Youtube video featuring www.LatinAmericaGoesGlobal.org Editor, Chris Sabatini
Using a number of justifications, including that of regional security or defending state sovereignty, authoritarian regimes are pursuing new anti-democratic norms. To shield themselves from international scrutiny, resurgent authoritarians are reshaping global institutional frameworks that have been integral to the liberal post-Cold War order. Seeing regional and international rules-based bodies as a threat to regime interests, authoritarians have focused their efforts on undercutting the democracy and human rights mechanisms of institutions critical for safeguarding democratic standards. In Eurasia, the domestic political and governance norms of Russia and China are migrating beyond these regimes’ borders, manifesting themselves through organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Eurasian Economic Union. With Saudi Arabia’s leadership, the Gulf Cooperation Council has reoriented its activities to include coordination among members to suppress dissent. Meanwhile, a growing list of repressive regimes are devoting their energies to reshaping Internet governance standards. Alexander Cooley, Steven Heydemann, Ronald Deibert, and Christopher Sabatini discussed the implications of the campaign against democratic norms in Eurasia, China, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and cyberspace.
Watch the video of the July 15th event above.
—National Endowment for Democracy. For more on this subject, please see the Forum’s website.
