Show description

For example, if security-sector reform threatens the economic well-being of a country’s officer corps, specific assistance to provide job retraining, private-sector investment credits, or even pensions might be made available in exchange for specific action by the recipient government. 8 The “lost” assistance, which took the form of cash transfers and commodity import credits, could be replaced by new, conditional, carefully targeted assistance to encourage or reinforce desired reforms. -Arab Democracy Challenge Account.

Primary among these risks is that pressuring longstanding autocratic regimes to relax their control over political power may produce crisis and chaotic outcomes rather than gradual transitions to democracy. This risk is worth considering, but must be evaluated relative to the risks of instability that accompany a policy of favoring the status quo. S. attitudes. Given this, it appears preferable to support changes that will facilitate long-term stability, political moderation, and prosperity rather than to continue or even enhance America’s already much-resented association with governments whose ability to deliver effectively in response to public needs is increasingly judged a failure by their own citizens.

It would also include civil-society assistance programs that would be undertaken independently from regular bilateral assistance—like the Middle East Partnership Initiative—but that would be tied explicitly to democratic reform efforts at the societal level, including political party development, advocacy, civic education, and the like. Finally, the Democracy Challenge Account should include incentives (for example, loan or investment guarantees, tax incentives, or favorable credit) for American businesses to expand their relations with Arab counterparts in countries that are committed to real economic and political reform.