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The promotion of 'democracy' abroad has been a feature of US foreign policy since the earlier part of the twentieth century, accompanying its rise as an international actor. It provided the ideological basis for its opposition to rivals in the form of imperialism, fascism and then communism. The end of the Cold War, which signalled the emergence of the US as the sole superpower, accelerated this process. With the ideological fusion of democracy and capitalism credited in large measure for the defeat of communism and the state-planned economy, the promotion of democracy alongside capitalism as the only viable, legitimate mode of governance emerged as an increasingly important component of US foreign policy. Countries as diverse as the Philippines, Chine and Poland have all been subject to US democracy promotion initiatives. In the Middle East though, the US traditionally engaged authoritarian governments as a means of ensuring its core interests in the region. However the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the G.W. Bush administration's perception of the Middle East's 'democratic deficit' as the underlying cause, initiated a significant departure in the traditional direction of US foreign policy. Democracy promotion subsequently emerged as a central tenet of US policy to the Middle East. This book argues that, as part of the strategy of democracy promotion in the Middle East, the US has sought to gradually replace proxy authoritarian governments with elite-based democracies. From a neo-Gramscian perspective, this strategic shift can be seen as a move from coercive to consensual forms of social control, the underlying aim being to ensure a more enduring form of stability in the states concerned. This is part of a long-term US strategy, evidenced prior in other regions such as Latin America, which ultimately aims at the achievement of a Gramscian hegemony; that is the internalisation by other societies of the US's interpretation of 'democracy' as the natural order. Utilising an analytical framework derived from the neo-Gramscian approach, the book focuses in main on the Clinton (1993-2001) and G. W. Bush (2001-2009) administrations, using the case studies of Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait to deconstruct the US strategy of democracy promotion in the Middle East.

DEMOCRATIZATION--MIDDLE EAST --- DEMOCRATIZATION--USA --- USA--FOREIGN RELATIONS--MIDDLE EAST --- MIDDLE EAST--FOREIGN RELATIONS--USA