James M. Lindsay, director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas, said McCain's recent description of his idea represented "a sharp departure from what Sen. McCain said previously."
Noting McCain's language in the Foreign Affairs article, Lindsay said that what McCain described to reporters April 11 were "ad hoc coalitions of the willing, which are something quite different, even if they draw on democracies for their main contributors."
Lindsay, who has advocated an organization of democracies of a different sort, served on the National Security Council staff under former President Clinton. He is not affiliated with a presidential campaign.
The implications of such a group, while sounding academic, touch on some of the most hotly controversial foreign policy topics of the last decade, such as when the use of military force is legitimate, and how to deal with international institutions at cross purposes with U.S. administrations.
But the proposal offers insights into McCain's views, which, while usually conservative, can vary according to the issue. McCain is known for his hawkish position on the Iraq war, but he has taken a strong stand against interrogation practices he considers torture, and argues that the U.S. needs to rely more on global alliances.
The idea of a league of democracies would seem to be a political winner for McCain in his effort to attract voters with a wide spectrum of views.
Liberal internationalists as well as neoconservatives have championed versions of the idea as a way to advance good government and solve world problems, unhindered by autocratic governments and international organizations.
In 2000, Clinton's secretary of State, Madeleine K. Albright, helped create a forum called the "community of democracies" that brings countries together in hopes of spreading democratic practices.
Yet to some, the idea is highly provocative.
Charles Krauthammer, once a Democratic speechwriter and now a conservative commentator, said last month that he liked the idea because it would enable McCain to replace the U.N.
"What I like about it, it's got a hidden agenda," Krauthammer said March 27 on Fox News. "It looks as if it's all about listening and joining with allies, all the kind of stuff you'd hear a John Kerry say, except the idea here, which McCain can't say but I can, is to essentially kill the U.N."
