May 22, 2020
The default mode of thinking in U.S. foreign policy circles is that more countries should be like us, and that with the right support, new democracies can bloom and flourish all across the world. Except history shows us again and again that it doesn't work like that.
Stephen Krasner, a professor at Stanford University and a former official in the George W. Bush administration, joins Robert Amsterdam on this episode of Departures to discuss his latest book, "How to Make Love to a Despot: An Alternative Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First Century."
Truly consolidated democracies are very difficult to build - they occur under specific structural conditions, when elites agree to have them in place, and more often than not, take hold due to luck more than assistance or planning.
Dr. Krasner provides a refreshing - and possibly not entirely politically correct - skepticism of the enduring belief in democracy promotion as a primary arm of US foreign policy, and instead argues that instead we should be focusing on governance and where possible working with quasi-democratic states in order to align them better with US interests.