Friday, 17 March 2017

The Origins of American Democracy Promotion: US Studies Online


Introduction: Tracing the Origins



This blog was influenced by Robert Pee’s article featured on ‘American Studies Online’, on ‘The Cold War and the Origins of US Democracy Promotion’, of which traces the  use of American Soft Power to the early 1970s. This blog will first introduce the context surrounding the Cold War and American democratic promotion in relation to Pee’s argument, and will then consider contemporary democratic promotion against the War on Terror.

American Democracy Promotion: Hard and Soft Power during the Cold War

The Cold War was essentially an ongoing confrontation between two world superpowers, America and Russia. This confrontation was a war between the ‘ideologies’ of capitalism and communism. Both countries and ideologies differed in their approaches towards politics, economics, society and culture, with the fundamental beliefs being freedom (capitalism) and equality (communism).



American during this time had a vested interest in influencing democracy abroad, believing that countries would fall to communism. Occasionally this was done through the use of military power, or as critic Nye would call it ‘hard power’. The Vietnam War exemplifies American the use of ‘hard power’ abroad, with America believing if one country in Asia would ‘fall’ to communism, others would follow (the domino theory). This influenced Americans to increase the numbers of military advisers and ground troops in Vietnam, to protect the south from the communist North Vietnam and the rebellious Vietcong. Eventually ‘Hot war’ began with the ‘Gulf of Tonkin Resolution’, in which congress allowed the president to use military force, after the attacks on American naval vessels. Although in Pee’s article ‘The Cold War and the Origins of US Democracy Promotion’, he traces the historical roots of America’s use of ‘Soft Power’ in influencing democracy abroad. Soft power essentially is the use of attraction and persuasion, in comparison to the use of forceful military action.

 Pee claims that America began influencing democracy from ‘1972 onward’. Although, Weissman in his article, ‘Pivotal Politics—The Marshall Plan: A Turning Point in Foreign Aid and the Struggle for Democracy’, claims that America influencing democracy abroad via the use of soft power happened much earlier than 1972. Weismann asserts that ‘the "Marshall Plan," marked a turning point in American foreign policy. It was a reversal from post-World War I (WWI) isolationism and generated long-lasting relations with other nations’. This would suggest the Marshall Plan, (also known as the European Recovery Programme) which was a plan which gave $13 billion to the recovery of Europe after the devastation of the Second World War, allowed European countries to be ‘persuaded’ by America to rebuild, and so were as a result attracted to capitalism rather the communism. Weismann’s point is corroborated by a news article by Ritula Shah, in which connects the historical use of democracy promotion to the Marshall Plan. This shows that, American democracy promotion through the use of soft power was in practice much earlier than 1967. Although, Pee’s piece should be praised for its recognition of a period in which recognised that soft power was useful in influencing American power and American democracy.

The Future: Democracy Promotion post-9/11

When the Berlin Wall collapsed, and communism was declared ‘defeated’, political scientist Fukuyama in his 1989 essay ‘"The End of History?, declared that this post-communism period was the ‘End of History’, due to the ‘universalisation of Western Liberal Democracy’. Although, with 9/11 acting as a defining moment for the ‘new century’, it can be seen that America now has a new ‘ideological enemy’, Islamic Extremism. Within this new century, America has continued to influence democracy abroad, in which new discourses surround Americas use of hard and soft power in the middle east.

Bibliography


Pee, Robert, “The Cold War and the Origins of US Democracy Promotion”, (2014) U.S Studies
Online <http://www.baas.ac.uk/usso/cold-war-democracy-promotion/>   accessed 17th March 2017.

Shah, Ritula “Is US monopoly on the use of soft power at an end?” (2014) BBC News Online <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-29536648> accessed 17th March 2017

Weissman, Andrew D. “ Pivotal Politics—The Marshall Plan: A Turning Point in Foreign Aid and the Struggle for Democracy” The History Teacher Vol. 47, No. 1 (2013): 111-129

<http://www.wesjones.com/eoh.htm> = End of History online text.


Liberalism vs Socialism table from: “Social Media: a Critical Introduction”, Christian Fuchs: 222

Webpages for further historical information:



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