From the issue dated November 8, 2002
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Human RightsIf things go well, the United States will gain support from countries that will
Democracy, however, is not just regime change; it's a way of looking at life and putting that view into practice. If that deeper change takes place, obviously we would have an amazing boost in terms of human rights. Here, the lessons learned from several recent violent and nonviolent transitions from totalitarian regimes are important. For those who had been oppressors, some have changed positions and still remained in power, as has happened in the Soviet Union. And the sentiments of people who have been under extreme oppression for decades are so strong, it is very easy to create mass anger and mass violence against the previous regime. That is why the involvement of international monitoring groups to educate people on the ground and to keep some sort of guard over the situation becomes very important; it's not just stationing troops there to keep the peace. If that is not done properly, it will lead to chaos. No matter what the intentions, if the United States doesn't do it right, it won't get a second chance. The other scenario would be if the United States goes into Iraq militarily, only to bring about a regime change that would secure its security and oil interests in the region without regard for long-term democracy building or the democratic aspirations of the Iraqi people and their representatives. That would discredit the discourse on human rights and democracy in the region, increase the chances of renewed totalitarianism in Iraq, and strengthen the reactionary forces in the region. Azar Nafisi, director of the SAIS Dialogue project at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (Random House, spring 2003) http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Volume 49, Issue 11, Page B11
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Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education