Building New Democrats or New Bin Ladens? The US Illusion of Spreading Democracy and Fighting Terrorism

The United States proclaims two major foreign policy objectives: to fight terrorism wherever it is found and to spread democracy wherever it can be promulgated. It is steadfastly believed that these two priorities can be achieved simultaneously and do not collide. This article explains how these two objectives, as presently pursued by the US, will in fact inevitably collide. The Central Asian region is used as empirical evidence. This collision not only undermines the short-term objective of fighting terrorism, it engages other states in ways that undermine democracy long-term and enflames Islamic rage not only against the local regimes but also against America itself. This collision is an absence of synergy between professed US diplomacy and actual policy implementation. The US is thereby its own worst enemy in the war against terror because instead of building democracy it is building new bin Ladens.