Last weekend, a group of more than twenty world leaders gathered in Tianjin, China, for the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a bloc of nondemocracies set up to counter Western power. During the two-day meeting, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Narendra Modi, along with the presidents of Turkey, Iran, and other states, discussed how to strengthen economic and geopolitical cooperation, with the goal of reshaping the global order in their favor.
Autocrats are working together to amass power at home and project it abroad. The Journal of Democracy essays below explain how they’re doing this, and what democracies can do to prevent it.
The World Has Become Flatter for Authoritarian Regimes
They are benefiting from a world that has grown more hostile for democracy and human rights. But it doesn’t need to be the case. Democracies need to double down on their own competitive advantage.
Christopher WalkerChina and the Battle for the Global South
Under Xi Jinping, the PRC has grown more assertive in the Global South. China aggressively targets country after country, often zeroing in on small but strategically significant states. But there are proven ways for even fragile democracies to resist Beijing’s influence.
Zoltan BaranyHow Authoritarians Inflate Their Image
Authoritarian propaganda and manipulation are leading democratic publics to see foreign autocracies as more powerful than they actually are.
Péter KrekóChina at the UN: Choking Civil Society
Beijing is using red tape, procedural rules, and a little help from its authoritarian allies to strangle NGOs seeking to participate in the world body.
Rana Siu InbodenUnderstanding Authoritarian Regionalism
Taking advantage of broad global respect for regionalism, authoritarian regimes are using their own regional organizations to bolster fellow autocracies. These groupings offer a mechanism for lending legitimacy, redistributing resources, and insulating members from democratic influences.
Alexander Libman and Anastassia V. ObydenkovaHow Authoritarians Use International Law
Through greater savvy engagement with international law, authoritarians are seeking not only to shield themselves from criticism, but to reshape global norms in their favor.
Tom GinsburgAuthoritarianism Goes Global: Countering Democratic Norms
Favored by global conditions that lean their way, authoritarians have been busy over the last decade coming up with new and inventive ways to thwart the global advance of democracy and human rights.
Alexander CooleyAuthoritarianism Goes Global: Cyberspace Under Siege
Rosy assumptions once held that the Internet would inevitably undermine unfree regimes. A look around the world today, however, indicates that something very different and far more disturbing is going on.
Ron Deibert
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Image credit: Pavel Byrkin/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images