A review of Defending Democracy: A Global Survey of Foreign Policy Trends 1992–2002, edited by Robert G. Herman and Theodore J. Piccone.
About the Author
Thomas O. Melia is deputy director of Freedom House and consulting editor for the World Encyclopedia of Parliaments and Legislatures. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
The incentives created by competitive elections in a number of Muslim-majority countries are fueling a political trend that roughly resembles the rise of Christian Democracy in twentieth-century Europe
Strategies based on transition pacts that reduce rulers' risks and cushion their retreat from total power may be the most promising route to democracy in the Arab world.
The lines between the development-aid and democracy-aid communities have been blurring, in terms of both organizational boundaries and activities on the ground, but the convergence is far from complete.