Leadership in the world. It is important to remember that what happens abroad and how people live elsewhere affects us here at home. When america turns a blind eye, we invite expressionism and extremism. We must Work Together to safeguard the democratic Border Guarding peace, prosperity and human achievement home abroad. At the bush institute, we are working diligently on these issues and today, our team is releasing a set of recommendations aimed at freedom, democracy and human rights and Foreign Policy. Thank you for contributing to this effort and may god bless you all. It is a little known fact that everywhere i go he does a video. We have a great panel, a really provocative title. I think we start off with the greater opposed opposed. And freedomtty bad house, something we measure every year in our freedom of the world report and for the last 13 years, every year, weve had more countries experiencing decline in so that political andts and Civil Liberties scores for next year not ready. O be announced cite a few data points per at number one, china is getting more repressive. Camps trying to tighten the screws. According tona is our scores, the worst violator worldernet freedom in the so that is one story and along with russia, they are not only on humano crackdown rights within their own countries, but they are reaching across the border and really both countries are holding out to liberalnative democracy. I think if you go around the globe, you see all sorts of problems. Whichchallenge is india really has a lot of problems cracking down on muslims and how they do laws that are raising questions about indian democracy. That is a global phenomenon. I think it is not a great picture. The one thing we have to remind yourselves is there is a basic human thirst for freedom and democracy, so we are inspired by what happened this year. And hong kong, people insisting on their rights. Two countries, sudan and ethiopia, which has a lot of trouble, Popular Protest Movement overthrew the long entrenched dictator and ethiopia, a political opening, a nobel prizewinning Prime Minister. You have to remind ourselves you have to have optimism and try to look at the glass halffull. It is pretty bad to answer the question. You are working around the world, what are your people seeing in terms of their efforts to promote democracy and better governments . How bad is it . I think it is very challenging right now. I am much more optimistic for some of the reasons michael laid out. Had the opportunity to travel to 13 countries and 2019 in africa, the middle east, the balkans, soviet union and asia and our folks that we worked with in these countries, candidates, what, running for office. They are also pretty optimistic. It was interesting to see the pew research. Get citizens attitude. Limithere we want to crack society and have a right to vote and want to eat. Victoria and i work with secretary albright. She is the chairman and she likes to say people have the right to eat and vote. I think the challenge in most places is that democracies are delivering to the expectations that citizens have, especially in new, emerging democracies. In addition to the authoritarian reach happening to the world, i and i thinkle power that is something we have to be hanging on to and supporting throughout the world. What is your thought . Great to be here. I would agree the numbers are terrible, the trends are terrible and not just recent trends, but over the last decade, they are feeling their and we have almost worse than that, a growing number of states that claim to be democracies that are using the mandates to take down the structures of democracy whether ofis free press or the right Political Parties to form, etc. , think as colleagues have said every single consonant are fighting back, but we have not seen a diminished in street whether you are talking about sudan for hong kong or iraq or still in russia. Drivers isincreasing also interesting which is citizens fighting back against perceived corruption of their leaders and government and this and forl vulnerability citizenscracks that may be unwilling to stand up for a free press, but when they think their government is ripping them off or they think their quality of life is going down while their leaders are enriching themselves, that is something that is dangerous and can be exported exploited by those who want to support democracy by exposing how these folks claim to be leading these countries are enriching themselves so i think it is something we need to focus on going forward. Of last thing is the role the United States for an hour say that in the last administration, there was a full throated americans strong beacon from the white house, although we continue to do all the personal things that we did, but there was much more of a sense that what happens inside the countries is responsible, but now when you have the United States itself not living up to its own Democratic Values, when you have criticisms of the press, criticisms of the independent judicial system, it is very hard for those standing to have thee World Champion that they used to have. I think it is incumbent on us. You let the optimists for last . If you told us that 2 million citizens and hong kong would be sending a to be world leading authoritarian superpower, with a we would say no may. If you would have told us that one third of lebanons populations would be in the streets of beirut demanding political change. If you have told us that algerians would have been protesting in the streets for 40 weeks straight against their military leadership. If you told us that a war criminal incident and or criminal incident in sudan would be subject to justice in this country, at your of us a year ago some of us would have said no way. That is not been democracy is doing fine, but i will cite jackson deal who said there is i wherer twelvemonth per people have not been in the streetod in so many places across cultures demanding better governance, demanding accountability, standing up against political elites. It is kind of trendy to sit around in the west and say gosh, democracy is not working so well. There are people risking their lives for some of the very basic grantedhat we take for living in a country like this. The answer is not ok, but we have so much to work with and the Chinese Communist party has run a total mobilization and Ideological Campaign to say that a foundational threat to the chinese, and his party and their if youe world is are Vladimir Putin in russia, you are not afraid of United States armed forces, maybe other security forces, you are maybe your ownally afraid of citizens. And think democrats need to work harder, make democracy work, need to grapple with new technologies that i think have turned on their head about how technology could power human freedom. There is so much to work with and so many people all of the world who want our support and our help. We have a panel of optimists here. I would like to get into why democracy has been ending ebb ing. Delivering. D it we heard about pushback from authoritarians. Your mind, what is driving the difficulty for democracy . There are about 200 different books on this or less. What i will say is not particularly original, but i would just focus on one issue that we had for your mouse look at and i think sometimes does not get listed as the numberone thing, but certainly up there which is the changing relationship of technology and democracy. 10 years ago when the internet and social media was just gaining steam, activists around the world were using it to mobilize and i think what we have seen is that the bad guys they are able and to use technology to undermine elections, able to survey of the people on and on president it feel on an unprecedented scale. I think technology has accelerated some of the larger trends. I think going forward, that would be issue we will have to grapple with if you are going to try to arrest this democratic decline. I think my number two would theorruption and so much of world that has only grown as a result of the economies , itloping the last 20 years is at levels that are completely unacceptable. I think china has a role in that and the fact that deals are made in back rooms and citizens dont have a voice inside of the lending practices. I think countries are becoming thinked to china and i corruption is uncontrolled right now in most of the world and i think that is in large part why citizens are reacting because the resources coming into the country are not in use to deal with the basics of Health Education and welfare, so i would put corruption is my number two. Weve had a perfect storm over the last three or four ands of drivers of populism autocracy. I think income inequality is another issue and you see the spread growing on almost every continent. It provides fodder for populists who want to turn back the clock to some wished for previous peri stability when the strong man took care of you, the migration crisis as well cause all kinds of fears. It is countries with the lease migration that are most reacting to the theater, but again, rich fodder for autocrats and populists to exploit that somehow you are losing your native history and culture to the other which has gone unchecked and unexplained by democrats. Which plays into this, the lack of leadership. We have not had the great remindingof democracy those in democratic societies how we got a strong and rich has got as strong and prosperous. That allow us to live the way we do, so the voices have been louder and the populists have been stronger. Part of where you sit depends on what you are benchmarking against. Institutes and it was founded in 1983 or it i would like to take 30 seconds to describe some of the not born in 1983 what the state of democracy was. It was quite grim. Most of latin america was military or dictatorships. They countries like south korea, taiwan and indonesia were dictatorships. These are now some of the most vibrant democracies in the world. Half of europe was occupied by the soviet army. Germany was divided. Freedom in the World Freedom house. There is a great map of africa shown there was to democracies, one of them being nigeria. Africa is a transformed landscape in terms of what young people want, what they spire to, the old colonial strongmen. It is not perfect, but part of our perspective on democracy needs to be anchored into reality. Collapsed,et union half of the world emerge from totalitarian occupation and there was a huge surge of democracy. There has always been a struggle between freedom and autocracy and guess what, it is back. 1980s, early 1990s, we saw this explosion of Democratic Forces around the world. We have also seen setbacks. Egypt,e a country like it is not always one way. What is new is seeing setbacks in establish democracy in the United States, europe and elsewhere. You reported that freedom of the world last year. I share your optimism. Awayo do think we are far from where we were at the end of world war two. At the end, there were only a couple thousand democracies in the world. Recession over the last 12 or 13 years has been has set us back, but the question really is, are the worlds democracies Democratic Leaders going to push back against these trends . They will not go away unless or thefight them authoritarian tactics all of the world and just going to the question you asked, one of the things the Freedom House reports over the last couple of years is that there has been a weakening in establish democracies. The 40 strongest democracies in , the last five years ine experienced setbacks Civil Liberties and i think that is not good for the global cause of democracy. I would never compare this country to what is happening in turkey, russia or china. People look to the United States and i think right now, we are not sending out the right cues. In terms of the qs, there is our own behavior and what policies we are advocating and what policies we are supporting. I think it is being willing to call out and recognize the dictators for what they are. Get a warmate welcome. It is a messaging and i think it embolden people like that. What are you seeing in terms of that . Does the embrace, how does that affect your work . Is a big problem. At the same time, i think the democrats see and understand the difference between the Trump Administration and his actions and the values of democracy in the United States and they believe the United States is Democratic Values around the world. They are frustrated that they send a very different signal during i think as long as we have the Trump Administration, it will get harder and harder to underscore those values. I think it will get harder for. S to say this is just an anomaly, it is not going to last. We are still supporting human rights and democracy around the world. It now, i think we have the values we hold dear to help people understand what was most dear to them. I think it is difficult for this president. You have served in a number of senior policy positions. On the other hand we had a country that was repressing people. What is the balance when you are dealing with a friendly country innot so for the country terms of balancing the human rights . I think the strongest american president , the strongest leader from both parties including senator mccain or able to walk and chew gum at the same time. They were able to make clear and whenitical as necessary the foreign country you are dealing with was not a pressing its citizens and living up to the standards that we thought those citizens were deserved. Would try to, we find common interests and action actions that could benefit everybody. Doing arms control, being absolutely clear about the human rights situation. I think it is difficult. Diplomat, years as a how to talk to other countries around the world about the strength it gives you, once you submit to press kerry schism press criticism, when youre not afraid to have your opponents when you divest your own tax returns for your assets before you recover, all of the things that america would preach to other countries that were trying to be more derided democratic, but we dont live up to the values ourselves, it would be hard to be wearing americas tshirts out in the without the strong moral backing. Do you feel push back, sometimes you have to feel a little shy about these issues . Actually, democracy budgets are going up. Wonderful freedom polling, maybe you have some more specific numbers, showing that super majority of americans understand and support democracy around the world and what that makes it safer. It is not if the American Public has walked away from the issues. The American Public for alliances has gone up, including nato. I would say in a democracy, politicians are going to follow the public. Of course, they should also lead. Theres a very strong base of support in the United States for americas traditional commitment. There are a lot of students of. Istory here american support for democracy did not start with Ronald Reagan was the origins of the cold war. It started in 1776. We are also seeing a little bit of a gap between love people between people. Groups from young people, one of the things we orrd is noninterference, they should not be [no audio] it is not our job to go out and preach this. How would you come to that . Counter that . I think this was a compelling argument in the 1990s. A lot of people in europe and beyond were asking. Question istal whether or not the u. S. Is intervening. Madero would not be in power if madero would not be in power if it was not for the intervention of russia in the balkans. I went to serve the able in all i heard about was what the russians were up to, iranians were up to, the turks in the balkans and finally, i said what about europe and it turns out there or all these actors out in the world and i would say america fundamentally is a force for good. There are others who are not. Look at libya where turkey and russia are particularly starting to fight each other. Interveningis not in libya, but other actors are. I would add that it is urban legend that the u. S. Has ever with theemocracy germany and japan. What we do is support democratic withs in countries democratic transformations were citizens to use them or when n them. Wi as said, the autocrats are seeking to impose their system and the rules of the road. That is different than saying we betterhe way we live is for individual humans and better for the stability of the planet. Here is how you do it and living up to the values and supporting activists who want to get there. Year the focus groups saying democracy, that is a thing in afghanistan. This is a longstanding tradition and things we can do to help and we cannot impose as we said. You mentioned funding was up which may surprise people because we havent a ministration that is not wholeheartedly committed. What is happening with funding in washington. It is a tremendous testament in congress and democrats. I would say it has always been bipartisan for large part. This is a situation where you who is administration for they aid were saying no to this a ministration, so i think in thee part its credit to consensus exists on the hill. It is also a result of the democracy community to educate and inform members of congress what is rolling what is really going on around the world. The people protesting in hong kong are not doing get because the United States has been involved at all, these are. Eople who need our support and needs to understand that. It is a combination of maybe new members traditionalith some republicans and democrats who have been committed to this for years despite the fact that people in the white house and other branches of government are wholeheartedly opposed to this funding. Even in todays hyperpartisan washington, you are still seeing that kind of prosperity cooperation