World Yawns at McCain's Coalition of Democracies

By Melinda Brouwer, AlterNet. Posted July 2, 2008.

A central component of presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain's foreign policy platform is the formation of a "League of Democracies." McCain put forth this idea in a November 2007 article he authored for the academic journal Foreign Affairs that established his campaign's overall foreign policy platform. In the article, McCain argued:

Our organizations and partnerships must be as international as the challenges we confront. Today, U.S. soldiers are serving in Afghanistan with British, Canadian, Dutch, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Spanish and Turkish soldiers from the NATO alliance. They are also serving alongside forces from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines and South Korea -- all democratic allies or close partners of the United States. But these troops are not all part of a common structure. They do not work together systematically or meet regularly to develop diplomatic and economic strategies to meet the common challenges they face.

NATO has begun to fill this gap by promoting partnerships between the alliance and great democracies in Asia and elsewhere. We should go further by linking democratic nations in one common organization: a worldwide League of Democracies ... like-minded nations working together for peace and liberty. The organization could act when the U.N. fails ... and take other measures unattainable by existing regional or universal-membership systems.

But he warned: "This League of Democracies would not supplant the U.N. or other international organizations but complement them by harnessing the political and moral advantages offered by united democratic action."

Now, as the other Republican primary candidates have fallen by the wayside, the attention has become focused solely on McCain's policy platform -- and with it, the concept of a League of Nations. Debating, promoting and scolding the idea are academics, presidential campaign advisers (from both sides of the aisle), pundits, bloggers and columnists across America.

But there is little speak -- pro or con -- of McCain's idea outside the United States. After all, the league would be a multilateral institution, comprised of other democratic nations. So, why aren't other potential members of the league joining the debate?

One possibility is that since McCain has yet to win the votes of the American people, he has yet to formally propose the idea when it matters -- as president of the United States.

Another possibility is that the idea simply does not resonate with foreign policymakers. As Thomas Carothers, democracy scholar and vocal opponent of league, puts it: "I think the basic problem (with the league) is that the world has absolutely no interest or appetite for a U.S.-led ideologically based multilateral initiative."

At a recent debate, Carothers said he could not detect a "trace" of interest among European diplomats for establishing a league. At a European summit, one European diplomat active in democracy issues read one of his recent policy briefs and asked Carothers, "I don't mean to be rude, but why did you waste more than five minutes on this idea, which is a complete non-starter?" and added that the subject was not worthy of serious attention.

European nations are, arguably, the strongest candidates for founding members of a League of Democracies: They are allies of the United States, pass the "democracy" test and are multilateral to the core. McCain draws attention to this very point extolling the virtues of the league to a primarily European audience via an op-ed in the Financial Times:

"Americans and Europeans share a common goal -- to build an enduring peace based on freedom. Our democracies today are strong and vibrant. Together we can tackle the diverse challenges we face. ... But the key word is 'together.' We need to renew and revitalize our democratic solidarity. We need to strengthen our transatlantic alliance as the core of a new global compact -- a League of Democracies -- that can harness the great power of the more than 100 democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests."

If Europeans aren't likely to warm to the idea, it is even harder to imagine recruiting members from regions where there is more resistance to U.S. hegemony (think Latin America). But, as Carothers sees it, the popularity of the league in some American policy circles -- and its lack thereof in the exterior -- is more revealing of the divergence in how the United States and its foreign counterparts interpret world politics.

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Melinda Brouwer, blogger for FPA's U.S. Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy blogs, can be reached at: fpa.usdiplomacy@gmail.com.