With China and Russia on the rise, the United States leaves the field uncontested at its peril [View all]

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GREAT READ from Foreign Policy

Defending America Means Defending Democracy

With China and Russia on the rise, the United States leaves the field uncontested at its peril.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/13/defending-america-means-defending-democracy-china-russia-trump/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
SNIP

The National Defense Strategy highlights the loss of America’s competitive edge in every military domain, as great power rivals continue making major investments in power projection.
But our country’s response to the great power challenge must go beyond building a stronger military.
It also requires doubling down on America’s support for democracy in the world.

The reasons are straightforward. Friends and allies add strength to American power.
Existing and potential partners must be able to make their own strategic choices, free of Chinese or Russian coercion.
They must be able to resist outside attempts to fracture their political systems, foster corruption and sow disinformation, or undermine elections and the rule of law.
Internally riven countries have trouble projecting power effectively, and they make for weaker and less reliable security partners.

Today the dangers to many countries’ sovereignty and security come not from a United States that spent the last decade retrenching, but from what the National Endowment for Democracy calls “sharp power” — foreign influence operations designed to subvert democratic institutions for strategic advantage.
Effectively contesting the new world of great power competition requires the United States to work with a panoply of strong and confident foreign partners. Active U.S. support for better governance makes countries more resilient in the face of pressure from revisionist powers.

Russia views western democracies as a threat to its security. Its answer? Weaken democratic practice in them.
Hence Moscow’s combination of election meddling, propaganda, fake news, trolling, and other forms of subversion that polarize politics by pitting citizens against each other.

Russia lacks the power to challenge NATO directly, but it has succeeded in sowing allied disunity. It was an early mover on this plane of competition against the United States.

Similarly, China now meddles in the domestic political affairs of countries as disparate as Australia, Greece, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe. China’s Belt and Road investment scheme has imported corrupt and opaque deals to a host of countries, and its influence operations in countries including New Zealand and Singapore have prompted domestic outrage.

Beijing’s political support for autocratic leaders in Africa has elicited local charges of a new colonialism, and China has moved to restrict free speech in countries with which it has close economic ties.

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