Critical Mission: Essays on Democracy Promotion

Thomas Carothers Book September 1, 2004 Washington
Summary
Demand for practical knowledge and lessons about how the United States and other countries can more effectively promote democracy around the world has never been higher. This timely book by Thomas Carothers, one of the foremost authorities worldwide on democracy-building, helps meet that need.
Related Topics
 
  • Email

Demand for practical knowledge and lessons about how the United States and other countries can more effectively promote democracy around the world has never been higher. This timely book by Thomas Carothers, one of the foremost authorities worldwide on democracy-building, helps meet that need.

Critical Mission draws together a wide-ranging set of Carothers’s many seminal, widely cited essays, organized around four vital themes: (1) the role of democracy promotion in U.S. foreign policy; (2) the core elements of democracy aid; (3) the state of democracy in the world; and (4) the new U.S. push to promote democracy in the Middle East. From puncturing myths about civil society promotion to sizing up the prospects for democracy in the Arab world, Carothers is consistently penetrating, incisive, and challenging to policy makers, democracy activists, and scholars alike.

Critical Mission also includes the only up-to-date, comprehensive bibliography on democracy promotion


About the Author
Thomas Carothers is director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His other books include Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve , Funding Virtue: Civil Society Aid and Democracy Promotion, edited with Marina S. Ottaway, and Assessing Democracy Assistance: The Case of Romania.

Reviews for this publication

"Thomas Carothers is the world’s leading authority on democracy promotion. Though a passionate believer in the virtues of democracy, Carothers is no romantic. His analysis is as rigorous as it is compelling. This brilliant collection of essays reveals his unique sensibility: both hardheaded and humane. For anyone interested in the promise and pitfalls of promoting democracy around the world, Carothers's book is a gold mine."
Robert Kagan, Author of Of Paradise and Power

"The promotion of democracy has never had a more thoughtful advocate or a tougher critic than Thomas Carothers. Balanced, incisive, steeped in local knowledge and yet focused on the big picture, this remarkable collection of trenchant essays is full of good judgments and sharp insights. Essential reading for both democracy’s critics and its advocates."
Michael W. Doyle, Columbia University, author of Ways of War and Peace

This valuable collection of essays by Thomas Carothers provides penetrating analyses of the work of the rapidly growing global network of organizations dedicated to helping build an international community of democracies. Over the years we have gained an understanding of the difficulty and the necessity of establishing democratic institutions and practices; but there is no single recipe for this task. Carothers’s examinations have helped us think harder and more critically about our work and we are better at what we do because of his insights.
Kenneth Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute

Source: http://carnegieendowment.org/2004/09/01/critical-mission-essays-on-democracy-promotion/1ujt

More from The Global Think Tank

Publication Resources

In Fact

 

70%

of oil consumed in the United States

is for the transportation sector.

20%

of Chechnya’s pre-1994 population

has fled to different parts of the world.

58%

of oil consumed in China

was from foreign sources in 2012.

32

million cases pending

in India’s judicial system.

20

million people killed

in Cold War conflicts.

18%

of the U.S. economy

is consumed by healthcare.

$536

billion in goods and services

traded between the United States and China in 2012.

$100

billion in foreign investment and oil revenue

have been lost by Iran because of its nuclear program.

4700%

increase in China’s GDP per capita

between 1972 and today.

$11

billion have been spent

to complete the Bushehr nuclear reactor in Iran.

2%

of Iran’s electricity needs

is all the Bushehr nuclear reactor provides.

82

new airports

are set to be built in China by 2015.

78

journalists

were imprisoned in Turkey as of August 2012 according to the OSCE.

67%

of the world's population

will reside in cities by 2050.

16

million Russian citizens

are considered “ethnic Muslims.”

Stay in the Know

Enter your email address in the field below to receive the latest Carnegie analysis in your inbox!

Personal Information
 
 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
 
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036-2103 Phone: 202 483 7600 Fax: 202 483 1840
Please note...

You are leaving the website for the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy and entering a website for another of Carnegie's global centers.

请注意...

你将离开清华—卡内基中心网站,进入卡内基其他全球中心的网站。