There is no natural democratic world order.

Unless democracies defend themselves together, the forces of autocracy will destroy them.

China, Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Nicaragua, Hungary, and many others are at war with democracy

Why? Because democracy, anti-corruption and justice are dangerous to their autocratic power. The language of democracy is the language of freedom. It’s the antithesis of tyranny and dictatorship.

This war is not theoretical or academic. It requires armies, strategies, weapons, and long-term plans. It requires much closer allied cooperation, not only in Europe but in the Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. It requires free and open communications on a scale never seen before. Total communications.

Why haven’t we built a Russian-language television station to compete with Putin’s propaganda? Why can’t we produce more programming in Mandarin? Uyghur?

Shouldn’t there be a Russian-language university in Vilnius and Warsaw to house all the intellectuals and thinkers who have fled Moscow? Don’t we need to spend more on education in Arabic, Hindi, Persian?

So much of what passes for cultural diplomacy runs on underfunded autopilot. Programs should be recast for a new era.

While the world is more knowable than ever before, dictators seek to hide that knowledge from their citizens.

Open that knowledge and make it more accessible to everyone everywhere.

Deploy better words not better bombs.