ABSTRACT
The US has assumed a dominant role in the Middle East since the end of the Second World War. This chapter examines the formulation and implementation of the strategy of democracy promotion in the Middle East under the Clinton and G. W. Bush administrations. The Clinton administration's championing of economic reform in the Middle East, a precursor to the Bush administration's more direct emphasis on political reform, contributes to the strategy of democracy promotion and the pursuit of hegemony. The Bush administration's basal conceptualisation of the strategy of democracy promotion was outlined in a confidential working paper entitled the Greater Middle East Initiative (GMEI). Although later moderated in its realised form of Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA), the GMEI paper provides an unadulterated insight into the Bush administration's mindset, attempts to democratise the Middle East. The resilient, prevalent nature of authoritarianism in the Middle East evidences the limited progress of the US strategy of democracy promotion.
