A deadline for dictators
Breaking the real axis of evil
written by Theodore S. Boone*

In his acclaimed book, Breaking the Real Axis of Evil, author and former US Ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer draws from statistical data, history and his own experiences to set aside “conventional wisdom” on how democracies should approach dictatorships, in addition to delineating his personal vision on a world without dictators. Palmer fervidly believes the time is now for democracies of the world to maintain a unified, proactive and focused effort to remove the world’s last 45 dictators by 2025. Breaking the Real Axis of Evil is a sweeping portrait of Palmer’s vision and a practical “how-to” handbook for those who seek to bring it to reality.

In “Breaking the Real Axis of Evil - How To Oust the World’s Last Dictators by 2025,” Palmer, whose tenure in Budapest as ambassador covered the period when the Iron Curtain fell, recounts events that took place during his time in Budapest. “The [US] embassy actively supported democratic change, so much so that (Hungarian) Foreign Minister Gyula Horn complained to Secretary of State James Baker. I was recalled to Washington and urged to moderate this activity. During a subsequent visit by President George Bush in the summer of 1989, I arranged for him to meet with the country’s leading democrats in my living room. Afterwards, Secretary Baker told me: ‘Mark, I know these are your friends, but they will never run this country.’ That was American conventional wisdom talking. The barbed wire had already come down along the Austrian border; four months later the Berlin Wall came down. My ‘friends’ won the election shortly thereafter. One of them, Viktor Orbán, later became prime minister of Hungary.”
Some would argue that although the promotion of democracy is a noble goal, realpolitik at times necessitates a non-adversarial relationship with certain dictatorships. Palmer disagrees vehemently, stating that dictatorships breed terrorism, genocide, war, famine, refugees, poverty, environmental degradation and corruption, and that “our moral interest in democracy coincides completely with our interest in security and prosperity.” Palmer argues that by aggressively promoting democracy we are not only doing the “right thing,” but are creating a better place for ourselves as well.

The grand strategy
But how to achieve Palmer’s goal of a world without dictators by 2025? The author sets down a detailed and well-crafted blueprint. Local democratic forces within dictatorships should be the driving force: assisted, advised and inspired from the outside. Palmer believes that democracies outside dictatorships must do much more to encourage and protect democratic forces struggling for freedom within dictatorships, and that a recently formed multilateral organization known as the Community of Democracies should be at center stage in this process. The Community of Democracies, founded in June 2000, comprises, among others, the world’s largest democracies of India and the United States as well as Poland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, South Korea, Mali, South Africa, Chile and Mexico. Palmer argues that the central purpose of the Community of Democracies should be to “develop, adopt, and pursue a grand strategy to unseat the remaining dictators.” The author notes that certain members of the Community of Democracies are hesitant to take a position that suggests it is acceptable to interfere in the internal affairs of other states. However, notes Palmer, it is a feasible goal to seek consensus among the Community of Democracies that the nonviolent resistance of those living under tyranny is an appropriate means to achieve freedom. Palmer, who cites both Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as inspirations, does not take the view that the struggle for democracy should in all cases be a nonviolent one. He claims that in certain instances the use of force should be considered. “World War II and the wars in the former Yugoslavia,” he states, “also suggests that, contrary to common wisdom, force should not always be considered a last resort. Delayed reaction can make intervention more difficult by giving the dictator time to consolidate power, further develop weapons of mass destruction, and cause more deadly havoc.” Palmer argues that an expanding NATO, operating out of its traditional geographic area, is an entity that would be appropriate to apply force if needed.

The call for action
Sanctions, the author states, should be targeted against dictators, and not populations as a whole. The objective of sanctions should be the removal of the dictator. The most powerful sanction, writes Palmer, is an international call for the dictator to resign, and he believes that dictatorship itself must be recognized as a crime against humanity. With respect to the United States specifically, Palmer calls for an increase in the budget for democracy promotion and the creation of a senior-level presidential appointee - a deputy secretary of state for democracy - whose sole responsibility is America’s promotion of democracy abroad. Palmer, presumably drawing in part on his private sector experience as a venture capitalist active in newly democratic countries, proposes that major multinational corporations establish a “Business Community for Democracy,” which would mandate democracy for the functioning and success of business. He proposes that each of its member firms agree to support nonviolent groups and movements in all 45 dictatorships so as to achieve democracy by 2025. A USD 10 billion fund should also be created to do so. Palmer states that the ambassadors and embassies of democratic countries located in dictatorships should take active roles in promoting democracy. “The shrinking global sea of tyranny,” he states, “is dotted with islands of freedom. These are the embassies of the democratic world.” Drawing on his own approach as an “activist ambassador” during Hungary’s transition to democracy (which included participating in a pro-democracy demonstration for freedom in Budapest in March 1989), the author states that ambassadors can become high profile “local political actors” in the promotion of democracy, publicly supporting indigenous democrats within a dictatorship through such means as attending pro-democracy demonstrations. Ambassador Palmer proposes that the cultural centers of democratic embassies operating under dictatorships should offer free cyber cafes with uncensored Internet access for locals, and that the feasibility of electronic news boards across the top of well-located embassy buildings (a la the electronic news ticker in New York’s Times Square) should also be considered. The author argues that non-governmental organizations should focus on supporting indigenous democrats. Here, Palmer singles out George Soros for particular praise, stating that Soros “deserves a Nobel Prize for his pioneering efforts to promote civil society and democratic governance in Eastern Europe and points beyond.”

Talk to dictators!
The author also addresses maintaining direct dialogue with a dictator on certain occasions. He states that such dialogue must be focused on democracy and the concept that the dictator give up power. Part of any discussion with a dictator, he writes, should concentrate on a dictator’s concerns for survival. Here, Palmer recounts the fears related to him by Hungary’s communist General Secretary Károly Grósz during the waning days of the communist party’s hold over Hungary: “Károly Grósz said to me, pointing out his office window, ‘They will hang me from that lamppost.’“ Palmer states that such fears, which are a natural corollary to dictatorship, should be used to encourage the resignation of dictators. He also notes that a relationship with dictators and their cohorts can provide other practical benefits in the push for democracy. In this regard, Palmer notes that during his tenure in Budapest “The communist leaders and I were close enough that I could talk with them about whether the most repulsive organization in the country, the Munkás Térség (Workers Militia) would issue bullets to its cadre for a major demonstration in March 1989.”

A practical guide
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil is packed with creative thinking on the practicalities of how to promote democracy and the confluence of forces that can be brought to bear to remove a dictator. The examples above constitute only a few of the tactics Palmer delineates. The book also includes a chapter discussing each of the last remaining 45 dictators Palmer has identified, as well as a chapter setting forth a concrete “Action Agenda” to use in moving the author’s proposals forward. The book is both well organized and elegantly written, as one might expect since the author’s experience includes serving as a speechwriter for three US presidents and six US secretaries of state.
There are certain topics that the author of Breaking the Real Axis of Evil could have explored in greater detail. These topics include whether dictators should be allowed to resign and go into exile in the face of democratic opposition rather than be tried for crimes against humanity, and how current democracies can be prevented from slipping into dictatorship. In the acknowledgments to Breaking the Real Axis of Evil, Palmer says his book is “my manifesto” and indeed it is. The author calls for a seismic reorientation of democracies’ approach to dictators. He provides his readers with clearly defined goals, a world free of dictators by 2025, and sets forth cogent arguments, moral and practical, for pursuing such goals.

* Theodore S. Boone is assistant general counsel at Ernst & Young LLP, based in Washington, D.C. Views set forth in this book review do not necessarily represent Ernst & Young LLP views or any other person.