E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

The traditional practice for challenging tyrants is through embargo. The problem is embargos make the people poor and wipe out any potential for middle class. Yet, middle class is the strength of the democracy. Besides, embargo gives the excuse to the dictator to blame the economic conditions on somebody else, thereby creating an external enemy and diverting attention from themselves.

On the other hand, by creating opportunities for easy trade and easy movement to and from the dictatorship, the very nature of the dictatorship is undermined. Not only can people in that country accumulate enough wealth to become politically active, but they are exposed to the ideas of the trading partners, experience their lifestyles and have to rely less on the government of that country.

If US had been trading openly with Cuba, there would be no such thing as a communist Cuba today. The inflow of American tourists and American goods, together with new markets would make communism most impractical. Same goes for North Korea, Syria and Iran.

No need to trade with the tyranical government, trade with the people and individual business owners. Allow the natives to be mad with their government for the bad economy and poverty. This is a solution that is necessary for dealing with everyone from Belarus to Burma.

Israel, for example, would be better off trading agressively with the Palestinians rather than blocking their trade. The second there are enough middle class Palestinians, the Palestinian government will become a lot less corrupt and a lot more interested in the stability in the region. Treating bombings as individual criminal acts, rather than punishing palestinians as a whole would be extremely practical, since the second the attacks stop causing a reaction, they will become impractical. There are more people dead from car accidents, but nobody restricts cars, even though there would be more to gain from trade with Palestinians than from using cars.

What I am talking about is a one sided action of goodwill toward the people, even if the opposite government does not recipicate. It takes more strength to do that than to retaliate. Besides, it makes causing harm impractical. Call me an idealist, but the other strategy has obviously failed to work, so why not give this one a 20 year try.

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