A few days ago I suggested that President Obama was in a position to prioritize a true transformation of U.S.-Muslim world relations.

If pursued, such a realignment would be based on tackling a raft of critical matters ranging from resolving the Afghan conflict to addressing the security crisis in Sudan (I will endeavor to unpack each of these in the weeks and months ahead).

A related question I have been wrestling with is when, and how, the administration should address structural challenges within the Muslim world that may not directly involve the U.S. but still impact global stability. These include challenges such as those facing the education and employment sector in the Arab world and government service delivery in Pakistan. If the Obama administration embraces a true realignment strategy will it have the bandwidth to also tackle these other intra-Muslim world matters? Should it?

Furthermore, and of particular concern today, how should the administration address issues like the democracy deficit in the Muslim world? The problems caused by the Bush administrations disastrous democracy promotion plan are evident and President Obama used his Cairo speech to break with Bush when he stated that “No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.”

Unfortunately such a statement, no matter how well intended, cannot remove the U.S. from the democracy debate. The democracy deficit is a series problem within the Muslim world and the U.S., due to its support of governments ranging from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, cannot be considered a bystander.

In fact it is Cairo that occupies my thinking today as I dig into my U.S.-Muslim world realignment research.

The Guardian just published an article based on an interview it completed with former UN nuclear weapons chief Mohamed ElBaradei. ElBaradei believes, with justification, that the western policy of supporting Middle East autocrats at the expense of democracy has led to a rise in extremism and he calls for a reevaluation. In a substantive interview he noted that:

“The west talks a lot about elections in Iran, for example, but at least there were elections – yet where are the elections in the Arab world? If the west doesn’t talk about that, then how can it have any credibility?. “Only if you empower the liberals, if you empower the moderate socialists, if you empower all factions of society, only then, will extremists be marginalised.”

The Guardian also reports that ElBaradei is considering a run for President of Egypt and that he is likely to face intimidation from the State’s security complex. This reality poses a challenge for the Obama administration, particularly if it seeks to pursue realignment.

Should the U.S. use its leverage with countries ranging from Egypt to Saudi Arabia to close the democracy deficit while also pursuing realignment? Alternatively, does the shadow of the U.S. invasion of Iraq preclude serious engagement of the democracy issue by the Obama administration? There are no easy answers but these questions will likely have to be addressed in the months ahead.

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