Learning to Live With DespotsMarch/April 2020 55
the United States should give it because
it helps individuals and not because it
will lead to good government.
Washington can succeed only i its
policies align with the interests o local
rulers; in most cases, those rulers will
be despots. Tolerating them and even
cooperating with them may be anath-
ema to many Americans. But the
alternatives—hubristically trying to
remake the world in the image o the
United States or pretending that
Washington can simply ignore leaders it
dislikes—would be even worse.∂whether they can maintain eective
security within their borders. The United
States should support these leaders with
security assistance. Local elites might
also accept help from Washington that
would result in improvements in public
services, especially health care, because
better public health might mean more
popular support. Finally, rulers in
despotic regimes might accept assistance
in boosting economic growth, provided
that such growth does not threaten their
own hold on power.
The question is how to provide such
assistance. Outside actors have di¾culty
suggesting reforms because they have
their own interests and only limited
knowledge o local conditions. A more
realistic approach that can achieve good
enough governance would start with a
series o practical questions. For exam-
ple, U.S. policymakers should be asking
i the government o¤ Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is inclusive and
competent enough to establish stability,
not whether the general came to power
through a coup. I the answer is yes,
then the United States should support
Egypt’s security forces, help strengthen
the regime’s provision o public health
services, and open U.S. markets to at
least some Egyptian exports.
Similar considerations should guide
U.S. policy elsewhere. For example,
Washington should be asking i there
are local leaders in Afghanistan and Iraq
who could provide stability, regardless
o their past sins or how they might
have come to power. The United States
should acknowledge that there is little
it can do to alter the political systems
in China and Russia, despotic states
with strong central governments.
Humanitarian aid is a good thing, but