The Institution has been a boon to dictators. It’s time for something new.
On Tuesday, RDI Chairman Garry Kasparov traveled to Switzerland to open the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Founded in 2009, the Geneva Summit “provides human rights heroes, activists and former political prisoners with a unique platform to testify about their personal struggles for democracy and freedom, while building an international community to take on dictatorships.”
You can watch Garry’s full address here.
Thank you to the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, and especially to Hillel Neuer, for having me here. And thank you for prompting me with such an easy question: “What is the state of democracy in the world today?”
You know, I’d like to say that “Democracy is doing great!” These would be very brief remarks indeed.
The reality is more of a mixed bag. On the one hand, democracy is far more common today than in 1963, when I was born in Baku, on the edge of the Soviet empire. But we are also in a moment of great upheaval, and the trendlines are moving in the wrong direction. Extremists and wannabe authoritarians are capturing the institutions of power in the Free World. In Ukraine, Putin’s genocidal war is supported by an international authoritarian coalition stretching from Tehran to Pyongyang. Across the Taiwan Strait, China is already preparing its invasion force.
Yet the advantage still rests in our corner. The Free World is more prosperous, more dynamic, and mightier than our enemies.
In other words, defeat is a choice.
Since February 2022, Ukrainians have been showing heroic resolve. What was supposed to be a one-sided three-day invasion has gone on for three years. A nation that the establishment in Washington and Brussels refused to believe in has stopped the Russian bear in its tracks.
And the frontline democracies aren’t fighting only for themselves. Israel is actively denying Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, as it obstructed the atomic aspirations of Syria in 2007 and Iraq in 1981. Can you imagine a world in which the ayatollahs, or Assad and Saddam before them, had the bomb?
So it is in Ukraine. Every defeat for Vladimir Putin keeps American troops out of harm’s way in a potential war over Poland or the Baltics. And every North Korean brigade the Ukrainians stop means millions in Seoul can rest easy knowing that Kim Jong Un is on the backfoot.
Impressive as that all is, these conflicts could have been over already—with decisive democratic victories—if the Free World would not fight with one hand tied behind its back.
There are many factors contributing to this. One is the state of our international institutions. In a cruel perversion of history, the United Nations—the successor of the heroic coalition that smashed Nazism—has been hijacked by a modern day rogues’ gallery. Iran, Russia, and China have fostered a purgatory of false equivalency on forty-second street and here in Geneva.
“The democracies of the world—America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Israel—are no better than we are,” the despots sneer from their pulpit in the General Assembly hall. “Perhaps even worse.”
An institution created to foster the values of the Free World now has the US and its allies bogged down in procedures. An organization conceived to prevent war now perpetuates it behind a veneer of baby blue legitimacy.
In his famous Iron Curtain speech of 1946, Winston Churchill warned us that international institutions were at risk of descending into “a frothing of words… a cockpit in a Tower of Babel.” I fear he was being overly optimistic in his forecast.
When the rot runs so deep we may be approaching a question of replacement rather than reform.
Fortunately, there are ready alternatives.
I founded the Renew Democracy Initiative, which unites courageous political dissidents from around the world, with a focus on revitalizing the Free World’s survival instinct. The World Liberty Congress, which I also helped establish, represents another coalition of democracy advocates who have persevered under repressive regimes. The harrowing stories these leaders share paint a stark contrast to the canned speeches we hear from regime representatives at the UN.
When the Iranians carry on in their lies about the “Great Satan,” my friend Masih Alinejad can tell you about the reality of gender apartheid under the Islamic Republic. When the Venezuelan dictatorship attacks American democracy, let them hear from Leopoldo López about stolen elections. And when the Russians spew propaganda that they are the defenders of freedom, fighting fascism in Ukraine, I will have a few words about what “democracy” looks like under Vladimir Putin.
The nations of the Free World must band together. The late Senator John McCain once proposed a League of Democracies, a coalition of free nations that can work together to confront our common challenges.
To quote Senator McCain—a League of Democracies “could bring concerted pressure to bear against tyrants… with or without Moscow’s and Beijing’s approval.” This coalition would enable victory over dictatorship and terrorism, not criticize it. It would rally the Free World’s resources behind Ukraine, not stay Kyiv’s hand. And it would give voice to the free and independent nation of Taiwan, not perpetuate the “One China” fiction.
I know that after eight decades, such a sharp break with the UN can be difficult to imagine, even among a critical audience such as yourselves. Some may be tempted to label this vision as unrealistic idealism, but uniting around mutual interests and shared values is a far more realistic foundation for global peace and stability than the naivete that has cultivated the theater of the absurd we call the United Nations.
I wish that today’s forecast were brighter. But tomorrow need not be grey. We in the Free World have the talent that dictators crave. We can manifest the optimism our rivals seek to dim. And yes, we possess the firepower that our enemies cannot match. We have only to press our advantage.
