The geopolitics of democracy: The US against Russia and China

Abstract

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, American democracy set an example for the rest of the world, having proved its resilience to the authoritarian regime of the USSR during the Cold War. However, in recent years, China, which has adopted a different model of governance, a mixture of political authoritarianism and economic capitalism, has directly challenged the quality and credibility of American democracy. The more Beijing grows economically, the more it challenges Western institutions and the international order. It believes that there are alternative paths to prosperity. Russia, a classically authoritarian regime, agrees with China, with which it has developed close political and economic relations. The inherent problems of American democracy, especially under the Trump administration, have been used by Beijing and Moscow to support their arguments. The Russo-Ukraine war, aside from other interpretations, can be characterised as a dispute between democratic and authoritarian regimes.