Egypt’s frustrated democrats

MA in Democracy and Governance co-director, Dan Brumberg, writes about the growing disillusionment of Egypt’s democracy advocates with the Obama administration in the Washington Post’s On Faith blog:

During my recent visit to Cairo, I heard some of these young people during a conference on “Emerging Leaders for Democracy.” Listening to them, I realized just how many had been inspired by President Barack Obama’s election. Indeed, most looked to his June 4 Cairo University speech as a harbinger of a new U.S. policy, one that they hoped would be based, at least in part, on a frank dialogue about human rights and democracy in Egypt.

Five months later, not a few of these aspiring leaders are now asking whether the President’s fine words will be matched by fine actions. Certainly, they know that they must look first and foremost to themselves for answers. But they still wonder if their dreams matter to an administration that is focused on the security challenges emanating from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Israel/Palestine. So far, they can be forgiven for thinking that U.S. policymakers do not seem troubled by the growing chasm between a fragmenting state and a fractious society, many of whose young people yearn to be heard both at home and abroad.

As readers of this blog know, I am growing frustrated with Obama’s diplomacy policy.  It is important to recall that diplomacy is a means to a policy objective, not a policy objective.  The administration believes that diplomacy can help repair the US’s image abroad.  That is a fine hypothesis.  They would be wise to recognize, however, that if people living in repressive countries perceive the US as indifferent to their desires for political reform, the image of the US will suffer as well.