How Democracies Should Respond
By Thorsten Benner
For two decades after the end of the Cold War, the direction of international influence was clear: it radiated from liberal democracies outward,
as the West sought to spread its model of governance around the world.
With the help of Western-led democracy promotion, the thinking went, authoritarian states would be relegated to the dustbin of history.
That has changed. In recent years, authoritarian states
have boldly sought to influence Western democracies. They have done so
to strengthen their own regimes, to weaken Western states’ ability to
challenge authoritarianism, and to push the world toward illiberalism.
Russia’s brazen attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election thus fits a broader pattern, even though much of the analysis of
that operation has presented it as an anomaly. Authoritarian
influencing, as it might be called, involves actions not just by Russia
but also by China and other states Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. It
has affected many Western democracies. And it involves not just
political meddling and propaganda programs but lower-profile work
through political parties, nongovernmental organizations, and
businesses.
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