Home > Videos | 👑⚔️🇺🇸 Autocrats vs Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder

👑⚔️🏛️ In new book Michael McFaul explores the global fight between autocracy and democracy

🤖 AI Summary

• 🇨🇳 The conflict with China shares characteristics with the Cold War—two superpowers, an ideological clash between autocrats vs. democrats, and global ambitions [00:30].
• 🌍 Unlike the Cold War, the US and Chinese economies are deeply intertwined, and the US is more isolationist and internally polarized [01:00].
• 🤝 Cooperation with Russia on shared interests, such as arms control, is possible and essential; extending the New START treaty is an example [02:35].
• 🛑 President Putin is motivated by an ideological pursuit to weaken the democratic world, blow up NATO, and conquer Ukraine, which no amount of schmoozing will halt [02:58].
• 📉 A strategy based on coercive power and tariffs against China is ineffective because it divides the democratic world and fails against Chinese leverage, making the US look weak [03:55].
• 🛡️ We need our democratic allies for a competition with autocratic powers that will last for decades; we must stop coercing them [04:47].
• 💥 The two most concerning possibilities are being dragged into a ground war with a NATO ally in Europe or a US-China response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan [05:08].
• 🇹🇼 If Russia prevails in Ukraine, it increases the likelihood of Xi Jinping acting against Taiwan, as the Taiwanese are watching closely [05:57].
• 🇺🇸 US democratic institutions are being tested, similar to the early Putin years [06:33].
• 💪 Caution is warranted, but optimism prevails because our institutional checks on executive power and centuries of democracy experience are stronger than Russia’s were [06:53].

🤔 Evaluation

• ⚖️ The video posits a complex yes and no answer to the new Cold War question, emphasizing economic interdependence and US domestic polarization as key differences from the past [01:00].
• 🚫 Other experts caution against the democracy-versus-autocracy framework entirely, arguing it oversimplifies complexity, inhibits sophisticated analysis, and risks intensifying global polarization, as highlighted by a report from the East Asia Forum, Biden’s misguided framing of US-China rivalry as democracy versus autocracy.
• 🤝 The argument that the US must cooperate with allies and avoid coercion [03:55] is supported by analysis from the Brookings Institution, which states that open societies must come to grips with the China challenge and advance democracy to the forefront of US grand strategy through working with allies, in The China challenge, democracy, and US grand strategy.
• 💡 For a deeper understanding, one should explore whether economic interdependence is truly a deterrent to conflict, given that China’s authoritarian capitalism and digital surveillance tools may pose a more formidable threat to democracy than the Soviet Union did, as proposed in research from the Brookings Institution.
• 🤔 It would also be useful to explore alternative perspectives on the value of liberal democracy as an asset or liability in the US-China rivalry, particularly given internal issues like the rise of plutocracy within the US system, a perspective explored in The Diplomat - American Democracy Versus Chinese Governance: The Ultimate Contest.
• 🔍 Finally, the topic of US domestic polarization warrants further study, as some analyses, like those from The China Project, argue that threats to American democracy are primarily internal, such as efforts to overturn elections and suppress voting rights, rather than external from China.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

🧐 Q: What is the main ideological conflict driving current global disorder?

🌍 A: The main ideological conflict is the global competition between autocracies and democracies, which involves great powers like China, Russia, and the United States.

🇨🇳 Q: How does the current US-China competition differ from the Cold War with the Soviet Union?

🔗 A: The current US-China rivalry differs because the two nations’ economies are deeply intertwined, China is fully integrated into the global economy, and the US itself faces internal challenges like high domestic polarization and an isolationist sentiment in both political parties.

🛡️ Q: What is the risk of a major military conflict in Europe and Asia?

🚨 A: Two major conflict risks are a ground war involving NATO allies if Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is successful, and a military confrontation if China attempts to invade Taiwan.

🗳️ Q: Are democratic institutions in the United States currently under threat?

🗽 A: Yes, democratic institutions in the United States are facing their hardest fight for preservation in modern history, but they are likely to survive due to robust institutional checks on executive power and the US’s centuries of democratic experience.

📚 Book Recommendations

↔️ Similar

• 🌍🤝🏛️ A World Safe for Democracy: Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order by G. John Ikenberry 🌍 This book offers a comprehensive account of contemporary geopolitics, examining where Russia, China, and the US stand and their likely future trajectory.
• 📚 The Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy Versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the US and China by Matthew Kroenig ⚔️ This work directly examines the democracy versus autocracy framework, tracing this competition from ancient times up to the present US-China relationship.

🆚 Contrasting

• 📚 First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World by Emma Ashford 🧭 This book advocates for a reimagined US grand strategy that questions the premises of the current approach to great power competition and argues for a more restrained foreign policy.
• 📚 The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown 📜 This provides a historical perspective on the ideological conflict that dominated the 20th century, contrasting the nature of the old Cold War’s clash with the current US-China/Russia competition.

🎨 Creatively Related

• 📚 The Longer Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order by Rush Doshi 🐉 This work offers a detailed view of China’s long-term strategy to reshape the American-led global order, which provides context for the video’s discussion of Chinese global aspirations.
• 📚 Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum 💰 This book explores how modern autocracies operate as a networked model of power, exporting corruption and propaganda, which relates tangentially to the video’s focus on weakening the democratic world.