Democracy from above: Regional Organizations and Democratization by Jon C. PevehouseReview by: G. John IkenberryForeign Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2005), p. 132Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20034358 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 08:09

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.162 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 08:09:09 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recent Books

and underfunded (U.S. nation-building missions, in contrast, tend to be launched with more ambitious mandates in more difficult circumstances) but encouragingly conclude that the UN'S low-profile, small footprint approach to nation building has succeeded more often than it has failed and is remarkably cost-effective-offering a promising framework for peacekeeping in the future.

Democracy From Above: Regional Organizations and Democratization. BY JON C. PEVEHOUSE. Cambridge

University Press, 2005, 262 pp. $75.oo (paper, $29.99).

Given that U.S. presidents from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush have made the promotion of democracy a central tenet of foreign policy, the lack of systematic knowledge about international influences on democratization is surprising. In this usefuil study, a political scientist explores the role of regional organizations in transitions to and the consolidation of democracy.

Regional organizations, he shows, can pressure post-authoritarian governments to implement democratic reforms by pro viding reassurances to elites that property rights and commitments to free trade will be honored, socializing the military not to intervene in democratic processes, and providing international legitimacy for reformers. In fact, Pevehouse's statistical tests establish connections between mem

bership in a highly democratic regional organization and the probability of a democratic transition-a conclusion confirmed by his case studies. Hungary's experience shows how NATO and the Council of Europe helped reassure and circumscribe military elites and facilitate economic assistance, and Turkey's turn

toward liberalization after the 1980 military coup was encouraged by the European Community. Pevehouse thus lends support to the view that active and enlightened regional organizations are critical partners in democracy promotion.

The Global Resurgence ofReligion and the Transformation oflnternational Relations: The Strugglefor the Soul of the Twenty-first Century. BY SCOTT THOMAS. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 320 pp. $75.oo (paper, $24.95).

The global resurgence of religion has been widely noted, and this book provides a thoughtful reflection on its implications for Western ideas about modernity and international relations. The conventional view is that the upsurge in fundamentalism, particularly in the Middle East, reflects a stalled transition to modernity, giving

militants an ideological kinship with previous antiliberal and antimodernist movements. Thomas, in contrast, asserts that the revival of religion-including among evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians in the developed world-is part of a more wide-ranging global phenomenon that represents a crisis of modernity itself. The grand narrative of Western progress is under challenge, and a search for "authenticity" is under

way inside and outside the West, with communities of the faithful seeking to refashion political life in line with moral and religious values. This provocative claim is never convincingly established, but Thomas' more general point is well taken: Western scholars and policy

makers need to rethink how the potent mix of religion, nationalism, and global ization is wreaking havoc on old traditions of diplomacy, development, and Western

[132] FOREIGN AFFAIRS Volume84No.3

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.162 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 08:09:09 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions