A new American intervention

The policy of aggressive democracy promotion in the Middle East, a hallmark of former United States President George W. Bush’s administration, seems to have been sidelined by his successor in favor of a softer approach to international relations. While not renouncing the democracy campaign altogether, Barack Obama’s government has refocused its methods toward State Department projects that target economic advancement, education and job creation in the region. This shift was exemplified by the Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit on April 26 and 27, where more than 250 delegates from 50 Muslim majority countries (MMCs), as well as Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and several members of Congress, gathered in Washington, DC to discuss methods to foster entrepreneurship as a means of spurring economic growth and community development. The summit signals a wider move in the administration to position the Middle East as part of a worldwide religious