Earlier this week, RDI hosted its annual Frontlines of Freedom conference on combating transnational repression and foreign authoritarian influence in open societies.

In Washington, DC, we brought together dissidents, business leaders, academics, and policymakers to discuss the scope of the authoritarian threat, what America can do to defend itself, and how democracies can begin working together to reinvigorate our shared survival instinct.

Conference panel topics included storytelling for dissidents, tyranny and technology, and authoritarian influence on US college campuses, among many others. After the end of two packed days of stimulating discussions, we ended the conference on Wednesday evening with a sober and moving minute of silence for all those who are arbitrarily detained by authoritarian regimes across the globe.

A full recap of FOFCON 2024 will come later in November. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, our attention now turns towards the US elections next week.

“This is the most important election of our lifetimes.” It’s a refrain we hear every four years. Regardless of whether the correct answer is 2024 or 2016 or some other year, it's hard not to conclude that polarization has reached a fever pitch.

Americans on both sides of the political divide could not be more anxious about our country’s future. When our political rhetoric heats up, all too often we verge into false equivalencies. Worse, political violence has come perilously close to subverting out country’s legal and political process.

It’s hard not to conclude that we have become unmoored. For Americans, our freedom becomes almost irrelevant, mere ambient noise. We seem more aware about what is wrong with our lives than what is right.

Dissidents, however, are much less likely to get lost at sea. To those who have experienced the alternative of authoritarian systems and are now exiled in free societies, it is impossible to lose perspective.

In open societies, we have the great privilege to vote for our leaders. RDI Senior Fellow Evan Mawarire has never voted in a free and fair election in his home country of Zimbabwe. An American of the same age has voted in seven. It is a truth so easy to lose in the noisy and incessant political back-and-forth.

Much is at stake in the upcoming election next week, but, in the end, what is most important is that the democratic process is respected. We want to continue to have free and fair elections. Americans of all perspectives must respect the peaceful transfer of power.

Dissidents provide us with a gut check. They remind us of where we are and also of what could be. They anchor us.

Dissidents know what a real stolen election looks like. We still live in a country with free and fair elections. Treasure that truth this coming week.

If you haven’t voted already, get out there and exercise your right to choose your leader.

As Americans prepare to vote, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin reminds us of the stakes of the election: the preservation of our democracy. Rubin quotes RDI Chairman Garry Kasparov as well as two of RDI’s Senior Fellows Evan Mawarire and Félix Maradiaga about their encounters with authoritarianism in their home countries. When authoritarian figures co-opt democratic institutions, it is often the first step in eroding the values and norms that free people care about.

2. Holding up a mirror to American society

“When people are in a democracy, they have a difficulty seeing themselves from the outside,” RDI Senior Fellow Evan Mawarire observed to Monocle’s global affairs radio show “The Briefing.” “By virtue of being in the in-group, it is difficult to see yourself as the out-group views you.” In that way, dissidents hold up a mirror to their host country. “We may not have been able to defend democracy in our homes, but we are able to defend it where it still exists,” Mawarire noted.

3. Two billionaires talk geopolitics

Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin have been talking. The Wall Street Journal recently revealed details from their conversations. Over the years, Musk’s companies are important contractors with US military and intelligence agencies, most saliently through Starlink. Musk’s relationship with Putin is concerning for several reasons, not least that it may allow the foreign dictator insights into sensitive American security information. According to two people briefed on the discussion, “At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.”

4. International Day of Political Prisoners

On October 30, we commemorated the International Day of Political Prisoners, which honors the victims affected by the authoritarian practice of arbitrary detention. In July 2021, Félix Maradiaga was arbitrarily arrested by authorities in Nicaragua after announcing his intentions to run for president. He was then sent to a maximum-security prison, where he endured inhumane conditions for 21 months. Thanks to the advocacy of his wife Berta Valle, in February 2023, he and 221 other political prisoners were released to the United States.

5. Russian support for Red Sea attacks

In the Red Sea, the Houthis attacked global shipping lanes earlier this year with information provided by the Kremlin. “For Russia, any flare up anywhere is good news, because it takes the world’s attention further away from Ukraine and the U.S. needs to commit resources—Patriot systems or artillery shells—and with the Middle East in play, it’s clear where the U.S. will choose,” Alexander Gabuev, director of of the Berlin-based Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, commented to The Wall Street Journal. Authoritarians are increasingly collaborating with one another. That includes working with their proxies too.

Dictators Without Borders

The US hasn’t yet come to grips with the full scope of the threat emanating from Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran.

By Sohan Mewada — October 24, 2024