ALLIANCE FOR SECURING DEMOCRACY RELEASES STRATEGY FOR DEMOCRACIES TO OFFSET AUTOCRATIC ADVANCES

Bipartisan Task Force provides 24 recommendations across four areas of competition.                                           

Washington, D.C. – The Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States today released Linking Values and Strategy: How Democracies Can Offset Autocratic Advances, a national strategy to regain the initiative in the emerging competition with authoritarianism. The strategy reflects the views of 30 leading national security experts from both sides of the aisle and emphasizes leveraging democracy’s strengths to offset autocratic advances by seizing on the advantages of open systems, building resilience into democratic institutions, and exploiting the brittleness of authoritarian regimes.

“By embracing a national strategy to offset autocrats’ recent advances, the United States and its like-minded partners and allies can reassert the superiority of the democratic model and repel authoritarian efforts to distort the future world order,” reads the report. 

The Task Force recommends action across four areas of competition: political, economic, technological, and information. The strategy will require the United States to protect and strengthen the democratic institutions and economic vitality that are its greatest sources of strength; adapt and update institutions, structures, processes, and norms to reflect changes in technology; and leverage and prioritize its leading advantages, including to take the battle to authoritarians.

The Task Force provides 24 concrete recommendations, including:

  • Enhance financial transparency by ending anonymous shell companies, tightening restrictions for foreign company political activity, and enacting stronger disclosure requirements for foreign funding of non-profit organizations and media outlets.
  • Invest in strategic technologies and critical infrastructure by boosting funding for infrastructure development and deployment and increasing investments and incentives in critical technology areas like artificial intelligence.
  • Prioritize engagement in standards-setting bodies to support the establishment of democracy-affirming global standards.
  • Revitalize the State Department’s technology expertise by establishing a Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technology, as the bipartisan Cyberspace Solarium Commission recommended, to guide norm and standards-setting efforts.
  • Integrate technology policy across government by establishing an integrated structure within the Executive Office of the President with a senior official coordinating technology policy across domestic, economic, national security, and foreign policy considerations, and establishing a Technology Directorate at the National Security Council.
  • Streamline jurisdiction and oversight efforts by establishing a Foreign Malign Influence Center and standing up a new congressional committee with oversight of technology development and online platform regulation.

 

Read the national strategy: https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/linking-values-and-strategy/

 

Task Force Co-Chairs

Eric Edelman

Avril Haines

 

Task Force Members

Michael Abramowitz

Christian Brose

Kurt Campbell

Scott Carpenter

Tarun Chhabra

Derek Chollet

Zack Cooper

Michèle Flournoy

Richard Fontaine

Aaron Friedberg

Sue Gordon

Hahrie Han

Kathleen Hicks

Kelly Magsamen

Congressman Tom Malinowski

Derek Mitchell

Michael Morell

Samantha Power

Laura Rosenberger

Kori Schake

Jake Sullivan

Congressman Michael Turner

Daniel Twining

Matthew Waxman

Jeremy M. Weinstein

Nicole Wong

Thomas Wright

Juan Zarate

 

Reporters interested in more information or an interview should reach out to Rachael Dean Wilson and Kayla Goodson at press@securingdemocracy.org.