1st Edition

Democracy Promotion and Conflict-Based Reconstruction The United States & Democratic Consolidation in Bosnia, Afghanistan & Iraq

By Matthew Alan Hill Copyright 2011
248 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

248 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

248 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book investigates US foreign policy and tests the hypothesis that transition-inspired democracy promotion will successfully establish liberal democracy around the world, and thus fulfil the aims of the American mission and its application of the democratic peace. It features two detailed case studies exploring political liberalization in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and suggests that the... Read more

1. Introduction  2. Setting the Scene: The American Mission, Democratisation and Democratic Peace Theory  3. Motives for American Democracy Promotion  4. Examining USAID in Bosnia and Afghanistan, a ‘Cookie-Cutter Approach’?  5. No Liberal Democracy, just an American Supported Formal Democracy  6. Can Formal Democracy Meet the Objectives of the American Mission?  7. Implications of Research Findings to General US Foreign Policy: The Case of Iraq  8. US Democracy Promotion and the Dawn of the Obama Era

Biography

Matthew Alan Hill is a postdoctoral research fellow in US politics and history at the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK.

"Hill's survey of America's democratisation missions takes the reader on a journey through the horrors of post-conflict states, the cut-and-thrust of policy debate and the ever evolving idea of democracy. As an academic treatise, it will undoubtedly prove a valuable resource to any student or researcher engaged in the field. For the casual reader there is also much to gain, not least a crash-course through democratisation theory and a comprehensive understanding of the current situations in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. If the author's voice occasionally gets lost in the frequent references to commentators and interviewees, it is only because of his determination to fill the work with the greatest range of authoritative opinion. For that, readers should be most thankful." -- Louie Woodall, e-IR