Robin's Doctrine (Obama, feel free to use this in your speech to the Arab world).
"Balance of Power". In the history lessons of the United States of America, "democracy", or "republic" or "representative democracy" were primarily the best available tool for a single goal - diversifying power. The founding fathers did not want a monarchy.
Capitalism is also a form of "balance of power". Competition is good. Communism and state owned business tend to strangle competition. As does a mature fat capitalism which allows price fixing or monopolies to develop.
The most frustrating thing for an educated person in the developing world (and our fair trade partners are very representative of this self-made kiva power) is the inability to appeal your case or to shop for answers. When your aspirations and creativity and inspirations are boxed by an unfair monopolization of power... when all the judges are related to the executive branch and the legislative branch is fully of cronies... you will look to a Bin Laden or a religious angle, anything to break the ossified absolute power system.
In fact, the distrust of USA is a distrust of extreme power which resembles the power of the authoritarian regime you suffer under. It is easy to believe the Overdog is using its wealth and influence in the same way as a young Arab, Latino, or Asian sees power being wielded locally.
The USA Foreign Policy has been called "pro democracy". But I think "democracy" was simply a tool for balancing power. Any system, even if religious or judiciary or leverage from a powerful neighboring nation, is better off if the combination of powers compete and balance one another. Democracy is pretty good in allowing people to leverage elected positions, and capitalism is pretty good if the government is sufficiently separated to have leverage and maintain fair competition. But we shouldn't assume that our means of balancing power is the only means. I think that the Muslim Brotherhood, or Christian brotherhood, or any brotherhood that acts as a counter-weight to unbalanced and unfairly distributed power - economic, political, racial, whatever.
It's all about balancing and counter-weights. And the Wiki counterweight is there via the internet. We need to make internet affordable and open. And if that means affordable display devices, we should not exaggerate peoples ability to replace them in emerging markets.
This is probably the most hopeful thing I see in Pakistan. Everyone seems extremely frustrated by Pakistan these days, everyone seems pretty pessimistic about the powers in Islamabad. But I see a tremendous balance of economic, democratic, religious and military power. The weights and measures bounce frustratingly and chaoticly.. but they represent potential counterweights for balance... not something I see in Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or Libya.
"Balance of Power". In the history lessons of the United States of America, "democracy", or "republic" or "representative democracy" were primarily the best available tool for a single goal - diversifying power. The founding fathers did not want a monarchy.
Capitalism is also a form of "balance of power". Competition is good. Communism and state owned business tend to strangle competition. As does a mature fat capitalism which allows price fixing or monopolies to develop.The most frustrating thing for an educated person in the developing world (and our fair trade partners are very representative of this self-made kiva power) is the inability to appeal your case or to shop for answers. When your aspirations and creativity and inspirations are boxed by an unfair monopolization of power... when all the judges are related to the executive branch and the legislative branch is fully of cronies... you will look to a Bin Laden or a religious angle, anything to break the ossified absolute power system.
In fact, the distrust of USA is a distrust of extreme power which resembles the power of the authoritarian regime you suffer under. It is easy to believe the Overdog is using its wealth and influence in the same way as a young Arab, Latino, or Asian sees power being wielded locally.
The USA Foreign Policy has been called "pro democracy". But I think "democracy" was simply a tool for balancing power. Any system, even if religious or judiciary or leverage from a powerful neighboring nation, is better off if the combination of powers compete and balance one another. Democracy is pretty good in allowing people to leverage elected positions, and capitalism is pretty good if the government is sufficiently separated to have leverage and maintain fair competition. But we shouldn't assume that our means of balancing power is the only means. I think that the Muslim Brotherhood, or Christian brotherhood, or any brotherhood that acts as a counter-weight to unbalanced and unfairly distributed power - economic, political, racial, whatever.
It's all about balancing and counter-weights. And the Wiki counterweight is there via the internet. We need to make internet affordable and open. And if that means affordable display devices, we should not exaggerate peoples ability to replace them in emerging markets.
This is probably the most hopeful thing I see in Pakistan. Everyone seems extremely frustrated by Pakistan these days, everyone seems pretty pessimistic about the powers in Islamabad. But I see a tremendous balance of economic, democratic, religious and military power. The weights and measures bounce frustratingly and chaoticly.. but they represent potential counterweights for balance... not something I see in Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or Libya.
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