Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Is Democracy Promotion A Cure For Ending Terrorism?, Zachary R. Snyder

The Hoover Prize

The assumption that democracy is a force that impedes terrorism is a commonly held belief by the Bush administration. Current policies that shape the War on Terror attest to this assumption. A pivotal theme of the current War on Terror dictates that imposing democracy in former autocracies such as Afghanistan and Iraq will rid that state of terrorist activities. Mr. Bush, when defending U.S. military presence in the Arab world, said that the United States is “engaged in a generational challenge to instill democracy”. A fruitful democracy in Arab countries is assumed to spread American values in order to ultimately …