The Arab Spring And US Politics: Let Freedom Ring (But Not Too Loud)
As the Republican primaries approach, American presidential contenders have employed rhetoric that casts the Arab spring as promoting instability and as a threat to US interests. For a nation that prides itself on the defense of freedom, this is a startling move.
From the perspective of many American politicians, the Arab populations of countries from Morocco to Yemen could not have picked a worse time to revolt. On the eve of a national election cycle set to begin with Republican Party primaries in just a few weeks, the political reality taking shape in places like Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia has been obscured by American candidates seeking to score cheap political points by feeding into popular fears and misconceptions about a region that has been an unfortunate focal point of United States policy for the last decade.
The national conversation about the Arab Spring has been characterized by the tension between two conflicting impulses that have defined American policy toward the region since World War II. The first is the desire to promote the universal ideals of freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. But after 1945, colonial rule was replaced by American hegemony in pursuit of the second impulse: the desire to protect strategic and economic interests, often by providing considerable support for authoritarian regimes.
In the quest to protect secure access to oil, underwrite Israeli regional military superiority and expansionism, and project American economic and military might, U.
S. leaders have preferred dictators to popularly elected governments that are far more likely to oppose such policies.Consequently, successive U.S. administrations have provided considerable military, economic, and diplomatic support to nearly every Arab authoritarian ruler from Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi to Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.