“My critique in the past has often been that, where decades previously, US governments may have been more willing to provide programming directly to those that could potentially cause tension with the government, they have in recent decades, especially since the Arab Spring, turned away from that”.

“The billions in military aid compared to the pennies in democracy assistance really puts into perspective the priority of US governments, not just this administration who have eliminated even the pennies. Even previous administrations who have touted democracy assistance and touted democracy promotion as key pillars of US foreign policy have never matched this rhetoric with actual policy and the actual implementation of that policy.”