Pro-American is not Democratic - Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan
Kurt Bassuener August 7th, 2009
DPC Senior Associate Mark Lenzi, who formerly headed the International Republican Institute’s office in Tbilisi, Georgia, and his then-National Democratic Institute counterpart Lincoln Mitchell, have an excellent op-ed in today’s New York Times, “Georgia, One Year Later.” In their article, they warn of the danger of conflating a pro-American (and/or anti-Russian) policy with democracy.
In the year since the war between Russia and Georgia, it has become clear that in addition to the vague intention of resetting U.S. relations with Russia, Washington must develop distinct policies for Georgia and the other countries on Russia’s periphery and not continue to simply lump bilateral relations with post-Soviet governments together or in terms of their individual relations with Moscow. This new approach must reflect the reality of the Russian threat, but also the need for concrete political reform, which is the key to regional stability.
The authors also observe
Unfortunately, like its predecessor, the Obama administration often blurs and confuses the terms ‘friend’ and ‘democracy’ with regard to Georgia. This undermines the development of democracy in the former Soviet Union and beyond…the highly personalized nature of relations between the U.S. and Georgian leadership has contributed to bipartisan American reluctance to criticize the steps Georgia has made away from democracy in recent years.
While Georgia has indeed been a friend to America, demonstrating this by sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, it is certainly not a pure democracy. Yet this is how Georgia generally has been viewed by the Obama and Bush administrations. This was especially true during the war with Russia, when Georgia was often simplistically touted as the democratic David battling the authoritarian Russian Goliath.
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Lenzi and Mitchell go on to recommend that the US redirect its assistance to Georgia away from arms and toward “media, civil society, and electoral and judicial reforms” and to make clear to the Saakashvili government that “Washington has higher standards for its allies and will no longer accept empty promises of democratic advancement.”
This message is one that is overdue and has implications for US policy elsewhere, and not only in the post-Soviet space. Al Jazeera English’s brilliant “People and Power” series has just aired a devastating episode on the nature of the Bakiyev regime in Kyrgyzstan, which came to power in 2005 after what many dubbed the “Tulip Revolution,” the last and by far least transformative of the “color revolutions” in the former USSR.
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The documentary illustrates the corruption and brutality of the regime, which appears to far outstrip the merely corrupt one it replaced, headed by Askar Akayev, and juxtaposes it with the lack of criticism from the Obama adminsitration, desperate to maintain the Manas airbase to support expanding military operations in Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the world with both US and Russian military bases, and as many third world dictatorships did in the Cold War, manipulates both to get greater tribute. This money never seems to reach the people. Surprise, surprise. Well worth watching.