way to being fully caffeinated and settled in. it's really a treat to be back here. welcome to advancing democracy by her side chat on world leadership and priorities with really terrific assistant secretary, feels good to say those words. my name is jena i'm the executive vice president of the atlantic council a few blocks down the road. on behalf of the council i would like to extend my tremendous thanks to executive vice president, patrick, scott and their colleagues all of you here at the international republican institute for hosting us this morning and to our audience for joining us. we are confident today's discussion will provide important insights into the future of u.s. strategy and leadership in the pursuit of democracy across the globe.

especially under such trying circumstances. the atlantic council mission is to shape the global future together with partners and allies. essential to that mission is the freedom and prosperity center that we have at the council. with this mission of promoting the well-being of the poor and marginalized populations around the world the center produces key research explain the interplay between prosperity, democracy and freedom. like so many around the world that we believe the best way to defend freedom and democracy is to assure the evidence of this benefit. so the freedom and prosperity center does just that. it's indices that it produces show democracy and the rule of law are really essential ingredients for true long-term prosperity. this is an un- biased data driven fact-based argument against these autocratic models. much of the center's research focuses on the pursuit of democracy around the rug along with the world the u.s. and the

allies play in promoting the democratic institutions in developing countries all of his work so hard to safeguard. has been a key collaborator of the century in producing this research together our organizations have produced multiple reports and events on democracy and elections launch a paper series analyzing multiparty system in different regions around the world. this research the conversation will have here today is much needed. the 2024 addition indices launched this past june and showed a growing trend. democracy as we know continues to be in decline political freedom has plummeted to a 24 year low treatment by a world wide curtailment of civil liberties. restrictions on freedom of expression and information and a decrease to the number of free and fair elections. data from the embassy shows this decline is not specific to one

region but is truly present throughout the world. including north america and western europe. in this context nearly 50% of the worlds population has already castro will cast about in a national election this year. the largest number in history. and so with authoritarian trends on the rise, democracy is on the line in many of these cases. this year has already shown us all five of the spectrum from peaceful and fair elections in taiwan and south africa to authoritarian leader refusing to release stranglehold power in venezuela. it's more important than ever to promote democracy at home and abroad. that's the heart of american foreign policy. the bureaus democracy human rights and labor at the state department plays a crucial role in the american efforts to protect and promote freedom, democracy and human rights.

i'm especially delighted to introduce the bureaus newly and finally confirmed assistant secretary. assistant secretary iran brings to the poor a wealth of experience serving numerous rolls in the state department along with national security council. this might be your fifth or sixth time back in the department. then at the for new american security. she did academic holding a doctorate in political science from columbia and numerous security and democratic reform in the middle east and north africa. just one week ago she was appointed by the white house to serve on the commission on security and cooperation in europe. bring your diplomatic skills to protect human rights and freedom across the region at a time of tremendously increasing importance printed together here we also have patrick work vice

president strategy impact patrick also served as a nonresident senior fellow for the freedom and prosperity center at the atlantic council. lots of points of intersection. patrick is been instrumental in helping to develop freedom and prosperity center research and programming on freedom and democracy. this year alone he has authored or co-authored five reports for the council offering a variety of concrete policy initiatives for the u.s. government to promote democracy abroad. he also cocreated our state of the parties paper series and collaborate with the council on three events featuring some of washington's top democracy experts. patrick and assistant secretary randy pre-think is so much for joining us and look forward to hearing your thoughts and expertise. thank you again assistant secretary iran for joining us.

to have a confirmed leader at the helm of this bureau. roughly two issue months onto the role i thought i would start strengthening democracy overseas where are you directing your team to focus on and why? >> first i should just say thank you so much for that warm and generous introduction. it is so compelling what you are doing in terms of enacting the act both democratic norms and process and governance. both contested and it's important u.s. policy. what are the benefits in terms of the economic local governance benefits international security benefit and awards were democracy is on the rise and

allies and collaborating. so that the thank you to you into iri which is a great partner. its many, many decades on partnership here and we are so honored to be a funder, a spot partner looks close to my heart is the work being done at research. thank you to kimber and patrick for having the vision to turn to iri. to both the programmatic organization that does work on the ground and evaluation. to your question, one of my main goals of taking the helm is to reflect president biden in the biden administration's priorities and to make the case for why we are in the geopolitical context. looking back to the national security strategy president biden wrote a couple years ago clear emphasis returned to the

great power competition. no one is happy it is a fact facing america's international security. amongst other threats and opportunities. i committed to all of you. my job is to explain the why. what are we competing about? what's a clash of ideas between us and the prc? between us and russia? flushing that out both internally and strategists who question to both within the government. and then and most importantly as a diplomat. explaining we are not in a competition just to score a point on the board. this is not competition for competition sake. as a real war of ideas out there.

is truly marketplace. our countries shopping around for which approach to go toward is whether it is better to govern through authoritarian that might make right as its right approach. also secures the power, the patronage and economic resources at the hands of the few representing the citizens in the country. that is one model we do not believe in the united states government is the right model. it does not align with the u.s. democratic value. more importantly it does not align versus the global norms on governance that have been repeatedly agreed upon the charter. is not just america imposing its ideas on the world. this is a reflection of right in consideration that goes back at least to 1945 in the post-world

war ii order. we are competing over the decision we think and support allow citizens to reflect their aspiration to achieve opportunity. allows for greater stability, economic prosperity and international security. fundamentally democratic governance might not be ideal. might have a lot of flags. but essentially been proven to be better or at least a bad mood the world has experience in modern time. when we compete with the prc, we are trying to shore up our examples of why the transatlantic alliance. it's not because of this hubert. it's not because of the american empire. it's about this clash of ideas

is being contested every day. i should say finally, because i will stop here, this is all very theoretical i could get into somehow the manifestation. this is not competition the united states and her allies asked for. there is a revisionism among the authoritarian the autocrats in the world. there is a bandwagon among the authoritarian to depose their system, their idea, their vision on others. this is again not an imperial democracy. it standing up for what we believe in and out of revisionism, regression and imposition the prc, russia authoritarian order that we think is deeply. excellent unpack those this pris the broader vision. start with challenges. the biden administration see as the most potent threats to democracies overseas?

and along with that why does that benefit u.s. taxpayer? >> okay, there are so many answers here. limits are the few examples. i gave you would be good theory it never going to bring it down to real foreign policy that we at the state department gravel is the right word because we don't think we have all the answers. foreign policy is a debate. yourcostly debating the right approach. we believe some the greatest threats come again from this revision of authoritarian model. we believe that, and i'll give you a few examples here. the prc has pioneered and others have followed a practice, and transnational repression. not only do they go after dissidents and civil society, journalists and bloggers within the prc, now are emboldened to go after disadvantage in chinese nationals remove those have been exiled or fled.

this is extremely dangerous to the american taxpayer. this means the united states is fair game for the prc and others. and again because there's a modeling and a copycat effect here others including russia and other authoritarian assistants are learning here that borders do not mean a sovereign right to in europe, in the united states, and latin america, this is very dangerous for this is a world where security is not confined to the nationstates. threats are transnational. that is a very real practical implication for american security. taxpayers should care about this not just for security but also because americans want to live in a world where they can trade, do business, go to school,

travel all over the world. right? it's inherently and again since jefferson's time this is not new. but the evacuation is at the top. if you go around america people are proud of the peace corps cot experiences. the mission abroad. we are deeply international in our mindset. and so to have a world where it's not safe for your kids to study abroad it's not safe for your business to do business. where the rules on the road and the rules of governance, of economic interdependence are being distorted is essentially not good for america's prosperity. for america's safety and for the magnification and the representation of what america stands for. i could go on and on of other examples for the transnational

repression is incredibly dangerous and urgent. >> list again a bit more to the various ways in which its weakening democracy overseas. research from the atlanta counseling prosperity center shows bulletproof evidence prc is actively working to undermine political freedoms across the globe. every major region. you nicely articulated the view is as to ways in which the ccp is a threat to democracy. could you elaborate out ccp collusion and the kremlin which is now also well documented how does that exacerbate challenge. >> this in bandwagon this alliance information among autocrats that i mentioned is deeply worrisome. it's manifesting right now in the ccp alliance of convenience, a transactional relationship between the prc and the kremlin. so for example the ccp is offering manufacturing

industrial help to russia that essentially in the defense industrial base and russia which then indirectly or directly helps the war machine. we and our allies and much of the world has stood up and said absolutely unacceptable russia to invade ukraine and a gross violation of international norms february 2022. again defending the un charter. defending the issues the ideals of sovereignty. defendant the notion again of democracy has a right to govern its people have expressed and desired. this on the precious war machine and continuing ability to fight in ukraine is deeply worrisome. that is one example. i want to talk a little bit now about russia what russia is doing. it's model of promotion of authoritarian is different in

flavor. the ccp is maneuvering behind the scenes, is trying to make deals. it's very self-interested in many ways and what is trying to do around the world. and it essentially has a huge number of people that has to keep happy so this needs the economic while is to continue to turn. do not want to diminish or at all suggest is not dangerous. it's a different model because it's trying to capture and exploit resources and workers around the world. russia in the past couple of years is make the policy decision to actively try to overturn an upset democratically elected governments. going after some of the weakest also elsewhere around the world there's an internal domestic fight between parties or between different factions. and tries really hard for the

democratic. i want to talk a bit about georgia because that's really alarming to us in the u.s. government right now after 12 years the georgia dream will have a very contested election. and we see this play out in terms of russia trying very hard to support this party essentially copycat bypassing a foreign agent law that limits society. limits human rights organizations limits the ability of expression of alternative ideas to the ruling party to critique to suggest new ideas which is everyone knows here is critical for healthy election. and so with these elections sels starting around january or february russia and the georgia dream have tried really hard to compress this space for political opposition in so many ways.

so much so we in the state department responded by using our visa designation to really hold accountable those who conceive of this idea of the foreign agents. we could talk about the leverage. but we have to hold those who come to light with the russia model and themselves are in the system accountable. we are deeply worried about these elections. they are only fair if there can be a free debate. there is no problem if georgia dream went fairly and squarely at the limit the ability for the people of georgia to express their desire. and meanwhile back to the point of connectivity between what happens domestically and what happens in a more theoretical framework of international relations, 80% of the georgian people are aspiring towards greater e you inclinations.

there is a process. the people want to be closer to the eu and want to go through the reform process the secession involved. the limitation and the involvement of russia is trying really hard to bring the georgian government and people back and that's just unacceptable so i'll stop right there talk about georgia i think you'll get the point that we are worried the u.s. governments watching at the very highest level. >> you have really compellingly laid out the challenge to democracies overseas and the ways in which the biden administration is thinking about them. let's switch a bit too wet it is and will do to address them. we need to prioritize challenges and finite resources to do something about that. something perhaps it's uniquely positioned giving up prior

leaning with this constraint in mind how are you directing your team to supporting civil society was spending resources on for example strengthening core pillars of democracy for the parties legislatures given the critique so it raised recently noting has skewed funding towart supporting civil society advocacy and away from the core pillars of democracy. >> i'm glad you asked this question. because again it back to our partnership with you all, with iri this is a change of foreign assistance is with the heart of drl mission. for many decades has sponsored supported and encouraged in very generous appropriations year in year out that are bipartisan in nature the support is vast and wide. and strong as i learned. foreign assistance in drl is a

significant probably one of our main lovers of the promotion of democracy, human rights, civil society, standards et cetera. the question you're answering is how we go about doing it? i first i would recommend everyone read on our website our strategy. the strategy talks about the different pillars of democratic support. including the procedural part. including party support which we are talking about. including the complementary support for civil society and the support for other institutions including independent journalists which is a key part of artwork in drl. our support for transitional justice to enable society to hold accountable themselves the authoritarians in their path that might have suppressed rates. with the theory towards deterring future repression. our strategy lays out the different pillars or freedom of

expression, or tenderness in government and freedom are interest in technology and human rights et cetera. it is a vast strategy it really informs our proposal process. i think people are familiar its deeply competitive per the rules of the road assigned by congress and enforced by drl which has to do with ensuring we get really good, cutting edge proposals that really make the case for impact. so in addition to our strategy which governs how we spend our money we are always looking for new ideas. that's the secret. we are always taking big bets in her 30 -- 40 year history of doing foreign assistance in our bureau on making these crazy out-of-the-box ideas. but have the potential to cultivate an impact five, 10, 15 years these beds have paid off again and again. so i like to say it's almost the angel investment firm inside

state department foreign assistance. we are creative. we are longtime thinkers and then we stop but we don't see something working. i think that is a key part of our secret that's always the case in foreign assistance there is a lock in dependency which i can say with great familiarity per my previous job. drl we start new ideas and new theories of change and end ones that are not working. we are interested in the impact spirit interested in what was he working. we are interested in the comparative key studies within regents seeing what works and is venezuela. and now we see this authoritarianism in nicaragua, comparing those two. we do that a lot in a foreign assistance approach. now, i think i answered that what i would just add us on her only lover of change. i could talk a little bit if you would like about the other mechanisms needed. >> is a great segue to my final question before me too audience

q&a pretty mention this in your opening, how is drl incorporating evidence? what works and why to his offending decisions? >> maybe i'll start where i left off. enumerating our strategies. it's a very healthy and robust and growing pot of money. we collaborate very close with h usaid which is also growing. it's drg and promotion on had correction assistance program. other bureaus in state department i should add that we have a collaborative strategy. in a distance to foreign assistance we are growing in the area of sanctions that are directly targeting the actors that are promoting democracy but we have the woman next to me which drl i'm actually 10 years ago when i was last in drl. the idea they were just limited

to what had happened with this great human rights defender and opposition is to russia could be repeated and iterated on globally. appreciated the tool because it allows us to have a smart sanction that the drivers entrepreneurs shall we say and some of the systems promoting the authoritarianism correction. happy these services are held accountable sit look, they are doing terrible things to their people. if they are stealing money, if they are repressing dissident and civil society. to stop it from getting. it's a state department's purview to give at will. so we're using the visa restrictions and what we are finding in terms of evidence and learning and analyzing this tool which is relatively new, it has

a fact of naming and shaming internally. there is a status to being able to travel abroad. so some of the systems of the georgia were adjusted our policies, ironic were we have done it very deliberately and carefully to punish and give consequences and accountability to the visuals and were active in pushing back on and really jailing all of the leaders of the women's rights movement a few years ago.

we are working on controls. we don't believe they have the right to control expert controls that is how u.s. governments i'm sorry u. s. companies are given the right to export hand to sell in a broad area countries so you just go through the state department and we don't believe these are items that can be used for journalists independent activists lgbtq leaders should be allowed a license. and the department of commerce agrees. we target export control to not give you one example. there's commercial spyware which is a thread on many levels to national security and when it's misused by authoritarian regimes that used to really get into the personal computers and to stop the work of civil society and civil dissonance so we've been successful of commerce at saying

no to an export commercial spyware company that was trying to do business with an authoritarian regime and they had no idea frankly this company with their product would be used for. there were some barest not embarrass the so alarmed about the product they created a company policy to only sell and do business in democracy but that's an example of the impact and the fact of our export control and finally i will highlight dhs working on supply-chain issues and this goes back to the biden priority. i'm happy to be able to institutionalize them good to add a flavor to and really implement directly which is the biden administration has focused on supply-chain sprint competitors such as the prc and we know about the chipset in many ways in which the biden administration created a smart industrial policy to make sure american workers and american companies get a fair damage when

the supply-chain traces back to support business practice and economic collection so as part of the supply-chain you can see some products in the world can be sourced back to xinjiang province in the prc where uighur populations that are often detained and held against their will in conditions for forced to some of the products for these companies that end up as an international supply chain. dhs we are trying to implement the new act that senator rubio and other members of congress passed a couple of years ago which says that there was forced labor by uyghurs in the supply-chain that product can be imported into the united states and we are big importers amid the big market of consumers and the goal here is to send a

signal to international business and companies in the industrial sector that we will not allow for this sourcing of uyghurs and it's been productive work with dhs because the agency will work with us to check on the supply-chain on the resourcing of labor and we are proud of that work. it's a bit of a pilot experiment to try to, prevent and i do want to say punish. enact consequences for practice of labor conditions. so that's an example i'd give of evidence. >> it's great to hear the whole of government approach to address multiple things we talked about it now you get to ask the assistant secretary your question based on her schedule we have time for three so if you

do have a question please queue behind the microphones here in the room and i would ask that you make the question brief and give your name and title and as folks come up to the microphones i will take one on line which is how does the biden administration balance the push for democracy overseas with strengthening and maintaining relationships with non-democratic countries? >> this is the core of the daily work and frankly i mentioned before foreign policy was a big debates on the state department we are having fruitful productive debates every day and at every single level. on how to strengthening alliance and partnerships working together on global security concerns while attending to her concerns about democratization. this balance and i hate to you to use the word builds that

recognizing the interconnectedness for example of some of our countries and i would list for example egypt is very concerned about domestic human rights record that is not necessarily getting any better. there we have a very important security partnership within egypt and we work with our colleagues and experts in the embassy handed washington to try to make the case diplomatically. i didn't mention it's the core to the mission to use our diplomatic engagement to make the case for the government of egypt that essentially this is not good for partnership and the largest country that so young is not a recipe for stability, so using our diplomatic relationship to really make this case. we try to create and work with

our colleagues and our embassies and our diplomats and the secretary and the president and others to make the case that you can do both at once. you can integrate the promotion of democracy and concerns about human rights even while you're shoring up another issues with interactions and relationships that relate to security concerns are third-party concerns etc.. i would just note turkey is another one that is a country that's so critical and a known ally. we need to work with turkey especially because it's gotten wrapped in the middle east and europe with the arrest of journalists. >> lets come into the room here, please. >> good morning.

my question, hindu families in the country in the community in the area echoes all over the country. nobody is being accountable and they are not -- they cannot do that. rather they are talking and associated with other parties.

they are more people dying every day in my family is afraid to move anywhere else. they cannot provide safety on the other hand there is terrorism. [inaudible] on the other hand those people in the police and our war criminals. he was a war criminal.

my question is here in america it's a big country and you are working for the democracy and security and please consider the hindu people in bangladesh at the same time all these terrorists and jihadists every day tantalizing every day. so thank you so much. >> thank you so much for that question and i'm so glad i have a chance to talk about bangladesh because on one hand i can say i'm excited about the opportunities for a democratic transition and also wording concerned because i know from my

own experience their transitions that this period right after a dictator flees and falls can be really fragile and really difficult especially protecting minority rights which is the issue you've mentioned and which every day my bureau and other bureaus at the state department are working on because we know how critical it is to show that democracy delivers that a new leadership can protect security and can ensure inclusivity and can hold accountable those who have committed crimes against their people. untraditional justice we are making a significant effort in working with the u.n. and the u.n. high commissioner for human rights and we just met with him to talk about bangladesh and its efforts to go out there and to lead an international team to focus on traditional justice to hold as you say them accountable

mohammed has agreed to come back and lead this transition and that is an incredible market public service because again he's been in exile. he is coming back and he has a very hard job to lead in this transition environment when people want to see again democracy delivered. we are thinking the us government how to help them. deliver and protection of minorities deliver on security to make sure there is no jihadists threats. they want to make the case that democracy is bad which we don't want. we are trying to help a homak and the secretary nights is met with him two weeks ago at the u.n. and he's working very hard. one thing he's trying to do which is top of mind is to work on jobs. he understands correctly that the students in the streets who

are part of this movement in late july and august were really expressing their frustration of a lack of opportunity economically. he is also trying to signal internationally that bangladesh has had this moment of instability. that's two things he is doing aware tie to help them. we are trying to work with the labor condition which has long been a concern for decades actually and many american products are sourced through manufacturing in bangladesh so we are very -- working very quickly to make sure there's an agreement between unions which are very strong but have not been traditionally supported by civil society organizations so those are some of the things we are doing. of course to all of this we are promoting and pushing of rule of law which is lacking in bangladesh. a rule of law for beinart is the rule of law for tracking down

shehada some and any kind of terrorist threat to the people of bangladesh and the protection of the ratings who have fled from burma into bangladesh and who have been having a right to be protected. the people are incredibly generous so we are working with them to make sure that continues. these are some of things we are doing. above all else we are working to make it clear that it's very tricky to take over an interim transition and we have the balance speed in delivering with getting himself out of office in calling for elections and aiding a roadmap for the people for what comes next. i'm so glad you asked about this and be assured the most senior levels of our different when to stand the opportunities we understand the challenges.

>> so critical in addition to combating the many threats we have been talking about. yes, sir come to the microphone. we will round us up at the third and final question and then we will close. >> you didn't mention it so what is your assessment for what we should do more of what this country and actively supporting democracy. we hope ukraine will win the war against russia and there'll be changes including in russia. this is a strategic question do you think -- what can we do now to support them.

there will be changes in opposition leaders are expelled or imprisoned. any chance to using social media to support democracy? thank you. >> two great questions. let me see if i can answer them in order. on belarus first of all i want to thank the with a link -- the lithuanian people and the government of lithuania because it has become the center for the belarusian opposition with great i think effort by everyone in lithuania to understand the need to protect these individuals many of them who are in deep danger because of their transnational oppression that i i describe before so for example two weeks ago when i was in new york some of the belarusian opposition and was there and you

should have seen the bodyguard that had to surround these people. they are really scared when they leave their homes. so thank you to the lithuanian people for supporting the opposition but one thing i learned when i talk to them if you weeks ago was i asked where's the learning coming from, from moscow or from minsk to mosque and they said lukashenko is teaching the kremlin had to do the tricks in terms of oppression surveillance and the marginalization of anyone who would express a different view and that was deeply concerning. we are working on prisoner releases for example and that there means we have two hold accountable the individuals in the belarusian government with sanctions. we are focused on it and i would also go to u.s. congress was focused on an commend senator cardin and many members of the

senate and congress in a bipartisan fashion who have been focusing on the belarusian problem. the second question i think is a strategic big picture question of how do we first of all the west and the west is supported by the russian people. this is not a concern of the people of russia and we need to repeat that again and again bute russian people and not on then russian national identity. it's a simple effort to protect the territorial integrity of the ukrainian government the people and literally right to exist. i think we need to make that clear. the question of where's public opinion in supporting the war machine and imperialism this is a very important question i think in the long-term would need to help the russian people and body polity can detach their nationalism from the concept of purism because the two have been

intertwined and fortunately. and this goes back to georgia and moldova where there has been intervention because the context of russian nationalism and its views. again i do believe that many many russian people want to normalize and hundreds of people want interconnectivity etc., etc.. this is why we need alliance. we need alliances with lithuania and alliances with our nato partners and alliances all over the world to help push back on this nationalist imperialist pro authoritarianism regime at this as part of our strategy and we are trying to enlist partners all over the world. essentially the need to help ukraine defend itself because it's a litmus test of our resolve. >> to rap us up first and

foremost i wanted to thank secretary rand for being here we truly appreciate you taking the time and all the prep that went into the session today and thanks to our partners at the atlantic council for joining us and thanks to all of you for joining us here in person and on line. have a great dane we will see you next time. thank you. [applause]