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JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: THE FORTUNE COOKIE GAME. Matt intervenes in the ongoing democracy debate. To Matt, democracy, human rights, liberal reforms -- they're all great. The real issue isn't the policy objective, but the method of achieving it:
There's a game that kids (and, OK, me too) like to play with the fortune cookies you get at Chinese restaurants. Read the fortune, but append the phrase "in bed" to whatever it says. Hilarity ensues. The game illustrates that in fortune-telling, as in everything else, context matters. A couple of additional context-setting words transform platitudes into dirty jokes. Much the same could be said of the ongoing debate about the role of democracy promotion in American foreign policy...Read the whole thing here.The way I see it, there's less to this dispute than meets the eye. The real problem is what's missing -- those crucial additional words that determine context. And context makes all the difference. From my perspective, you can take any of these proposals -- "let's promote x," "let's promote y" -- and add the phrase "through legitimate international institutions and mechanisms of international law" and it's all to the good. Absent that phrase, it's not so good...
--The Editors
