Though President Bush remains convinced that across the Middle East a consensus has emerged for political, economic, and social change, at the end of the December meeting, Moroccan Foreign Minister affirmed "the sovereign right for each country within its sovereign unity and territorial sovereignty to promote its democratic, political, social and cultural systems very freely, according to the UN Charter and the principles of non-intervention in internal affairs and peaceful settlement of conflicts and good neighbourhood." Colin Powell, representing the US, agreed with his Moroccan counterpart by saying that "now is not the time to argue about the pace of democratic reform or whether economic reform must precede political reform." This toning down of the impatient American drive for political reform in the Middle East and North Africa has been attributed by political analyst Daniel Neep in no small part due to successive fiascos in Iraq, including the fall out from Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Added elements were international condemnation of Anglo-American invasion of Iraq and global unease over Bush policy of pre-emption to prevent probable threats of aggression. Despite Colin Powell's call for international partnership and his reiteration of the importance of the UN's role in global affairs, President Bush's conviction that "Middle Eastern exceptionalism" should not be tolerated any longer remains deeply anchored in the US foreign and defence policies. Given Condoleezza Rice's record as National Security Advisor, a change of guard at the State Department should not hold out any promise of mellowed policy in the second Bush administration.

On the heels of the brutal onslaught of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration's policy makers decided upon democratisation as the key factor that could deflect and blunt the sharp edges of terror. Congruent to this policy was the belief that democracies do not wage war against other democracies. The validity of this hypothesis lies in the fact that in a democracy one person or a small group cannot launch a war. The legal and constitutional procedure that a democratic government has to abide by, and the popular support a democratic government has to carry for waging and continuing a war, makes the job of undertaking a war an extremely difficult proposition. The international community may scrutinise war by a dictator or an oligarchy but war by a democratic government is also scrutinised by the people of the country. Hence President Bush's aversion to "Middle East exceptionalism" and his fundamental rupture with decades of failed US policy in the Middle East due to US willingness, in his words, "to make bargain, to tolerate oppression for the sake of stability" which in the long run proved elusive because peace and stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty.

One must admit that for decades western scholars firmly believed that the Islamic world in general and the Middle Eastern countries in particular were impervious to democratic values, because in their eyes Quaranic literalism was incompatible with libertarian values but comfortable with authoritarianism and religious orthodoxy. Princeton Professor Bernard Lewis' enquiry into the theological origin of political Islam and the rise of Islamic militancy partly contributed to western misconception about Islamic teachings.. Lewis' great intellect found appropriate contestant in Columbia University Professor Edward Said who accused Lewis of furthering his political agenda under the cloak of scholarship. In the course of Said's relentless defence of the oppressed Palestinians his thinking led him to conclude years before President Bush's two nation solution of the Palestinian imbroglio that a just solution of the problem lies in global recognition (in opposition to then PLO official policy) of two states existing side by side in Israel and the occupied lands. Though realism dictated that some such solution be adopted to break out of the "iron circle of inhumanity" Edward Said's espousal of the two states solution testifies to his intellectual courage and political acumen.

Articulation of the concept to deny "democratic exception" given to autocrats dictated by raison d'etat during the cold war and for easy acquisition of oil and safeguarding military installations had been voiced even before the first Bush administration.

But the translation of this theory into reality was left to President Bush .In one of his speeches President Bush recognised Middle Eastern people's "need for freedom as deep as our own. It is not realism to suppose that one fifth of humanity is unsuited to liberty, it is pessimism and condescension and we should have none of it." Western realisation of the need for democracy to fight the war on terror was embedded in many western scholars' belief that the absence of Christian doctrine of rendering unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God which are God's in Islam made the Muslims at once a political and religious community and therefore at variance with the essence of liberal thought. Bernard Lewis pointed this out in his book Crisis of Islam. Lewis underlined the dichotomy of regnum and sacerdotium (temporal and sacramental) so crucial in Christianity has no equivalence in Islam. If the separation of religion and the state is not needed and sovereignty lies not in the people but in divinity, it has been argued, then the resultant form of government becomes theocracy or some other form of authoritarianism but certainly not participatory democracy.

If the non-western world is divided into fundamentalist, traditionalist, modernist, and secularist camps, then the western efforts should be directed towards assisting the modernists and secularists who support inclusion into global modernity and relegation of religion to private sphere. Such efforts are not only Herculean but time-consuming as well. It is therefore easily understood why both the June G-8 Summit and the Morocco Forum for the Future have pledged generational commitment to democratic and economic upliftment of the Broader Middle East and North African region.

Given widespread belief in the western world that Islam's current crisis is due to its failure to thrive and connect to the global mainstream due to the Muslim world's long period of backwardness and comparative powerlessness, the Bush administration's Greater Middle East Initiative and G-8's commitment to BMENA are noteworthy. In the ultimate analysis, however, if global convulsions are to be minimised and threats from non-state actors are to be eliminated, then the root causes fuelling the convulsions have to be addressed. These root causes are well known. What is lacking is the political will of the Prometheus to display his sincerity to many skeptics that he is willing to solve the problems. It is crystal clear that the prosperity of the First World is inextricably linked with the socio-economic and political developments of the Third and the Fourth Worlds.

Kazi Anwarul Masud is a former Secretary and Ambassador.