Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has cemented a hard truth that our generation must reconcile with: ours is an age of increasing authoritarianism that we must fight against.
Motivated by nationalism and facilitated by Russia’s authoritarian, undemocratic political system, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought an unseen level of violence to Europe since the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s and shown that the consequences of authoritarian government extend beyond harmful domestic policy. Authoritarianism, without the checks on power inherent in democratic systems, allows countries like Russia to initiate war without popular consensus. And clearly, as we can see from the protests that have erupted throughout the country against the war, the actions of Russia can not be said to be democratically justified by the people.
The empathetic compulsion to help Ukrainians that I have seen so many Americans express is admirable and good, but we should keep in mind that posting Instagram infographics and donating to the Ukrainian government won’t solve the crisis alone. While helpful, none of these actions address the root cause of the violence in Ukraine in the first place, authoritarianism.
I propose a different way to help Ukraine: combatting authoritarianism whenever and wherever it shows up. While there is little that we as individuals can do to directly improve Ukraine’s situation, authoritarianism is a global issue. In saying that, I don’t simply mean that authoritarianism is a problem outside of Russia and Ukraine, I mean that authoritarian governments across the world draw political legitimacy from each other’s continued existence. The more corrupted a nation becomes with nationalist and authoritarian rhetoric, the more likely the country next to it is to suffer the same fate. This creates a global culture in which authoritarian governance becomes more popular and morally acceptable. Compounding this problem is the fact that, the more successful authoritarian countries become, the more likely other nations are to imitate authoritarian models.
Authoritarianism is not just a Russian issue. Authoritarian regimes and tendencies have been emerging and intensifying all over the world, with many democratic nations electing right-wing populists that undermine the democratic process and push nationalist narratives. The United States is no exception, evidenced by Donald Trump’s attempts at election subversion in 2020 and policy pursued by Republicans across the country pushing for voter suppression laws. In Mississippi, Republican legislators betray their commitment to conservative values and democracy in favor of educational authoritarianism, banning instruction on critical race theory. Authoritarianism is clearly not just a problem abroad, but something that we have to confront within our own borders.
The best way to combat authoritarian governments is to ensure that your own government maintains and promotes democracy above all else. The warmongering, authoritarian rulers in the world today have shown that we can not treat authoritarian governance as a far-away issue. Beyond mistreating their own citizens, many authoritarian nations, such as Russia, are itching to expand their territory and accomplish political goals through invasion and war. In a nuclear world, this could lead to global annihilation.
If we are to counter these nations and prevent the violence they aim to bring about, then we need to maintain a powerful, global coalition of democratic states. Additionally, if we want to protect other countries from invasion by rogue states in the near future, then we must also prevent our own nation from slipping into authoritarian, undemocratic governance — a task I fear will be hard to prevent. I hope our generation is up to the challenge, because if we are not, I am certain that Ukraine won’t be the only democratic country in jeopardy in the coming years.
Hal Fox is a sophomore majoring in Chinese and international studies from Robert, Louisiana.
