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Nota Bene: Dictatorships and Double-Standards

C2C Journal
November 19, 2012
Why too much idealism in foreign affairs was a mistake in 1979 and a mistake now.
Stories

Nota Bene: Dictatorships and Double-Standards

C2C Journal
November 19, 2012
Why too much idealism in foreign affairs was a mistake in 1979 and a mistake now.
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In 1979, Jeane Kirkpatrick, a Georgetown professor and until then, a lifelong Democrat, published a famous essay in Commentary. Kirkpatrick argued that the Carter administration’s policy of undermining autocrats friendly to the West did not, as intended, produce regimes that respected human rights. Instead, we ended up with the Ayatollah in Iran. Thirty-three years later, C2C Journal highlights that essay and with it this obvious question: Are idealistic Western policies and general hopes for the Arab world doomed to disappointment once again?  See  Dictatorships and Double-Standards from Commentary.

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