Promoting democratic values is the long term answer to extremism....

The long term answer to extremism is the promotion of democratic values -- consistently and fairly around the world. Fanaticism and authoritarianism have a symbiotic relationship that must be broken if there is to be true security. Les Campbell, based on his experience in the field of international democracy promotion, argues that Canadians must treat the September 11 tragedy as their own and join with nations embracing similar values if extremism and authoritarianism are to be successfully confronted

As a Canadian working and living in Washington DC with a professional involvement in the Middle East, my initial reaction to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was to ascribe U.S. policy in the region as a possible motive for the attack.

When reaction from the streets of the Middle East started to come in, my suspicions were confirmed. The prevalent sentiment seemed to be sorrow for the loss of life yet a sense that the U.S. had it coming. “It’s about U.S. policies,” some have said, about its support of Israel and a seeming lack of empathy for the plight of the Palestinians.

In normal circumstances I might agree.  The U.S. and many of its western allies, including Canada, have not always been even-handed in their approach to the Palestinian question, and the Arab world is often caricatured unfairly. But make no mistake. The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were not about the U.S. and its policies, they were about us, all of us.

The people who decided to mount such cold-blooded attacks on the symbols of American financial and military power did not just attack the U.S., they attacked the very values that find consensus in most of the western world. Liberal democracy versus theocracy and dictatorship, equality between the sexes versus the oppression of women, due process and the rule of law versus arbitrary and harsh judgement described as God’s will.

Because this is an attack on our shared values, not on specific policies, Canadians must react to this tragedy as if it is our own. Canada should join the U.S. in its efforts to identify and bring harsh sanctions on state-supported terrorism of any kind. Supporters of terrorist activities domiciled in Canada must be ferreted out. Any possible Canadian connection must be investigated thoroughly.

In the longer run, however, the reaction to these horrific events must be more subtle. Democratic nations, where equality and the rule of law is respected, should recognize now, more than ever, that they are united by shared values. If these tragic events have any purpose it may be that a new world alignment is realized, an alignment that is based less on hard factors like shared geography, language and trade interests and based more on intangibles  respect for human rights, freedom of speech and universal civil rights.

In this new world alignment, free and democratic nations will be able to pursue their international interests more coherently and consistently. Former colonial powers like France, for example, should stop apologizing for the excesses of its former colonies. Saudi Arabia should be confronted, even at the risk of upsetting oil markets, for its oppression of women and its brutal legal system. The U.S. should be called to task when it props up dictatorships and Canada should be criticized for its naïve engagement of Cuba.

Emerging democracies establishing free elections and the rule of law would be rewarded in this new world order. Countries such as Mongolia, Georgia, Bolivia and Morocco, quietly struggling to give their citizens more freedom, should be brought fully into the international fold, while their more strategically important but less democratic regional neighbors like Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Venezuela and Tunisia should be taken to task for repression and authoritarian behavior.

Tuesday’s events may thrust a new agenda into the world of international affairs. Topics hitherto vanquished to the margins at world summits should be at the forefront. Discussions of  government and business corruption, international criminal activity and transnational terrorist networks should supplant the traditional conversations about trade rules and monetary policy. Assessments of a country’s democratic credentials should become more important than measures of its liquidity or fiscal policy.

There are lessons to be learned from the events of September 11 for the much maligned international financial and trade institutions like the World Bank, IMF and WTO. When the values of liberal democracy are under attack, it would be fitting for the international institutions most associated with economic freedom to reflect those same liberal democratic values. Credit and trade policy should not be conditioned on economic factors alone. Human rights, free and fair elections and concerted action to address intolerance and religious fanaticism should be as important as a country’s fiscal standing when decisions are made in the World Bank’s boardroom.

Consistency and coordination among democratic nations when protecting the values we believe in will strip the terrorists of one of their most powerful weapons  the perception that many people in the poorer parts of the world have of hypocrisy and duplicity on the part of the democratic western powers. This strong sense of grievance helps give popular justification to religious fanatics and criminals when attacking symbols of western domination. Let’s take the hypocrisy excuse away from the terrorists by acting in concert with other democracies in consistently protecting and promoting our liberal democratic values with any country or region willing to embrace them.

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