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The West's Role
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11826 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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1 / 1994 |
2,558 Words |
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William J. Taylor and David J. Kramer
William Taylor is senior vice president at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies. David Kramer is
coordinator of Russian and Eurasian studies at the center. |
How can well-established democracies contribute to political liberalization and democratic pluralism in the former communist bloc? To answer this key question, we look at the West's efforts to promote democratization in the former Soviet Union.
More than four decades of U.S. foreign policy focused on containing communism worldwide and rolling it back in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Espousing the tenets of democracy and underscoring the perniciousness of communism through media such as Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, the West by 1989 was faced with the prospect of helping to fill the political vacuum left in eastern Europe by communism's collapse. A similar void appeared two years later throughout the USSR, and the West's task in supporting the construction of democratic political institutions in this region became even greater.
The abortive attempt in August 1991 by hard-liners in Moscow to stem the transition toward a democratic, market-oriented society instead accelerated the end of communism. With the failure of this desperate effort to hold back further political and economic reform, the USSR began to disintegrate along ethnic lines.
Soon, 15 new states emerged, each with its own government and its own pace toward developing political pluralism. Building democratic institutions in these newly independent nations initially was not as important to the populations as asserting each country's separate identity. But the joy of establishing independence soon gave way to the rigors of rebuilding entire societies.
The Bush administration was slow to respond to the events unfolding in the Soviet Union. Accused of supporting Gorbachev too long at the expense of emerging political figures like Boris Yeltsin, the United States, contrary to its democratic values, sought to soften independent aspirations in the USSR for fear that breakup of the country would lead to chaos.
Once disintegration of the USSR became a fait accompli, the United States resumed its position as leader of the free world in supporting the process of democratization in the newly independent states (NIS).
From recognizing the reassertion of independence in the Baltic states to monitoring elections in Ukraine in December 1991, the West, led by the United States, moved aggressively to support the transformation of political and social systems in the former USSR. The
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