On July 11, Scowcroft Center nonresident senior fellow Patrick Quirk and International Republican Institute (IRI) president Daniel Twining published Fighting Back: How Democracies Can Check Authoritarian Aggression in the National Interest. In the piece, they assert that the democratic world must take action and execute a long-term and sustainable campaign against transnational authoritarianism that the Kremlin and CCP have been exporting in recent years. To do this, the United States and its democratic allies should support democratic activists abroad, counter authoritarian influence in multilateral institutions such as the IMF and UN, and strengthen formal and informal alliances and partnerships among democracies.
Biden has said that “we are now finally awakened to the challenge” posed by transnational authoritarianism. Yet the question of whether we are prepared to do what it takes to push back remains unclear. Defending democracy is critical to building a free, secure, and prosperous world. We must now pursue policies that go beyond exalted rhetoric to strengthen and empower fledgling democratic institutions and deter our adversaries from their campaigns of malign foreign influence.
