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allieggg

The U.S. Is Giving Up on Middle East Democracy-and That's a Mistake - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...282890

middle east democracy institutions Bush Obama Congress

shared by allieggg on 29 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • democracy assistance to the region, which will drop from $459.2 million to $298.3 million
  • Today’s Middle East is a product, at least in part, of failed democratization, and one of the reasons it failed was the timid, half-hearted support of the Obama administration.
  • the significant impact Western leverage and “linkage” can have on democratic transitions.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • “it was an externally driven shift in the cost of suppression, not changes in domestic conditions, that contributed most centrally to the demise of authoritarianism in the 1980s and 1990s.” They find that “states’ vulnerability to Western democratization pressure… was often decisive.”
  • it is also worth noting that President Bush acknowledged the existence of a “tyranny-terror” link—the notion that the root causes of extremism and terrorism can be found in the region’s enduring lack of democracy.
  • the administration’s approach to the region is characterized almost entirely by ad-hoc crisis management and traditional counterterrorism approaches. Its one larger-scale reform initiative—a half-hearted proposal for a
  • We argue that the U.S. and its partners now need to consider a very different approach to Middle East democracy assistance.
  • Conventional democracy promotion activities tend to focus on the process and “retail” aspects of democratic politics—things like elections, political party training, get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns, and civil society enhancement. While these are undoubtedly important, they are insufficient to deliver lasting reforms. Authoritarianism in the Arab world has proven time and time again—even in supposedly post-revolutionary settings such as Egypt today—that it can weather the annoyances of elections and civil society.
  • What is needed are more systematic reforms focused on fundamental institutions. These include things like constraining the military’s role in civilian domains of governance, deep reform in the security and justice sectors including law enforcement and policing, and comprehensive “renovation” of the civil service sector. These are large-scale, long-term, and expensive undertakings that far transcend the modest parameters of most U.S. democracy promotion programs.
  • we make the case for a new Multilateral Endowment for Reform (MER) that would tie significant levels of financial assistance—in the billions of dollars—to reform commitments and benchmarked implementation performance by partner nations.
  • provide a real incentive for countries to embark down a path to deeper and more enduring political reforms while retaining the ability to pull back funding if they do not deliver.
  • allieggg on 29 Sep 14
     
    This article begins by illuminating the regional democracy assistance cuts that are dropping from $459.2 million to $298.3 million It explains that the Bush Administration began the quest for democracy in the Middle East, and the Obama administration has only continued in his footsteps. The author presents the viewpoint that the U.S. approach to Arab democratization has been in the form of "ad-hoc crisis management" rather than "large scale reform initiatives." Promoting democracy in the form of democratic politics are insufficient, elections and political parties have consistently proved to weather away and fester further civil strife. Consequently, the article proposes a new approach to the region conflict. This approach calls for "systematic reforms" focusing on basic institutions such as the civil service sector, justice and law enforcement, and the military's role in governance. The idea is that addressing these lacking departments in the arab world will eventually pave the way to a smoother democratic transition. 
ysenia

U.S. Had Cyberattack Plan if Iran Nuclear Dispute Led to Conflict - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...clear-negotiations-failed.html

Nitro Zeus cyberattack Iran

shared by ysenia on 24 Feb 16 - Cached
  • ysenia on 24 Feb 16
     
    Cyberattack plan against Iran if the nuclear deal fell through has in been the works since the Bush Administration. Implemented into Obama Administration in 2009, showcased how concered U.S. was about deal falling through.
mportie

Document Reveals Growth of Cyberwarfare Between the U.S. and Iran - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...e-between-the-us-and-iran.html

Politics Iran US cyber war government

shared by mportie on 10 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • mportie on 10 Feb 16
     
    Disclosed documents provide details of a veiled cyber scene in which governments are the major players. It notes that the start of Iran's cyber warfare was kicked off by the US under the Bush administration who initiated cyber attacks on Iran to prevent Iran's attempts at nuclear programs.
tdford333

Daniel Byman | Why Drones Work | Foreign Affairs - 0 views

www.foreignaffairs.com/...why-drones-work

shared by tdford333 on 08 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Whereas President George W. Bush oversaw fewer than 50 drone strikes during his tenure, Obama has signed off on over 400 of them in the last four years
  • And they have done so at little financial cost, at no risk to U.S. forces, and with fewer civilian casualties than many alternative methods would have caused.
  • So drone warfare is here to stay, and it is likely to expand in the years to come as other countries’ capabilities catch up with those of the United States.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Critics of drone strikes often fail to take into account the fact that the alternatives are either too risky or unrealistic.
  • Even the most unfavorable estimates of drone casualties reveal that the ratio of civilian to militant deaths is lower than it would be for other forms of strikes.
  • signature strikes,” which target not specific individuals but instead groups engaged in suspicious activities.
  • After a strike in Pakistan, militants often cordon off the area, remove their dead, and admit only local reporters sympathetic to their cause or decide on a body count themselves. The U.S. media often then draw on such faulty reporting to give the illusion of having used multiple sources. As a result, statistics on civilians killed by drones are often inflated.
  • data show that drones are more discriminate than other types of force.
  • Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, also at times allowed drone strikes in his country and even covered for them by telling the public that they were conducted by the Yemeni air force.
  • As officials in both Pakistan and Yemen realize, U.S. drone strikes help their governments by targeting common enemies.
  • A 2012 poll found that 74 percent of Pakistanis viewed the United States as their enemy, likely in part because of the ongoing drone campaign. Similarly, in Yemen, as the scholar Gregory Johnsen has pointed out, drone strikes can win the enmity of entire tribes.
  • Many surveys of public opinion related to drones are conducted by anti-drone organizations, which results in biased samples.
  • And for most Pakistanis and Yemenis, the most important problems they struggle with are corruption, weak representative institutions, and poor economic growth; the drone program is only a small part of their overall anger, most of which is directed toward their own governments.
diamond03

3 Survivors Reveal the Brutal Reality of Female Genital Mutilation - 0 views

www.cosmopolitan.com/...al-mutilation-survivor-stories

reality female genital egypt

shared by diamond03 on 01 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • 3 Survivors Reveal the Brutal Reality of Female Genital Mutilation
  • According to the AHA Foundation, up to 228,000 girls and women in the U.S. are vulnerable to what's called "vacation cutting," when parents send their daughters to stay with their families abroad and to endure female genital mutilation (FGM)
  • they make themselves invisible
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • "We have a culture of silenc
  • "Most women won't share their stories because they are afraid of what will happen to them, what will happen to their parents."
  • The shame runs so deep that girls are taught to never look at or touch their genitals, and most of them have never been to a gynecologist
  • don't even know they have been mutilated until they attempt to have sex, at which time they often need to be cut open again to consummate a marriage.
  • Dukureh has been the only U.S.-based survivor to speak up so publicly against FGM
  • I was 6 and my sister was 3 at the time.
  • We were there three months. We ate out of one shared bowl.
  • We went into a home, and immediately women grabbed and blindfolded us and tied us to some thick bushes.
  • There was loud drumming and older women were singing songs, which I was too young to understand.
  • . I saw an old woman holding a knife so sharp I could see the drops of blood sliding down the edge.
  • Three other women were holding down my arms and legs, and another was sitting right on my chest, covering my mouth
  • I can still feel the weight of her today
  • t. What the cutter does is hold on to your clitoris to make sure she gets that and scrapes everything else that comes along with it — all of the labia,
  • we were left to bleed into little dirt holes for hours.
  • it is common practice to circumcise infant
  • receive our "treatment
  • They took dried leaves and placed them on the wound and that would stay on for two to three days
  • We were also taught, every day, that if we ever talked about this, if we even mentioned it, they would kill us.
  • I learned two of them later died in childbirth, which was too difficult for them because of FGM. They bled to death.
  • h the rite of passage
  • This is who we are."
  • She cannot have kids as a result of her FGM.
  • I will never take them back. My family will never see them.
  • diamond03 on 01 Dec 14
     
    ! This article shares 3 stories of women who have gone through the FGM procedure. They tend to consider FGM as the "Right of Passage" for young worn. Many women die in childbirth or have complications because of the results of FGM. 
irede123

The ISIS Creation Myth - 0 views

www.newsweek.com/...-bush-barack-obama-342613.html

ISIS creation

shared by irede123 on 27 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • irede123 on 27 Jan 16
     
    Discussions about the roots of modern day ISIL.
ysenia

Clinton Touts Role in Confronting Iran's Nuclear Program After Bush/Cheney 'Bluster' - 0 views

www.cnsnews.com/...ng-irans-nuclear-program-after

clinton role program politics nuclear iran

shared by ysenia on 08 Feb 16 - Cached
  • ysenia on 08 Feb 16
     
    Hillary Clinton discusses her proactive leadership in regards to the negotiation over the Iran Nuclear Program. Showcases relevance of topic in American Politics.
mportie

Obama Ordered Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...cyberattacks-against-iran.html

Politics war cyber US Iran warfare Obama

shared by mportie on 10 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • mportie on 10 Feb 16
     
    The Obama administration continued cyber warfare initiatives against Iran, originally developed by the Bush administration. The cyber-weapon, dubbed Stuxnet, was co-developed by America and Israel in efforts to thwart Iranian nuclear plans. Although initially effective in its goal to confuse Iran, the cyber weapon has only created a cyber warfare in which Iran learned from the attack and has launched its own cyber weapon.
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