“Does Democracy Matter?” A BookTalk on FPRI’s Recent Book Publication

• June 7, 2017

The Foreign Policy Research Institute will be holding a BookTalk on its recently published book, Does Democracy Matter?: The United States and Global Democracy Support (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), on Monday, June 19 at 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the FPRI library. To register for this event, please contact Rachel Hemler at rhemler@fpri.org or at (215) 732-3774 ext. 112 or register online.

The BookTalk will feature a panel of three of the book’s contributors, Amb. Adrian Basora, Richard Kraemer, and Nikolas K. Gvosdev. The discussion will be moderated by co-editor Maia Otarashvili.

“At a time when authoritarianism seems to be trending,” said FPRI President Alan Luxenberg, “this evaluation of democracy promotion is more essential than ever before.”

This book is a culmination of 12 years of research conducted by the FPRI Project on Democratic Transitions. Over the past decade, dozens of scholars in the project paid particular attention to issues of democratization, analyzing transformations in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia (CEEE).

The discussion on June 19 will cover a range of views on democratization. One panelist will present views as to why “hard” security interests should be prioritized over democracy promotion, while another will make the case for why democracy promotion is in itself a strategic interest. The third panelist will sketch out the policy conclusions of the book.

Eleven authors contributed to the volume, edited by Amb. Basora, Otarashvili, and Agnieszka Marczyk. Does Democracy Matter? examines the available knowledge regarding issues of post-authoritarian democratization and transformation as well as new research that will help the world better understand both democratization efforts and authoritarian pushback in today’s context.

Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace adds that “this collection of focused, insightful essays by top experts is well-timed. The editors advance important recommendations for doing better, persuasively arguing that democracy promotion must adapt to the challenging global context if it is to survive.”

The publication of Does Democracy Matter? was made possible by the generous support of the Leo Model Foundation and the Cotswold Foundation.

FPRI is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank located in Center City Philadelphia. Its mission is to bring the insights of scholarship to bear on the foreign policy and national security challenges facing the United States. It seeks to educate the public, teach teachers, train students, and offer ideas to advance U.S. national interests based on a nonpartisan, geopolitical perspective that illuminates contemporary international affairs through the lens of history, geography, and culture.