ABSTRACT
Promoting democracy can never be the sole purpose of American foreign policy, and at times it will clearly recede as the US pursues urgent and seemingly competing national security concerns. One of the biggest mistakes the global democracy promotion community has made over the last 30 years is to cross too many countries off the list of democracy assistance recipients too quickly. The expanding practice of public diplomacy represents American society to the host society through a variety of public appeals, programs that project democratic models, and moral support to democratic forces. When many Americans see the words 'promoting democracy', they think: 'imposing democracy'. At the extreme end of the range of instruments for promoting democracy is imposing it by force. Yet the people and organizations that work to advance and strengthen democracy around the world think of 'democracy promotion' mainly as 'democracy assistance'.
