Difficult Days for Dictators

Around the world, these last weeks have been difficult ones for authoritarian regimes.  Though thus far the threat of government overthrow has been limited, it seems clear that these regimes have taken notice regardless of how content their populace may be.  Throughout the Middle East protests have broken out or escalated in the wake of Mubarak’s resignation.  These protests may not be rooted in desire for new governance, yet the way they have spread is nothing to scoff at, either for those supporting transitions in the area or those against them.

As in the uprisings which stirred this recent chain of events, the question remains what role if any foreign governments should be playing in the domestic issues of other nations.  The question is not only one of morality and beliefs, viewing it through this lens does disservice to policy makers inside and outside the state as well as the protesters. In an ideal world government would be more accountable, open, and responsive to the desires of the people they represent.  In this scenario there would be no harm or potential danger in democratic nations supporting the growth of democracy in other areas, yet little good teds to come from building policy on utopian models.

Specifically in the recent case of Iran there is the ever present danger of those who make demands on their government being labeled tools of the West.  Leaders of those “Western” nations have almost universally voiced support of the protesters, and damned the Iranian government for using violence against peaceful expressions of their citizen’s desires.  In a nation so regularly depicted as fiercely adversarial to Western states, there is uncertainty over just what impact these condemnations might have.

Our reactions to Iran have long been rather extreme, and in American news media the nation and the regime are regularly painted as villainous caricatures regularly calling to question any remnants of journalistic integrity.  I am surely no fan of authoritarian regimes, let alone those of the theocratic bent, but in many ways the continued hypocrisy of our support of authoritarians in the region is sure to have consequences.  US efforts to promote democracy in the area are hindered by a host of issues unlikely to be resolved any time soon, but as its obvious the administration is aware of the current wave of change coursing through the region, perhaps reconsideration of our depiction of varied allies and enemies is in order.

As is often the case, people’s lives hang in the balance over these issues, not only figuratively in measures of quality of life and freedom, but literally among calls for the execution of opposition leaders.  These volatile times offer great opportunity for political and social change in the area, but also for potential tragedies as governments resist the demands of their opposition.