On Obama’s Inherited Freedom Agenda

On Obama’s Inherited Freedom Agenda

In the Washington Post, Jackson Diehl argues that opting out of the promotion of democracy in the Middle East will not be an option for Barack Obama, and all that’s left is for him to pick sides in the struggle. Diehl writes that autocrats such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak feel emboldened by Obama’s election, seeing in it the official epitaph of Bush’s pestering freedom agenda. He cites the recent government-sponsored burning of jailed dissident Ayman Nour’s offices in Cairo as an example.


Diehl notes the series of fateful elections to be held in the region in the next three years–in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Egypt–and Obama will be forced to either support the agents of reform, or remain complicit in their suppression with his silence.


UPDATE: Marc Lynch at Abu Aardvark takes issue with some of Diehl’s assertions and conclusions. He writes that autocrats in the region sensed the death knell of the freedom agenda long ago, and that Diehl ignores the wave of enthusiasm among the region’s reformers unleashed by Obama’s victory.