Coming in from the Cold. Gli Stati Uniti d’America e la promozione della democrazia: dalla Guerra Fredda al nuovo millennio

Abstract

Democracy promotion – or democracy assistance – has always represented a fil rouge in U.S. foreign policy. At least since the beginning of the 20th century, the United States has used such issue in its global and regional agenda. Despite during the Cold War the quest for national and international security in a bipolar world system restricted the role of democracy promotion as an autonomous feature in US foreign policy, since the ’90s the promotion of democracy has been growing steadily. In fact, democracy promotion became a distinguishing feature in both the “Clinton doctrine” and George W. Bush’s foreign policy after the 9\11 attacks. Although, under Obama, US democracy promotion has experienced a consistent re-orientation, it has not disappeared from the US global agenda. This article aims to show the evolution of US democracy promotion, in particular from the Cold War bipolar world to the multipolar system of the 21th century: from both a theoretical and practical perspective, democracy promotion has gone through different phases and evolutions but it is still vividly alive within US foreign policy.