Friday, June 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Putin and Xi driven to make authoritarianism the standard worldwide: Balkan Devlen in the National Post

Sustaining the core values of a rules-based international order, democracy, and freedom is dependent on our ability and willingness to confront the challenge of authoritarianism.

March 24, 2023
in Balkan Devlen, Columns, Dragon at the Door, Europe and Russia, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Program, In the Media, Latest News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
Putin and Xi driven to make authoritarianism the standard worldwide: Balkan Devlen in the National Post

Photo by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, via Twitter.

This article originally appeared in the National Post.

By Balkan Devlen, March 24, 2023

As the world watches what will come out of this week’s summit of two dictators, it is important to step back and examine what drives this relationship and what must be done to confront the challenge it presents.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping landed in Moscow to meet and posture with Russian President Vladimir Putin just 72 hours after the International Criminal Court (ICC) made Putin a man wanted for war crimes, over Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine.

Around the globe, democracies are sizing up the new authoritarian threat that Russia and China are looking to accelerate. This despotic axis is driven by a neo-authoritarian ideology that is obsessed with regime security and convinced that the West is in irreversible decline.

Their hostility to human rights and democracy is matched only by their determination to make the world safe for authoritarianism, a goal they pursue ruthlessly, using tactics from subversion to cyberattacks to naked aggression. The Putin and Xi regimes genuinely threaten the rules-based international order and all who defend it, determined instead to cultivate a world of autocracy based on an “Animal Farm” interpretation of sovereignty in which not all countries are genuinely sovereign.

As Russia’s criminal re-invasion of Ukraine demonstrates, Canada and its allies and partners must acknowledge and confront this challenge head-on. Although there are existing and potential differences between the two countries, they are not strong enough in short to medium-term to override the primary drivers of this axis. Ignoring this authoritarian partnership, in hopes it will simply peter out, is shortsighted thinking. Likewise, attempting to drive a wedge between Russia and China is also futile as it fails to understand the deep structural factors that unite them.

A multilayered and multilateral strategy is needed. Based on U.S.-led measures to mitigate the effects of Sino-Russian alignment, the approach must also be complemented by a dual-containment strategy of Russia and China by the West and other democratic partners. Such a restraint mechanism must involve the U.S., the EU, Canada, and other like-minded partners in relevant regions such as Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

In our own country alone, the impact of authoritarian regimes on our society has become quite evident. These regimes are working energetically to disrupt Canada’s social cohesion and institutions through such means as kidnapping Canadian citizens, influencing institutional operations, spreading disinformation, interfering in elections, and intimidating human rights activists and political dissidents. With minds like Xi and Putin at the helm, the aggressions will only worsen if authoritarian reaches are allowed to take root, each time further emboldening the oppressors.

It is not folly to imagine how Canadians would face significant restrictions on their freedom of expression, assembly, and association if they failed to comply with the desires of these regimes. Canada relies on a stable, free, and open, rules-based international order to maintain its security and prosperity. Over the last eight decades, Canadians have invested significant resources and sacrificed a great deal to defend and uphold this order. However, if the axis of Putin and Xi determines the rules of the game, Canada’s security, prosperity, and internal stability will be in peril.

Canada must invest more in defence and security to protect ourselves and our interests, recognizing that the world is increasingly dangerous. Meeting the NATO defence spending target of two per cent of GDP is critical — beyond negotiable — but it’s not enough. We must also sustainably support defence and dual-use technology innovation here in Canada. Investing in intelligence and counterintelligence capabilities is simply vital to safeguarding Canadians from subversion and cognitive warfare.

Moreover, Canada can also be a valuable resource for its allies and the democratic world, given our status as a natural resource superpower. We can help other countries reduce or eliminate their reliance on authoritarian regimes for energy, transition away from dirty coal, and commit to a reliable supply of critical minerals. We can also help combat hunger by increasing agricultural exports to those affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This week’s dynamics in Moscow illustrate that democracies must stand up to the authoritarian axis. The despotic regimes of Putin and Xi are acting in concert to undermine democratic societies and subvert international norms.

Generations of democratic citizens around the world have grown up to believe that the rules-based international order, liberal democracy, and individual rights and freedoms are as permanent and natural as gravity. The truth is that sustaining these core values is utterly dependent on our ability and willingness to confront the challenge that we are now seeing more clearly than ever.

Balkan Devlen is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, where he leads the Transatlantic Program.

Source: National Post
Tags: Balkan DevlenChinaNational PostRussia
Previous Post

Changing a lyric in O Canada is not a path to reconciliation: Chris Sankey in the Hub

Next Post

Video: A third way for drug addiction policy in Canada

Related Posts

Ukraine must be victorious, for all of our sakes: Balkan Devlen for Inside Policy
Columns

Ukraine’s right to self-defence is self-evident: Chris Alexander in the Globe and Mail

June 2, 2023
Trudeau, Ford to blame for Stellantis shakedown: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post
Columns

Trudeau, Ford to blame for Stellantis shakedown: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post

June 2, 2023
Multimedia: G7 Hiroshima Summit & Beyond
Video

Multimedia: G7 Hiroshima Summit & Beyond

June 1, 2023
Next Post
A third way for drug addiction policy in Canada

Video: A third way for drug addiction policy in Canada

Newsletter Signup

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.