(Ha'aretz) Emily B. Landau and Carlo Masala - The oppressive nature of the autocratic and police-state regimes in many countries in the Middle East makes it natural to sympathize with the popular uprisings that have been sweeping the region. Moreover, the "democratic peace" theory has reinforced the assumption that democracies don't fight each other. Yet the West has forgotten how long the road to democratization can really be. A society can be truly democratic only when its population embraces the concepts of tolerance and the protection of minority rights. It took Western Europe more than 200 years to emerge as a region of stable democracies. It would be naive to believe that the states in the Arab world that succeed in overcoming their dictatorial regimes can leapfrog the long and arduous process of establishing a culture of democracy. Dr. Emily B. Landau is director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Carlo Masala holds the chair for international relations at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich.
2011-02-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive