The Time Is Now – The Moderate Voice

by Anthony Stahelski

World War II philosophically never ended, because the struggle between dictatorial authoritarianism and democracy has been ongoing since 1939 and continues today. The most recent episode in this ongoing conflict is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian atrocities in Ukraine have shocked the world, but historically speaking there is nothing shocking about atrocities- dictatorships have always committed atrocities. However modern electronic media has made more people quickly aware of the atrocities. This awareness provides democracies with an opportunity to end the ongoing war against authoritarianism now.

Much to Putin’s surprise the Western democracies have closed ranks and uniformly supported Ukraine and condemned Russia. Russia has been systematically isolated from global trade and global organizations by increasingly stiff sanctions and dismissals. The Russian economy is imploding and likely to sink into a deep recession, and Russia thus far is not winning the war. These events and trends are instantaneously broadcast worldwide.

Democratic leaders need to think beyond the current situation and consider the long-term possibilities presented by the invasion and the worldwide reaction. Current dictators see the punishment inflicted on Russia. Their recognition by itself will not necessarily stop the normal dictatorial desire to oppress and invade, but it is a useful first step. Western democracies need to formally warn all dictatorships that any invasive aggression on their part will be met with the same isolating dismissals and sanctions as imposed on Russia.

Why not go further? The following steps could be taken relatively quickly. Ukraine, along with Finland and Sweden, could be admitted to NATO. We could support Ukrainian efforts to reclaim the Crimean Peninsula. We could rejoin the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact as a means of restraining Chinese aggression, and we could invite democratic Taiwan to be a member. We could base American air and naval forces in Taiwan. We could require that Iran stop supporting terrorist organizations in the Middle East as part of the renewed nuclear agreement with Iran.

Furthermore we could use this opportunity to be even more radical in defense of global democracy.

Dictatorships always follow the same playbook. Internally they deprive their own citizens of freedom and rights, they imprison their own citizens without trial, and they commit atrocities on those imprisoned. Dictatorships find ways to aggress against smaller, weaker countries. These activities should be enough to ostracize them from the global community, but democracies often ignore these crimes. Instead the Western democracies should actually impose the same dismissals and sanctions imposed on Russia to all dictatorships, now. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has unified the West perhaps more than it has ever been unified. As the Ukrainian crisis gets resolved this unification will not last.

The suggested intermediate steps and the more radical proposal will cause some short-term economic dislocations in democracies and in the developing world, but the short term pain could lead to long term benefit. For example if the United States stopped importing oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as well as Russia, our energy costs would go up until domestic production is increased. In the short term the Biden administration would have to rescind its decision on the Keystone pipeline, and start being supportive of domestic oil and natural gas production. In the long term not buying energy sources from dictatorships would greatly stimulate our development of solar, wind and other green energy sources.

Democracy should not be an exclusive privilege only enjoyed by a small portion of the global population. It should be enjoyed by all. However it is clear from the increasingly strong authoritarian pushback against democracies that democracy can be a fragile flower easily destroyed. Vladimir Putin’s ineptness has given the Western democracies the opportunity to universally create global democracy and crush authoritarianism, without causing World War III and a nuclear holocaust.

This opportunity may not come again, which means that the ongoing war between authoritarianism and democracy goes on into the future.