Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, US policy makers exerted great energy and political capital celebrating the virtues of civil society and democratization. Policies were crafted around particularly American notions of liberal democratic society, emphasizing individual rights, political participation, economic liberalization, and the rule of law. Policy makers were willing to fund a broad range of programs, implemented by a wide variety of American NGOs that would inculcate these values in the people of newly liberated states. Fifteen years on, however, many of these programs have failed to provide results consistent with these American ideals. The underlying question of this study, then, asks if the hegemony of the American democratic discourse actually impedes democratic transitions by failing to address individual security as a crucial component of democratic transitions. The study utilizes a feminist constructivist approach to address a gap in the IR and foreign policy literatures, namely, the consequences of American domination in the discourse of international democratic enlargement and the importance of individual security within this larger context. This paper examines US-sponsored political integration programs in three states in democratic transition, Estonia, Moldova, and Belarus. I explore efforts to draw women into civil society through programs centered on women's political participation, but hypothesize that these efforts may be based upon notions of democratization and gender identity that do not adequately address the realities of women's lives and the reality of local needs, thus impeding democratization efforts. Using discourse and content analysis of official US policy statements, I examine the original intent of US democratization policies towards the three states. Interviews and surveys are then used to analyze the effectiveness of American values and assumptions upon the implementation of these policies by American sponsored NGOs.