Emma Sky is a Spring 2011 Fellow at the Institute of Politics. From 2007 to 2010, she was Political Advisor to General Raymond Odierno in Iraq. She previously advised the NATO Commanding Generals in Iraq.
Harvard Political Review: What role should the outside world, especially the U.S., play in supporting recent revolutions in the Middle East?
Emma Sky: I think it’s a unique opportunity for America to redefine its relations with the Middle East, and not just country-by-country, but to have a grand strategic approach. We live in a world which is very interdependent, so it’s very good that we’re not seeing the U.S. going it alone. It’s good to see the President building up coalitions, but I have yet to see that really intellectual sense of recognizing we’re in a different era now. How do we change the way we approach these countries? How do we help build their capacities? How do we help them access economic opportunities? I can see many, many opportunities, but I can also see many threats.
HPR: How will this strategy be determined?
ES: You can think of those great brains in the past like Kissinger who actually came up with a grand strategic approach, who actually stood back and looked at America’s position in the world. I think there’s a great opportunity here for really good thinking. We’ve seen the neoconservatives, the very militarized foreign policy. This is an opportunity for, say, a liberal version of our interaction with the rest of the world. I’ve not seen anybody thinking big thoughts on this, but you hope that some people are. This is a really exciting opportunity for a new doctrine, a new approach, a new something to define the world that we live in.
HPR: How do you see the idea of American exceptionalism playing into all of this?
ES: American exceptionalism can be a blessing, and it can be a curse. It’s a curse when America believes that there’s only one version of modernity, and it’s America, that everyone else just wants to be like America, and we can help them be like America. Where it’s a blessing is that it creates goodwill among Americans to help others. America’s power can be other peoples’ humiliation. But America’s generosity can be other peoples’ saving. And so it’s crucial to get the right mixture.
HPR: What will happen after the revolutions? Will the results be favorable to the U.S.?
ES: I expect these are not going to be quick revolutions. Egypt and Tunisia have probably got the best chances of moving in a positive direction because of the institutions which are there and the civil society. Other countries don’t have the building blocks. Yemen or Libya might be five, ten, fifteen years of instability, or there might be a coup in which another strong man comes to power. So it’s difficult to tell. I think we should be thinking of the potential for instability for a while to come. There’s going to be this natural evolution that is going to happen, and some of it might come out well, and some of it might not.
HPR: What do you think we should be trying to achieve in these situations?
ES: You know, democracy doesn’t come just like that. It takes a while. And these countries have their own development path, and their own vision of where they want to go. Where it’s aligned with ours, we can support them in the right way, not tell them what they should be doing, but help support. At the end of the day, we don’t want to be thought of any more as the great Satan who propped up corrupt regimes. We want to be thought of as a country that lived by its values to genuinely support justice and dignity.
Henry Shull ‘13 is the Publisher. This interview has been condensed and edited.