Body
Earlier in the summer, I wrote about the problem of democracy promotion in reverse. Just as powerful democratic states will promote their favored regime type, so authoritarian regimes will as well. This idea has been picked up by a new website managed by the International Forum for Democratic Studies called Resurgent Dictatorship. The site’s provides resources on how authoritarian regimes are cooperating and learning from each other, manipulating media and attempting to reshape democratic norms. The project focuses on the “Big 5” authoritarian regimes involved in this sort of activity: Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, and Venezuela, as well as more thematic issues (authoritarian backlash on civil society, authoritarian control of the Internet, authoritarian international broadcasting, pseudo election monitoring, and the emergence of authoritarian counter norms).
This week, I wrote a short post raising some issues with respect to the China-DPRK relations on this topic. Although China has legitimate security concerns with respect to the border, there is little justification for the policy of sending refugees back to North Korea in particular. While there long-run strategy of deep engagement with North Korea may ultimately pay off in relaxed control, it could just as easily sustain the Kim family dynasty and its excesses.
