The Biggest Threat To Democracy

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Just give me a sense of how strong you think the autocratic threat is.

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, Christiane, I do believe that the autocratic threat around the globe is quite significant, which is why this G7 foreign ministers summit is so important It will be the first convening of this group after the rather bizarre four years of the Trump administration. And I fully expect Secretary Blinken to take a leadership role, because there’s great commonality of interests among those seven countries And so the United States needs to lead the way and to ensure that the democratic governments that are of greatest concern — that has great concern right now about what’s happening around the world, that they forge a consensus about how to deal with this rising authoritarianism. So I do think it’s a very important and critical meeting that is taking place in London.

AMANPOUR: Just very quickly, do you think that, under Trump — you said the unfortunate four years of Trump — those autocracies were emboldened, not just ideologically, but actually in terms of operationally?

BRENNAN: Well, I do. I think Donald Trump demonstrated his own authoritarian tendencies and did not really have much respect for the rule of law here in the United States. And so I think he was emboldening a lot of authoritarian leaders around the globe. Look at the way he dealt with Vladimir Putin, as well as with other authoritarian leaders. So I do think that those leaders were given a pass during those four years and decided to further their authoritarian actions. Now under President Biden, I think the United States is going to take a much different tack in dealing with these authoritarian regimes. And that’s why gathering together with the United States’ closest allies and partners is critically important to make sure that they are able to forge this consensus position to push back against authoritarian tendencies around the globe.

AMANPOUR: So, they did talk about Russia and China and those challenges. And, as I said, they invited for other allied nations. And most of those, in fact, they’re all from Asia or Southeast Asia, right? So it’s that area. The consensus seems to be that China is the one that poses the biggest threat. And the secretary of state said that China, “the one country in the world that has the military, economic, diplomatic capacity to undermine or challenge the rules-based order represented by the Western alliance. ” Do you agree? And, if so, how does one confront China?

BRENNAN: Well, I think, as Secretary Blinken said in an interview over the weekend, the United States is not trying to keep China down. It’s trying to do what it can to make sure that China plays by the rules of the international order,