Thread by @McFaul

George Shultz is rightly best known for how he and Reagan engaged Gorbachev and Shevardnadze to help end the Cold War. Shultz is less well known for how he helped to nudge autocratic allies out of power. THREAD 1/

.@adesnik and I wrote about these cases -- the Philippines, Chile, and South Korea -- in "Engaging Autocratic Allies to Promote Democracy" @TWQgw
The Washington Quarterly, Volume 29, Number 2, Spring 2006, pp. 7-26. 2/

Reagan and Shultz's use of coercive power to try to overthrow communist regimes did not work. The so-called "Reagan Doctrine" did not lead to democracy in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, or Nicaragua. 3/

I wrote about that strategy in "Rethinking the "Reagan Doctrine" in Angola," @Journal_IS , International Security,
Vol. 14, No. 3 (Winter, 1989-1990), pp. 99-135. jstor.org/stable/2538933… 4/

U.S. policymakers & analysts should study all three of these Reagan era strategies for trying to promote democracy-- (1) engagement of enemies, (2) engagement of allies, and (3) coercive pressure on enemies -- & not just cherry pick this history. 5/

Important lessons for dealing with China, Russia, Iran, as well as American autocratic allies. For a deeper dive, no better book that Shultz' "Turmoil and Triumph." amazon.com/Turmoil-Triump… 6/

Shultz's memoir is 1184 pages. For a shorter summary of these cases, see my “Engaging Autocrats (and Democrats) to Facilitate Democratic Transitions,” in Alexander Lennon, ed. Democracy in U.S. Security Strategy, (Washington: CSIS, 2009), pp. 75-96.
amazon.com/Democracy-U-S-… 7/ END