[DOWNLOAD] "Mideast Revolutions and Diplomacy" by American Diplomacy ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Mideast Revolutions and Diplomacy
- Author : American Diplomacy
- Release Date : January 21, 2011
- Genre: Politics & Current Events,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 53 KB
Description
The events we have witnessed in Egypt during the past three weeks contain some lessons we should think about. The first lesson is: significant changes in a country's political system can best be brought about by the people of that country, not by outsiders. A revolution was accomplished by the efforts of the thousands of young Egyptians who were persistent in their demands, who were mature and peaceful, reacting with restraint to provocations, and who showed Mubarak and the army that they would not give up until he was gone. They were resourceful, providing medical care to the wounded, food and water to the demonstrators, and communication to the participants and the outside world, and they did it all without any help from foreigners. There have been many other examples of real political change coming from within rather than outside. When I was ambassador to Yemen, I had occasion to discuss democracy with Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Salih, who at the time (1986) rejected my advice and told me his one-party rule and authoritarian system was more appropriate for Yemen than America's multi-party democracy. Four years later, when Salih allowed multiple parties and a degree of press freedom, I asked him why he had changed his mind. He said he had discovered that there were opposition organizations underground in Yemen and he decided to allow them to operate openly where he could see them. He made a calculation to move democracy forward based on domestic political considerations, not my advice.