Radio Smart Talk for Friday, March 11:

As America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dragged on throughout the first decade of the 2000s, opponents of the Bush administration's "war on terror"-based policies bemoaned, among other things, the impact such "nation-building" would have on America's image around the world.

Now, as we watch a number of North African and Middle Eastern nations redefine themselves through revolution and protest – all without overt action from the West – the new question is whether these nations may be less likely to embrace representative democracy like America enjoys because of deep-seeded mistrust of the United States.

We'll discuss the state of America's image abroad, and how it may impact developing democracies, on Friday's show, as we talk with Ambassador John O'Keefe, Executive Director of the Open World Leadership Program of the Library of Congress. He's a former ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, a nation which underwent its own revolution just a few years ago, and is now, as the Kyrgyz Republic, struggling to establish and sustain democracy. Ambassador O'Keefe spoke Thursday night at an event presented by the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg.

Listen to the program: