| Summary/Abstract |
For two centuries, American leaders have quarreled about how
high to place support for democracy on the list ofU.S. foreign
policy priorities. The Biden administration’s recent tragedymarred withdrawal oftroops from Afghanistan reinforced the view
ofskeptics from across the domestic political spectrum that actively
promoting democracy overseas is naive and less likely to advance the
country’s core interests than to embroil it in no-win quagmires. They
point as well to a steady decline in global freedom over the past 15
years as evidence that emphasizing democratic values is out oftouch
with prevailing trends and therefore a losing strategy, one that actually detracts from the country’s international standing. With the
United States confronted by partisan divisions at home and "erce
adversaries abroad, these critics assert that U.S. leaders can no longer
a#ord to indulge in Lincolnesque fantasies about democracy as the
last best hope on earth. They must instead shift their focus inward
and accept the world as it is.
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