March/April 2020 49
STEPHEN D. KRASNER is Graham H. Stuart
Professor of International Relations at Stanford
University and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman
Spogli Institute for International Studies and
the Hoover Institution. He is the author of How
to Make Love to a Despot: An Alternative Foreign
Policy for the Twenty-first Century (Liveright,
2020), from which this article is adapted.
Copyright © 2020 by Stephen D. Krasner.
Learning to Live
With Despots
The Limits of Democracy
Promotion
Stephen D. Krasner
T
hroughout its history, the United
States has oscillated between
two foreign policies. One aims
to remake other countries in the Ameri-
can image. The other regards the rest o
the world as essentially beyond repair.
According to the second vision, Wash-
ington should demonstrate the bene¥ts
o consolidated democracy—free and fair
elections, a free press, the rule o law,
the separation o powers, and an active
civil society—but not seek to impose
those things on other countries. The
George W. Bush administration took the
¥rst approach. The Obama administra-
tion took the second, as has the Trump
administration, choosing to avoid actively
trying to promote freedom and democ-
racy in other countries.
Both strategies are, however, deeply
awed. The conceit that the United
States can turn all countries into consoli-
dated democracies has been disproved
over and over again, from Vietnam to
Afghanistan to Iraq. The view that
Washington should oer a shining
example but nothing more fails to appre-
ciate the dangers o the contemporary
world, in which groups and individuals
with few resources can kill thousands or
even hundreds o thousands o Ameri-
cans. The United States cannot ¥x the
world’s problems, but nor does it have
the luxury o ignoring them.
Washington should take a third course,
adopting a foreign policy that keeps the
country safe by working with the rulers
the world has, not the ones the United
States wishes it had. That means adopt-
ing policies abroad that can improve
other states’ security, boost their economic
growth, and strengthen their ability to
deliver some services while nevertheless
accommodating a despotic ruler. For the
purposes o U.S. security, it matters
more that leaders in the rest o the world
govern well than it does that they
govern democratically. And in any case,
helping ensure that others govern
well—or at least well enough—may be the
best that U.S. foreign policy can hope to
achieve in most countries.THE WAY WE LIVED THEN
Homo sapiens has been around for about
8,000 generations, and for most o that
time, life has been rather unpleasant.
Life expectancy began to increase around
1850, just seven generations ago, and
accelerated only after 1900. Prior to that
point, the average person lived for
around 30 years (although high infant
mortality explained much o this ¥gure);
today, life expectancy is in the high 70s
or above for wealthy countries and
approaching 70 or more for many poor
ones. In the past, women—rich and poor
alike—frequently died in childbirth.COME HOME, AMERICA?