Why Hasn't Liberal Democracy Worked in the Middle East? | The Agenda

What should the West do when a free democratic election in the Middle East produces a "bad" outcome, such as an Islamic fundamentalist leader the U.S and Canada abhors? Accept it, says acclaimed writer Shadi Hamid. Instead of demanding liberalism, and the human rights and social justice that comes with democracy, he says, we should separate the two and prioritize the form of government over the form of governing. Liberalism will develop later. Hamid describes the West's interventionalist blunders, and the uncertain future of promoting liberalism worldwide in his new book, "The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea."

00:00 Intro
00:36 Post Cold War: Why did the Middle East move to authoritarianism while Europe moved towards democracy?
01:55 Americans afraid of the Islamic fundamentalists Middle Eastern democracies might elect
02:11 U.S. supporting a two-state solution in Israel
03:15 Only 2% of people in Middle East/North Africa live in liberal democracies
04:08 Shadi in Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring; watching the dream die
05:00 America’s history of propping up Middle Eastern dictators
05:30 Obama officials saw the Arab Spring as a crisis
07:15 Democracy in the Middle East won't necessarily produce “English-speaking young liberal revolutionaries”
08:03 Obama got fed up with the Middle East
10:00 Trump, The Abraham Accords, and Israel
11:00 Trump vs. Obama on the Middle East
11:53 Democracy doesn't have to be "liberal"
13:36 Middle East will vote in religiously conservative leaders West doesn't like
14:36 Should the world accept the Taliban if they were elected
17:06 Why the West failed in Afghanistan
18:23 Did the West try to re-engineer Afghan culture?
19:34 West spending on gender programs in Afghanistan
20:42 America must stop focusing on "nation building"
20:53 Put pressure on countries to move away from autocracy
21:35 Why should Middle East have to depend on the West to create democracy?
23:44 Could China replace U.S. as the major player in the Middle East?
25:42 Has the U.S. completely given up on the Middle East?

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