumberg is an associate professor of government and director of democracy and governance studies at Georgetown University. He is also a senior nonresident fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy. His work focuses on political, social and economic change in the Middle East and wider Muslim World.
