Bush just finished his keynote address at the 20th anniversary celebration of the National Endowment for Democracy. He used the term “forward strategy of freedom,” a term which sounds as though it might soon become a new foreign policy mantra. “The advance of freedom is the calling of our time,” Bush said. “It is the calling of our country.” Seems pretty clear from the speech that a “forward strategy of freedom” is not merely going to be a doctrine of passively and diplomatically suggesting democracy to despots.

The actual term is a nod to Reagan, who was a significant impetus in the development of the NED by pointing to the need “to foster the infrastructure of democracy–the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities–which allows a people to choose their own way, to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.”

Reagan used “forward strategy of freedom” in a speech in London on his way back to the U.S. from a 1988 meeting with Gorbachev:

On his way home from Moscow, Reagan got a victor’s welcome both in London and at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington. In an exceptionally eloquent speech Friday in London’s 550-year-old Guildhall, he pledged a “forward strategy of freedom” in dealing with Moscow, a “strategy of public candor about the moral and fundamental differences between statism and democracy, but also a strategy of vigorous diplomatic engagement.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2003 at 12:20 pm by Mystery Man and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.