It’s no surprise the world’s bad guys are winning – we’ve lost sight of what we’re fighting for

Roberto White

February 22, 2022

I came across a fantastic article recently called The Bad Guys are Winning by Anne Applebaum, a writer for The Atlantic. The article outlined how Belarus, Russia and other states, which she calls “Autocracy Inc”, have been engaging in behaviour that openly defies the liberal international order and doing so with impunity. As I was reading through it, I couldn’t help but think of course the “bad” guys are winning when the “good” guys in the West aren’t even as good as one may think.

Take Canada for example. After several weeks of anti-government protests, including a “Freedom Convoy” of Canadian truckers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently took the extraordinary step of invoking the Emergencies Act to “supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address blockades and occupations”.

The Act empowers the government to take “special temporary measures” during national emergencies, which Canadian law defines as a situation that either threatens the lives of Canadians or the very sovereignty of Canada itself. Clearly the convoy of truckers doesn’t constitute a threat to the integrity of Canada as a state, and this measure, along with his remarks about Canada’s unvaccinated population, put into question Trudeau’s “liberal” credentials.

New Zealand has also showed some worrying signs. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ardern outlined a five step road map to opening up the country, beginning with allowing fully vaccinated New Zealanders to travel from Australia on 27 February.

Yet, it took two years to get to this stage; before then, New Zealand had one of the strictest Covid strategies in the world that included a strict lockdown in Auckland, its largest city, even though at the time there had been less than 1,000 cases in the whole country. Like her Canadian counterpart, Ardern has adopted a worrisome approach towards the unvaccinated. In a November 2021 interview the Prime Minister was asked whether recent government measures would lead to a “two-tier” society between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, to which she casually replied “that is what it is”.

Looking back at the Western Hemisphere we see little promise with the United States. On the international stage, as I’ve previously argued for 1828, the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan showed the world that the US was not “back” as Biden had said previously claimed.

Aside from Biden’s recurring gaffes, the widespread criticism of Kamala Harris’ management style as Vice President, combined with her failure to properly deal with the crisis on the southern border doesn’t present an image of strong leadership that a powerful and influential America requires. The shortcomings don’t just apply to the Democrats; Trump’s increasingly strong grip of the Republican Party in spite of his complicit role in the 6th January insurrection puts into question the values of the current Republican Party.

However, we shouldn’t comfort ourselves in thinking that this illiberal tide stops at the English Channel; the UK is also complicit. In Scotland it was announced last week that the Scottish government’s remaining Covid powers are to be extended for several months, in spite of the fact that cases have been steadily decreasing since the beginning of this year. The low case numbers demonstrate the completely unjustifiable nature of Holyrood’s actions.

In addition, Home Secretary Priti Patel is pushing to amend the Online Safety Bill so that tech companies are forced to remove “legal but harmful” content from their platforms. As the IEA has written, this measure is a “recipe for censorship” given that it will force tech companies to read private messages between consenting adults.

Lastly, although it has been extensively covered, the Prime Minister’s attendance of several parties during lockdown, his false accusation that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile and other gaffes hardly portrays Johnson as the leader of a core member of the Western alliance.

Taking into consideration all these things, it shouldn’t then come as a surprise that “the bad guys” are winning, because it seems that, across the world, the “good guys” are implementing policies that don’t seem too different from those in autocratic states.

While credit can be given to the strong rhetoric and posture of the United States, the UK and others in the face of recent Russian aggression, this approach is reactive in nature. To adequately counter the threats posed by Russia, China, and other rogue states we have to adopt a proactive strategy that makes them afraid to countenance any sort of aggression.

So, what can we do? The first is to elect better leaders. We need to vote for leaders who proudly champion Western values abroad, while implementing them at home.

The second thing is that we have to position our militaries so that they can adequately compete with major powers such as China and Russia. One way to do this is by increasing defence spending: between 2015 and 2020 China’s defence spending increased by 27 per cent compared to 12 per cent in the US and 8.3 per cent for the UK. We simply will not win this century of geopolitical competition if we are not prepared to provide our militaries with the appropriate resources to project power and establish a strong deterrent.

The last, and perhaps the most important thing is there needs to be a global reinvigoration in defence of Western values. We need to be reminded of the value of freedom of speech, the rule of law and democracy.

In recent years, there has been growing criticism at the claims made by countries like the United States in defence of human rights, given its own historical record and while criticism should be dispensed when deserved, we cannot forget the good that the US-led liberal international order has done for the post-war world. Countries such as Japan, Germany and several Eastern European states that became liberal democracies have become more prosperous and free as a result.

Fundamentally, as China, Russia and their allies champion authoritarian rule, societal surveillance, and increased repression we must ourselves push back by promoting democracy, the rule of law and freedom. But to do so, we must believe it in our hearts that these are the components for a more prosperous order. A failure to do so will result in the autocrats winning, which will be detrimental for all.

Author

Written by Roberto White

Roberto is a Masters Student of International Relations at the University of Bath.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


  • SHARE

Capitalism and freedom are under attack. If you support 1828’s work, help us champion freedom by donating here.

Keep Reading

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR

WEEKLY NEWS BRIEFING

Sign up today to receive exclusive insights