Critical Mission: Essays on Democracy Promotion

by Thomas Carothers

Demand for practical knowledge and lessons about how the United States and other countries can more effectively promote democracy around the world has never been higher. This timely book by Thomas Carothers, one of the foremost authorities worldwide on democracy building, helps meet that need. Critical Mission draws together a wide-ranging set of Carothers's many seminal, widely cited essays, organized around four vital themes: the role of democracy promotion in U.S. foreign policy the core elements of democracy aid the state of democracy in the world the new U.S. push to promote democracy in the Middle East From puncturing myths about promoting civil society to sizing up the prospects for democracy in the Arab world, Carothers is consistently penetrating, incisive, and challenging to policymakers, democracy activists, and scholars alike.The book also includes the only up-to-date, comprehensive bibliography on democracy promotion.

297 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Thomas Carothers is an American lawyer and international relations scholar. His research focuses on international democracy support, democratization, and U.S. foreign policy. He is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he founded and currently co-directs the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program. He has also taught at several universities in the United States and Europe, including Central European University, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Nuffield College, Oxford.
Carothers has served in various senior management positions at the Carnegie Endowment, including as the interim president of the Endowment in 2021, and as senior vice president for studies for many years.