By Brendan O’Reilly
A former U.S. ambassador to Egypt questioned the government’s foreign policy initiatives at a lecture on Monday.
“I would suggest that we need to focus on killing terrorists instead of building democracies,” said Daniel Kurtzer, a visiting professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University.
Kurtzer sought to explain why he believes the Middle East has not experienced much change. He said globalization has passed by the Middle East, citing his experience as the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt during the second half of the Clinton administration.
“Can we really say after five or six years of a major effort to stimulate democratic growth that a political culture of democracy is growing in this region?” Kurtzer asked.
He said the Egyptians told him they believed globalization was an invention by the Northern industrialized nations to keep the non-industrialized countries underdeveloped.
Kurtzer said Middle Eastern countries’ focus on the oil industry limits their industrial growth and said they should expand their operations into new forms of energy.
“The Middle East now has in windfall profits the capability of becoming the research and development stimulator,” Kurtzer said.
Most of the students who asked Kurtzer questions after his lecture challenged the ambassador’s beliefs.
“Personally, I’m a big fan of democracy promotion,” law student Howie Slugh said. He asked Kurtzer how the U.S. could expect to fight terrorists in Iran and Syria without having the cooperation of democratic governments. Kurtzer suggested a multilateral approach and cutting off the financial support of terrorists.
“I think anything other than democracy promotion is doomed to fail,” Slugh said.
Law student David Simon said he did not agree with many of Kurtzer’s answers when the ambassador fielded questions from students, but thought Kurtzer was a “polished speaker” who came well prepared.
Provost Herman Berliner said he hoped the students in attendance left with an understanding of how complex the issues are in the Middle East and that there probably is an approach that will work to make progress in the region.
The lecture was part of the University Presidential Scholars Series and was co-sponsored by the Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Program and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.