Our recommendations
- The president and the rest of the executive branch must treat support for democracy as a strategic priority, inextricably linked to the pursuit of America’s national interests
- The president and the executive branch must make support for activists involved in democracy and human rights abroad an integral element of foreign policy
- The executive branch, Congress, and the nation’s governors must work together to defeat authoritarian, malign, foreign influences and transnational repression inside our borders
China, Russia, and other authoritarian regimes are leading an unprecedented attack on democracy. While they use repression and corruption to remain in power and enrich themselves, authoritarian leaders are also working to redefine universal values of human rights, democracy, and sovereignty to reshape the U.S.-led world order.
Overcoming the authoritarian challenge should be a top priority of the new White House, its national security team, and Congress. China requires special attention. It is the leader of the authoritarian assault on the world order and by far the most prolific practitioner of malign influence activities and transnational repression inside democracies.
While preparing to run for the presidency, Ronald Reagan was asked for his theory of the Cold War. He replied: “We win, they lose.” American leaders must approach the struggle against authoritarian regimes today with the same clarity of conviction.
Former Soviet dissidents regard Reagan’s uncompromising stance toward Moscow as decisive:
“Had Reagan chosen to cooperate with the Soviet regime rather than compete with it, accommodate it rather than confront it, the hundreds of millions of people he helped free would still be living under tyranny,” Natan Sharansky wrote in The Case for Democracy.
Instead, America today has steadfast allies in the Baltic states and Central and Eastern Europe that used to be under Soviet domination. Washington also counts among its closest allies formerly authoritarian countries in Asia that made democratic transitions in the 1980s and, of course, Japan and Germany. The transition of these countries from communist and/or authoritarian regimes into democracies makes the world safer and more stable. With all the challenges we face in the world today, imagine how much worse things would be if those countries were not democratic allies.
But the challenge the United States and its democratic allies face now is different than during the Cold War. The leaders of the authoritarian assault on democracy – China, Russia, and Iran – are politically, economically, and religiously diverse. However, they have made common cause in unseating the United States from global leadership, challenging allied democracies, and subverting universal norms of democracy, sovereignty, and human rights.
Authoritarians refine and share methods of repression they use domestically and deploy them around the world to chip away at the international order and sow division in democracies. Authoritarians cooperate at established international organizations like the United Nations – as well as new ones like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, founded by China and Russia – where they hone antidemocratic norms and enlist junior partners among less powerful autocrats. Even the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), a mixed grouping of democracies and authoritarian regimes, seeks to offer an alternative to the U.S.-led order.
The authoritarians’ efforts are succeeding. Freedom House recorded the 18th straight year of decline in global democracy in 2023.
The president and the executive branch must treat democracy as a strategic priority, inextricably linked to the pursuit of America’s national interests
In response to the authoritarian assault on democracy, the president must put democracy at the core of foreign, defense, and economic policies. Democracy and human rights are not simply things that are “nice to have” but inseparable from America’s domestic governance and global outlook. They are part of America’s national security interests.
Making democracy central to America’s international agenda means that the character of governments matters. Accommodating authoritarian regimes enables their continued assault on the U.S.-led world order.
American presidential leadership is vital. The U.S. president should speak about democracy as the source of America’s strength and the basis for its alliances and make it central to the country’s approach to the world. The president should articulate the importance of democracy at the State of the Union address, to the Cabinet, at summits with allies, and in encounters with adversaries.
Countering disinformation campaigns, conspiracy theories, and antidemocratic rhetoric are essential components of American leadership. Imposing costs on authoritarians for their repressive behavior serves U.S. interests in a democratic world order and provides vital support for pro-democracy activists and human rights advocates around the world.
Treating democracy as a strategic objective requires the president, executive branch, and Congress to support democratic allies and partners defending against attack from authoritarian regimes: Ukraine from Russia, Taiwan from China, and Israel from Iran and its proxies.
Beyond helping friends and allies defend themselves militarily, the United States must roll back efforts to isolate and delegitimize them internationally, including by vigorously supporting them at multilateral organizations like the United Nations and its agencies and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The president and the executive branch must make support for democracy and human rights activists abroad an integral element of foreign policy
The United States should impose significant consequences on authoritarian regimes for persecuting and imprisoning democracy and human rights activists. In practice, this requires applying economic and diplomatic pressure. Imposing visa bans and asset freezes on individual rights abusers under the Global Magnitsky scheme – legislation passed initially by Congress in 2012 and applied to Russia, then expanded to other parts of the world in 2016 – is a valuable first step, especially when coordinated with allies. However, relying on these exclusively is insufficient and can isolate democracy policy objectives from broader policies.
Furthermore, individual sanctions can be ineffective when officials of authoritarian regimes lack assets in the United States or interest in traveling here.
Material support for democracy activists and political prisoners should include discreet assistance with legal fees, health care, and other needs. U.S. officials should reject autocrats’ self-serving claims that their citizens’ democratic aspirations are the product of “foreign interference.” Most democracy activists welcome support and advocacy by the United States and other democracies, even if they can’t always say so publicly.
The executive branch, Congress and the nation’s governors must work together to defeat authoritarian, malign, foreign influences and transnational repression inside our borders
Authoritarian regimes reach across their own borders to punish dissidents, shape public opinion, and subvert democratic institutions and universal norms in other countries.
These activities – often referred to as transnational repression and malign influence – have increased around the world and inside the United States. China stands out for activities Freedom House calls “the most sophisticated, global, and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression in the world.”
The executive branch must inform and educate national policymakers, elected state and local officials, civil society leaders, educators, and the general public about influence activities and transnational repression by authoritarians.
The Justice Department should prosecute offenders, and the State Department should expel diplomats and deny visas to officials linked to influence activities and transnational repression. The State Department should impose a moratorium on travel within the United States by diplomats from authoritarian countries known to target American states, localities, and institutions of higher learning until a comprehensive cooperative effort between the federal, state, and local leaders has been put in place. This should include an emphasis on distinguishing between authoritarian regimes and proxy groups and individual citizens. At the same time, the United States should continue to welcome dissidents from authoritarian regimes and ensure their protection in the United States.
The United States should cooperate with allies to repel foreign interference and help countries with weaker institutions do the same. This includes supporting independent media and civil society efforts to educate the public.
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Authoritarian regimes, led by Russia and China, seek to undermine democracy around the world and weaken or supplant U.S. leadership of the international order. Democracy and democratic values including the rule of law and freedoms of speech, expression, and association are worth supporting not only in principle, but also as fundamental elements of a stable and prosperous world. The United States must win the struggle against authoritarians, while preserving the attributes of its free society that make it the most successful democracy in modern history.
