‘The autocrats are winning’ new strategic competition

The battle over influence and strategic control across the world seems to be tilting in favor of the autocrats, at least according to an article published by Democracy Digest. Here is an excerpt:

If the world is witnessing a new strategic competition between the world’s democracies and resurgent authoritarians, the latter are demonstrably more resolute, strategic and coordinated, according to a leading analyst.

If the 20th century was the story of liberal democracy’s progress toward victory over other ideologies—communism, fascism, virulent nationalism—the 21st century is, so far, a story of the reverse, Anne Applebaum writes in the Atlantic’s December cover story. America does still spend money on projects that might loosely be called “democracy assistance,” but the amounts are very low compared with what the authoritarian world is prepared to put up.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a unique institution that has an independent board (of which I am a member), received $300 million of congressional funding in 2020 to support civic organizations, non-state media, and educational projects in about 100 autocracies and weak democracies around the world. Our efforts are even smaller than they look, because traditional media are only a part of how modern autocracies promote themselves, she adds:

Read the full story here.