Page 22 - CSA Speaker Bulletin September 2018 | CSA Celebrity Speakers

CSA SPEAKER BULLETIN OPINION
The Alliance
of Democracies
BY ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN
Anders Fogh Rasmussen has
been at the center of European
and global politics for three
decades as Secretary General
of NATO and Prime Minister
of Denmark. In 2017 Anders
Fogh Rasmussen founded
The Alliance of Democracies
Foundation, a non-profit
organization dedicated to the
advancement of democracy
and free markets across the
globe.
It is ironic that citizens across the
Western world have never been so
free, so empowered, so peaceful,
and offered so many opportunities; leaders and politicians have failed
and yet many of these same people
no longer feel represented by the
same democratic systems that
delivered these dividends.
As a life-long lover of freedom and
democracy, and of the rules-based
international democratic-led order
that shaped the post-war world,
I believe we must find out what is
going wrong and correct it. This is
why I decided to form a new political
Foundation, called the Alliance of
Democracies. Our aim is to make
democracy great again.
At our inaugural summit in
Copenhagen this June, we saw the
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scale of the challenge. Dalia research
presented the largest single global
study into perceptions towards
democracy. The survey of 125,000
people in 50 countries was sobering,
showing that people have lost faith
in democratic governments, while
non-democratic regimes are instilling
public confidence in the hearts and
minds of their citizens.
Democratic mainstream politicians a worldwide intellectual movement for
cannot shirk their responsibility for this democracy.
disconnect. For too long, legitimate
concerns about issues such as We are also seeking to close a gap
immigration have been dismissed and in the transatlantic response to
promises broken. Likewise, political election meddling by establishing the
Transatlantic Commission on Election
to demonstrate how the global free Integrity. This initiative brings together
trading system brings benefits that far leading politicians, media, business
outweigh any concentrated pitfalls. and tech figures to deliver a united
response to this common challenge,
Meanwhile, autocratic states are and to raise awareness of its scale.
successfully weaponizing our free
societies and interfering in our The stakes could not be any higher. If
elections. They spread fear and the world’s democracies divide and
confusion and turn our freedom into a falter, the only people to benefit will
strategic weakness when it should be be the bad guys: the emboldened
our strongest asset. autocrats and dictators.
The Alliance of Democracies
Foundation is initiating a number
of work streams, from a program of
expeditionary economics to develop
local entrepreneurs in post-conflict
areas, through to a program to build