PAWAC Reads: Spring 2018 Selection

PAWAC Reads discussed two books for their spring meeting. The first was Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom, by Condoleezza Rice. This selection was a memoir of Rice's term as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor during the Bush administration. A prominent focus was helping developing nations grow democracies. Successes included Poland, Tunisia, Colombia. Failures included Egypt.  The Iraq war demonstrated the difficulties growing democracy in a country with no such history; her analysis include the controversial decision to go to war and pitfalls in carrying it out. Despite huge resources allocated, Iraq remained a tenuous government.
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Rice’s memoirs show that democracy does not have a straight-line growth pattern. There are setbacks and failures along the way. Progress can be painfully slow and pockmarked with threats. She clearly feels that continuous attempts to move the world in this direction is necessary.

Foreign aid was discussed. Waste and fraud in the program has caused resistance to providing continued aid. Attempts to add accountability to aid has alleviated some of these concerns. PAWAC Reads discussed how in truth, the Foreign Aid program is less than 1% of our national budget and offers major humanitarian assistance,

The other book was How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. How Democracies Die points out how fragile democracy can be and how America’s democracy is not free of risk. Attacks on democratic institutions come in many forms. Leaders have tried to pack judicial courts or replace them, violated term limits, challenge the legitimacy of elections, denigrated political opponents, endorsed or accepted violence, threatened news media, and tolerated repressive measures elsewhere in the world. Other adverse developments include: replacement of mutual toleration and institutional forbearance with extreme partisanship, reciprocity and respect replaced by hostility. These developments have been coming for the past 30 years, but particularly so within the past decade.

A major concern PAWAC Reads discussed was the U.S. State Department, our current diplomatic staff, and a loss of communication with the rest of the world. Our influence is weakened. Our response to threats from the world include military and personal interactions from the White House, but we have little input from diplomatic staff, whose input at the State department is much needed.

The next Book Club will discuss a recently published book: War on Peace, by Ronan Farrow, July 29, Sunday, Peoria Public Library, North Branch.

Blog post provided by Michael Shekleton and adapted for web by Olivia Lu