Download or read book Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti written by Jeb Sprague and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this path-breaking book, Jeb Sprague investigates the dangerous world of right-wing paramilitarism in Haiti and its role in undermining the democratic aspirations of the Haitian people. Sprague focuses on the period beginning in 1990 with the rise of Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the right-wing movements that succeeded in driving him from power. Over the ensuing two decades, paramilitary violence was largely directed against the poor and supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas movement, taking the lives of thousands of Haitians. Sprague seeks to understand how this occurred, and traces connections between paramilitaries and their elite financial and political backers, in Haiti but also in the United States and the Dominican Republic. The product of years of original research, this book draws on over fifty interviews—some of which placed the author in severe danger—and more than 11,000 documents secured through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of Haiti today, and is a vivid reminder of how democratic struggles in poor countries are often met with extreme violence organized at the behest of capital.

Download or read book Promoting Democracy in the Americas written by Thomas F. Legler and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2007-09-09 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description

Download or read book Aiding Democracy Abroad written by Thomas Carothers and published by Carnegie Endowment. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aid to promote democracy abroad has emerged as a major growth industry in recent years. Not only the United States but many other Western countries, international institutions, and private foundations today use aid to support democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Though extensive in scope, these activities remain little understood outside the realm of specialists. Debates among policymakers over democracy promotion oscillate between unhelpful poles of extreme skepticism and unrealistic boosterism, while the vast majority of citizens in aid-providing countries have little awareness of the democracy-building efforts their governments sponsor. Aiding Democracy Abroad is the first independent, comprehensive assessment of this important new field. Drawing on extensive field research and years of hands-on experience, Thomas Carothers examines democracy-aid programs relating to elections, political parties, governmental reform, rule of law, civil society, independent media, labor unions, decentralization, and other elements of what he describes as "the democracy template" that policymakers and aid officials apply around the world. Steering a careful path between the inflated claims of aid advocates and the exaggerated criticisms of their opponents, Carothers takes a hard look at what such programs achieve and how they can be improved.

Download or read book Upholding Democracy written by John R. Ballard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1998-08-20 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inside account of the U.S. military operation to restore Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994, this study demonstrates progress made in joint warfighting in the period following the end of the Cold War, including improvements in command and control, joint force integration, and techniques for successful humanitarian operations.^L With ties to Haiti that date back over one hundred years, the United States could not stand by as a coup ousted Aristide in 1990. When the coup leaders refused to leave peacefully, forces authorized by the U.N. Security Council deployed toward Haiti. Diplomatic efforts by former President Carter, General Powell, and Senator Nunn eventually obtained the cooperation of coup leaders in the final hour, and on September 19, 1994, the first of over 50,000 U.S. military personnel arrived to ensure security, facilitate Aristide's return, and professionalize the Haitian security forces.^L General Henry Shelton, later the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commanded the joint task force that entered Haiti under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter during one of the few recent instances of U.N. intervention without the concurrence of the host nation. While the operation was unique, its innovations will benefit planners for decades as humanitarian actions around the world continue to be important. This book illustrates the challenges of remaining engaged in support of the United Nations and of conducting modern military operations, which are highly dependent on close interagency and multinational coordination.

Download or read book Moving Forward on Haiti written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Postconflict Elections Democratization and International Assistance written by Krishna Kumar and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 1998 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third in a series of publications coming out of the ongoing evaluation studies at USAID's Center for Development Information and Evaluation. Based on the hypothesis that elections in a postconflict setting are fundamentally different from those organized under normal circumstances, 13 contributions examine the planning, organization, conduct, and execution of such elections; the critical roles played by international donors; and the longer-term outcomes, particularly their impact on political and social reconciliation. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Democratic Transition and Human Rights written by Sara Steinmetz and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1994-05-24 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes U.S. foreign policy in relation to human rights and democratic development abroad. Its purpose is to determine if, and how, human rights policies, or their neglect, have led to Realpolitik successes for the United States. In addition, it addresses the issue of how Washington might best respond to challenges in which a choice apparently must be made between support for democracy and preservation of U.S. national interests. Through a comparative analysis of Iran under the Shah, Nicaragua under the Somozas, and the Philippines under Marcos, Steinmetz evaluates the effectiveness of American priorities in authoritarian states that were perceived to protect U.S. interests. Rejecting the policy prescriptions of the neoconservative and neorealist schools, she concludes that protection of human rights abroad is desirable, not because of its moral implications per se, but because of its positive contributions to the preservation of U.S. national interests.

Download or read book The Status of Democratic Transitions in Central America written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book American Foreign Policy Current Documents written by and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 952 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Capacity Building for Peacekeeping written by John T. Fishel and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-09 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A case study of an increasingly necessary "military operation other than war"

Download or read book The President s Foreign Assistance Budget Request for Fiscal Year 1999 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government written by Josh DeWind and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a nation of immigrants, the United States has long accepted that citizens who identify with an ancestral homeland may hold dual loyalties; yet Americans have at times regarded the persistence of foreign ties with suspicion, seeing them as a sign of potential disloyalty and a threat to national security. Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government brings together a group of distinguished scholars of international politics and international migration to examine this contradiction in the realm of American policy making, ultimately concluding that the relationship between diaspora groups and the government can greatly affect foreign policy. This relationship is not unidirectional—as much as immigrants make an effort to shape foreign policy, government legislators and administrators also seek to enlist them in furthering American interests. From Israel to Cuba and from Ireland to Iraq, the case studies in this volume illustrate how potential or ongoing conflicts raise the stakes for successful policy outcomes. Contributors provide historical and sociological context, gauging the influence of diasporas based on population size and length of time settled in the United States, geographic concentration, access to resources from their own members or through other groups, and the nature of their involvement back in their homelands. This collection brings a fresh perspective to a rarely discussed aspect of the design of US foreign policy and offers multiple insights into dynamics that may determine how the United States will engage other nations in future decades.

Download or read book Transitions and Consolidation of Democracy in Africa written by Samuel Ebow Quainoo and published by Global Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What conditions motivate a transition to democracy? Can the dynamics of a transition influence its outcome? Under what circumstances has democracy been consolidated in Africa? This trilogy of questions has become necessary in light of the current democratic wave engulfing Africa and the rest of the world. In examining the conditions that initiate democratic transitions, this book investigates the circumstances under which democracy movements have operated between 1980 and 1990. It concludes that, contrary to dominant democratic theory, the transitions to democracy in Africa have occurred under declining levels of development. With regard to transitions, the book recognizes that they have their own dynamics. Two main types of transitions are discerned: top-down and bottom-up. The book argues that in spite of the restrictive nature of top-down transitions, they offer a better opportunity for democratic consolidation because of the consensus between elites of the pro-democracy regime and their counterparts in the authoritarian regime, a condition that is normally absent under bottom-up transitions. Finally, relying on the cases of consolidated democracies, the book derives an African democracy model. The model delineates five main conditions that facilitate democratic consolidation, including good leadership, relevant political institutions, external support, civic space, and a reasonable level of development. It cautions, however, that these are not sufficient conditions, nor are all of them necessary. Since countries have unique historical circumstances, specific countries will have to combine conditions in the model that are relevant to that society to consolidate its democracy. The right combination will depend on the specific needs of the individual country.

Download or read book Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1997 and Fiscal Year 1998 International Affairs Budget Request written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Competitive Authoritarianism written by Steven Levitsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.

Download or read book The Political Crisis in Haiti written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Departments of Commerce Justice and State the Judiciary and related agencies appropriations for 1988 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 1128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: