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| A/O Global Intelligence Weekly: Authoritarian Thought Control in the 21st Century |
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The United States and its allies are now emerging from a complete focus on the “War on Terror”, into a realization that we have entered into a new “Great Power conflict”. In the last decade, Russia and China have embarked on policies of dominance in their regions. Russia appears to be seeking great power global status, even though its small economy will make those ambitions hard to sustain.
The danger to the West is not just Great Power competition but a competition of ideas. While the West remains committed to democracy, liberty and human rights, the alternative offered by Russia and China is authoritarianism. This competitions for the mind of the citizens of the world is the new challenge that will define the 21st century.
Western democracies still base the legitimacy of their governments on free, open and fair elections. This idea of legitimacy still prevails in the world today, while within authoritarian countries there remains the obligation to conduct elections and convene parliaments -- even if the elections are rigged or sham elections.
The key to government legitimacy in the 21st century remains a vote in an election to establish the consent of the governed. For this reason, authoritarian governments control the information available to their citizens.
We here at American Opportunity/Free Congress Foundation do not believe that the control of information in our mass media, cable T.V., internet society is possible. Nevertheless, Russia seems to be tightening the availability of information to their citizens. For instance, on April 11, 2019 the lower chamber of the Russian Duma advanced a law requiring all internet traffic to be routed through Russian servers. On April 16, 2019 the Russian Duma advanced the measure creating an independent Russian internet the “Rusnet”. This action seeks to create a “firewall” from western internet structures. The Russian government offers these measures with the excuse that they have to be protected from American ability to cut Russia off from the internet in time of conflict.
Liberty is based on knowledge, education, and information. That foundation of liberty was recognized in the American Declaration of Independence and in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. The same concept of rights is set out in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, which defined the right of all people “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Besides sending a message that Russia is preparing for information wars against those it sees as adversaries, it has the effect of cutting the Russian people off from information that will enable them to think, act critically, and protect their own human rights from their own authoritarian government. Civil freedom groups in Russia have expressed that fear.
Russian government behavior supports that fear. On April 15, 2019, the websites of internet news webpages in Russia were blocked by Russian government action. The websites had reported that graffiti painted on a police station in Russia had violated a new law against insulting public officials on-line.
More after the jump. . . |
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