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.
USA vs USSR image link: <https://sites.google.com/site/coldwargeography/home/cold-war-images>
Liberalism vs Socialism table from: “Social Media: a
Critical Introduction”, Christian Fuchs: 222
Webpages for further historical information:
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