Supporting the rule of law in other countries should be a priority of U.S. assistance and foreign policy, but a comprehensive strategy needs to be defined to guide development programming, experts said at a Wilson Center event.
Called “Rule of Law, a Linchpin of U.S. Foreign Policy,” the May 22 event featured a keynote address and Q&A with U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Cardin remarked that the United States must be an international leader in advancing rule of law around the world.
The panelists agreed that rule of law development requires programs that can quickly adapt to sudden changes in the political landscape, such as the cycle of elected officials. Programming should be developed with a local focus, including considering traditional or indigenous justice systems, and cognizant of local challenges, they said.
Panelist William Pomeranz, a Russia expert and Deputy Director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, said the legacy of Russian and Soviet Union rule over the Ukraine has left it with few national institutions to drive rule of law.
Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and South Asia Senior Associate for the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, pointed out that the profitable drug trade in Afghanistan detracts from public will to see rule of law strengthened.
Murphy, who has extensive experience in Latin America, noted that in that region, rising levels of violence and crime due to gangs and other groups have hindered the work of justice sector institutions.
She said that while progress has been made over the past decades, the recent “democratic backsliding” in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia is alarming.
“There’s no silver bullet for rule of law development work,” Murphy said, noting that it can take decades for reform to be fully institutionalized. “Citizen security measures will need to better linked or incorporated into rule of law programs, since crime prevention is one half of the coin before an individual enters into the criminal justice system as an accused.”