Engagement vs Aggression

An interesting article about Turkey and its possible invitation to join the EU in the New York Review of Books posits that we could all learn a bit about how to go about bringing stability and democracy to the Middle East from the example set here:

December's vote will be as much about Europe as about Turkey. It is a chance for Europeans to confront their fear of outsiders, and to emerge from centuries of hostility and suspicion directed against the Muslim world. The prospect of EU membership is a principal reason why Turkey is now moving so resolutely toward full democracy, which means that Europe has already had a very positive effect on Turkish life. This is a welcome example of how democratic countries can use their influence to promote the cause of freedom abroad. "While the hard power of the United States is destroying Iraq," Sahin Alpay, a professor of politics at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University, told me, "the soft power of Europe is transforming Turkey."

Of course, this has something to do with the new Prime Minister Erdogan's radical push towards the West; I'm sure if Turkey had an intractable hardline Islamic government then there wouldn't even be a debate over their EU status. Still, it bears some comparison to America's approach to spreading democracy down the barrel of our very big gun.