Democracy and Human Rights Policies / Other publications
Dicing with Democracy
30/06/2009 By Richard Youngs
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President Barack Obama's Cairo speech has been hailed around the world. It struck just the positive tone needed to embark on a 'new beginning'. And against the predictions of many commentators he did not duck the 'democracy' issue. Of course, the president said little about how the United States will endeavour to support democratic reform in the Middle East.
Having raised expectations, he will be conscious that failure to deliver will engender huge disappointment in the region. Nevertheless, the speech has put the issue of international democracy back on the agenda.
This article was published in The World Today, July 2009
Having raised expectations, he will be conscious that failure to deliver will engender huge disappointment in the region. Nevertheless, the speech has put the issue of international democracy back on the agenda.
This article was published in The World Today, July 2009
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Keywords
Civil society Democracy promotion Diplomacy Egypt European Union Middle East and North Africa United StatesBio author: Richard Youngs
Richard Youngs is Director General of FRIDE. He also lectures at the University of Warwick in the UK. He studied at Cambridge (BA Hons) and Warwick (MA, PhD) universities.
