A KC-135 Stratotanker takes off for
in-air refueling of jets making airstrikes
on IS targets in Syria: Is U.S. foreign
policy promoting a clash of civilizations?
A Self-Fulfilling Clash of Civilizations (Folha, Brazil)
"What a pity
that the values which sustain the United States domestically aren't also embraced
by its foreign policy. … Given the disparity of forces, the Islamic State may even
be defeated, but that won't solve what's at the heart of the problem: the Arab-Muslim
world seems doomed to choose between dictatorship and Islamic radicalism. There
is a piece missing in this equation, which are precisely the values invoked by
Obama, and which can be summarized as liberal democracy, respect for human and
minority rights and religious freedom - in short, the set of rules that the West proud is so proud of, even if it doesn't always put them into practice."
President Barack Obama, in a
speech to commemorate the 9-11 attacks, said: "Guided
by the values that sustain us, we will only grow stronger."
What a pity that the values which sustain the United States domestically
aren't also embraced by its foreign policy, as can be seen in the coalition in support
of the war against the Islamic State. Out of the ten Arab countries taking part in the
coalition, only Lebanon and Iraq are not absolute dictatorships, even if in
both cases the quility of the democracy is not very good.
The others are Egypt, Saudi Arabia (that country where women
cannot even drive, remember?), Qatar, Jordan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait and Bahrain.
Given the disparity of forces, the IS may
even be defeated, but that won't solve what's at the heart of the problem: the Arab-Muslim
world seems doomed to choose between dictatorship and Islamic radicalism. There
is a piece missing in this equation, which are precisely the values invoked by
Obama, and which can be summarized as liberal democracy, respect for human and
minority rights and religious freedom - in short, the set of rules that the West proud is so proud of, even if it doesn't always put them into practice.
This is the opinion even of Dennis
Ross, who was special assistant to President Obama for Middle East and
South Asia affairs until 2011, and is now a researcher at the Washington
Institute for Near East policy.
Ross
writes: "The Arab Awakening of 2011 did not usher in an era of
democracy, nor could it. The institutions of civil society were too weak; the
political culture of winner-take-all too strong; and a belief in pluralism too
inchoate."
Turning the analysis toward IS, Frederic Wehrey
at the Carnegie Center's Middle East program reinforces
this idea: he says that the group's discourse "is the mobilizing
vocabulary for something that is ultimately more mundane and worldly: the
absence of credible and inclusive institutions that can temper the appeal of
toxic sectarian identities and radical religious voices."
Posted By Worldmeets.US
This analysis
may tempt one to conclude that the Arab-Muslim world has a genetic
incompatibility with democracy and its values, which is the backdrop to Clash of
Civilizations, the controversial work of political scientist Samuel
Huntington.
I confess that it is increasingly difficult for anyone who
questions this thesis, which in my view is biased,
to argue the contrary.
In any case, there are two facts: first, Turkey, Indonesia
and Tunisia, Muslim-majority countries, got rid of dictatorships and are
cultivating democracies, of course, with the complications of the birthing
process.
Second, a
recent Pew Center poll involving 14,000 people from 14 countries, all
Muslim, revealed a strong rejection of Islamic radicalism. And the so called
Arab Spring, although it failed in its first flowering, brought the masses to the
streets calling for democracy.
If the West had stepped in with its expertise in institution
building, perhaps it wouldn't need soldiers now.
Clovis Rossi is a special correspondent and
member of the Folha editorial board, is a winner of the Maria Moors
Cabot award (USA) and is a member of the Foundation for a New Ibero-American Journalism. His column appears on
Thursdays and Sundays on page 2 and on Saturdays in the World Notebook
section. He is the author, among other works, of Special Envoy: 25 Years
Around the World and What is Journalism?
