The US will on Thursday place the promotion of democracy at the heart of its foreign policy as it adopts a tougher stance towards Russia, China and notably Iran.
The move comes in the new National Security Strategy published on Thursday – the first formal review since the invasion of Iraq.
The document marks the first significant revision of the landmark 2002 document that advocated pre-emptive strikes against perceived terrorist threats.
“We may face no greater challenge from a single country than Iran,” the NSS warns, citing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. “The Iranian regime sponsors terrorism; threatens Israel; seeks to thwart Middle East peace; disrupts democracy in Iraq.”
The change of emphasis reflects a recognition, over the past four years, of the need for “effective diplomacy”, a senior administration official said.
It reflected, he told the Financial Times, “an elaboration of the freedom and democracy agenda. . . We understand the centrality of the freedom agenda and that is clearer than before.”
Bush seeks to make promotion of democracy his legacy
The document places “transformational democracy” as the overriding aim, in spite of rising criticism that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has been an expensive military and political failure.
Although the concept of pre-emptive strikes is now less prominent, the official denied that the US had abandoned the policy.
China urged to be more open about military build-up
The review, which began last June, was overseen by Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser. But the softer language reflects the changing views of Condoleezza Rice, who presided over the more hawkish document in 2002 when she was national security adviser. Since becoming secretary of state, she has returned foreign policy towards a more multilateralist stance.
In the foreword, President George W. Bush says his strategy is based on two pillars: promoting freedom and confronting global challenges by “leading a growing community of democracies”. The struggle against militant Islamism is described as the “great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century”.
America’s mission is still one of “ending tyranny in our world” but “our National Security Strategy is idealistic about its goals and realistic about means”, the document says.
As well as hardening its view of Iran – which was not mentioned in the 2002 discussion of rogue states – the NSS has also stepped back from its generally optimistic view of Russia.
In 2002 Russia was said to be “in the midst of a hopeful transition, reaching for its democratic future and a partner in the war on terror”. Now the US calls for Russia not to impede the cause of freedom. It says: “Recent trends regrettably point toward a diminishing commitment to democratic freedoms and institutions.”
China is encouraged to continue towards peaceful development, while North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe are admonished as despotic regimes.
