October 02, 2018
How Russia and China Undermine Democracy
Russian and Chinese actions are converging to challenge the U.S.-led global order. Last month, China joined Russia in conducting the latter’s largest military exercises since the Cold War. As the war games kicked off, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shared pancakes and vodka in Vladivostok in yet another public display of their rapport. In addition to enhanced military cooperation, the two nations’ collaboration in international institutions and remarkably frequent high-level engagements reflect their growing agreement about how the world should be ordered. Central in this shared view is the belief that weakening democracy can accelerate the decline of Western influence and advance both Russia’s and China’s geopolitical goals.
Russia and China view efforts to support democracy—especially U.S. efforts—as thinly veiled attempts to expand U.S. influence and undermine their regimes and have consistently sought to counter Western democracy promotion. These efforts are not new, but they are changing in scope and intensity. Since 2014, Russia in particular has been taking the fight to Western democracies. Because Moscow and Beijing gauge their power in relation to the United States, they view weakening Western democracy as a means of enhancing their own standing. The Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, for example, was intended, at least in part, to tarnish U.S. democracy and allow Moscow to claim that Washington has no right telling other nations how to conduct their elections. For their part, Chinese leaders have sought to gradually weaken democratic norms as a way to enhance the international legitimacy of China’s Leninist-capitalist brand of governance.
Read the full article in Foreign Affairs.
More from CNAS
-
Address NATO at the Munich Security Conference
Commentary
President Trump has an opportunity to address tensions with NATO at the Munich Security Conference.While he should articulate his grievances, he also should lay out his requir...
By Jim Townsend
-
Canada, Trump, and the Post-Trudeau Era
Podcast
In just a few days, Donald Trump returns to office with Canada in his sights. At the same time, it has been less than two weeks since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau re...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Elizabeth Anderson
-
Trump’s Threat to U.S. Intelligence
Commentary
The key for intelligence officials will be to avoid distraction and find a way to stay focused on the core missions....
By Peter Schroeder
-
In Russia's Perceived War with the West, Arms Control is Collateral Damage
Commentary
Russia seemingly perceives previously established arms control agreements as elements of the broader Western-dominated political and security order that it aims to overturn....
By Nicholas Lokker
