Liberal democracy is in trouble

The best possible way for Korea to safeguard its national interests is to unite with the West to fit its national stature and protect the liberal international order.

Chung Jae-hongThe author is an international, diplomatic and security news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo. Liberal order is being threatened around the globe as authoritarian states are increasingly gaining power. While Russian President Vladimir Putin has the upper hand in the war against Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping is steadfastly strengthening his grip on power. In the United States, former president Donald Trump is leading incumbent President Joe Biden in many polls ahead of the November election. In Europe, far-right political parties are gathering force by exploiting the anti-immigration sentiment there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during their summit talks on Oct. 18, 2023.

Russia launched its largest raid on Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2021. On Dec. 29. Putin vowed to continue attacking the neighbor. Given his remarkable approval rating at 79.3 percent in a recent poll, he will surely win the presidential election in March. If Trump wins in the U.S. election amid Americans’ deepening fatigue with the protracted Russia-Ukraine war, it will certainly benefit Putin. With the U.S. and Europe’s support for Ukraine declining sharply, Putin will augment Russia’s offensives against Ukraine. He then may end the war after getting the West’s recognition for the territories Russia occupied.

In his New Year’s address, Chinese President Xi Jinping made clear his determination to unify Taiwan by stressing “the historical inevitability of the unification of the fatherland.” That is a warning to Taiwanese voters ahead of their presidential election on Jan. 13, according to the Financial Times. If the pro-U.S. Democratic Progressive Party upholding the independence of Taiwan wins the election, the conflict between China and Taiwan will be heightened. Xi is bent on consolidating his power by rooting out corruption and purging military leaders. He is convinced of an ultimate victory of China’s socialism over U.S. capitalism. In a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in San Francisco last year, Xi said, “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.” That reflects Xi’s perspective that China’s authoritarianism can coexist with American liberalism.

In Europe, far-right parties are expected to expand their power in the European Parliament in its June election. A massive influx of immigrants from Syria and Libya now undergoing a civil war helps spread the anti-immigration sentiment across the continent. If right-wing extremism prevails under such circumstances, it will critically affect the international order starting with a drastic reduction in the West’s support for Ukraine.

The biggest problem is the United States’ dramatic turn to “America First.” As the bastion of liberal democracy, the United States led the international order based on market economy. America’s overwhelming military power has kept key maritime routes safe and enabled the rest of the world to prosper since the end of World War II. But after suffering gargantuan losses from its methodical engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq, voices are growing in America to focus on domestic affairs rather than international ones to protect U.S. interests. The massive illegal immigration from Syria as a result of former U.S. President Barack Obama’s reluctance to intervene in the civil war in the Middle East also helped the far-right political parties increasingly gain power in Europe.

If Trump is re-elected in the November election with the catchphrase of America First 2.0, the world will be more leaning toward authoritarianism. If he is re-elected, he will reignite his instinct to pull out U.S. forces from Korea and NATO and prompt the retreat of free trade and strengthening of protectionism by imposing a universal 10 percent tariff on all imports. In an interview with ABC News, Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House director of strategic communications, warned that re-electing Trump could mean “the end of American democracy as we know it.”

In his 2018 book “The Jungle Grows Back,” author Robert Kagan, a neoconservative, pointed to the U.S. power as the reason for the maintenance of the international order after World War II. But that order is being intimidated as America’s prowess declines and both conservatives and liberals shun U.S. intervention in global issues. If the liberal world order collapses, the law of the jungle will prevail.

Korea benefited from the liberal international order. Its export-oriented economic policy was successful largely thanks to the free trade order championed by America. But if authoritarianism intensifies, Korea’s leverage in trade will weaken. The best possible way for Korea to safeguard its national interests is to unite with the West to fit its national stature and protect the liberal international order.