Reflections on the Friendly Tyrants Dilemma Today

Abstract

The Friendly Tyrants dilemma is the question of whether to lend political, military, and economic support to governments that are friendly to the United States but lack democratic policies. It is a choice therefore between security and ideology, presenting the United States with a conflict between its international interests and its domestic values. It is a practical dilemma, too, because historically, as the first part of this volume shows, rightist authoritarian regimes have sometimes been replaced by regimes that were equally tyrannical or even more so, and far less friendly to the international interests of the United States.