Return to Winter: Russia, China, and the New Cold War Against America by Douglas E. Schoen, Melik Kaylan Page A

anger at foreigners, and nationalist pride. All these elements, and others, form what has become an increasingly compelling Axis propaganda model—one that implicitly and explicitly rejects the Western democratic model of openness, untrammeled free markets, and a liberal, tolerant, multicultural society. For millions, these ideals, which Americans especially hold dear, are dangerous and threatening.
    After the Soviet Union fell, many assumed that the Western model—individual liberty, democracy, and economic freedom—had been as responsible for the triumph as military might. Yet two decades later, we seem to be losing the argument. Why?
    In large part, it’s because the world has arrived at one of those cyclic stages where upheaval induces fatigue and fear. Electorates around the world are exhausted by the radical changes that globalism, free markets, and democracy have ushered in. They wish to slow down the rate of change, and they have elected dictators who promise themstability and protection; they have tolerated the abrogation of democratic freedoms for the sake of order. The Axis takes advantage of such fears. They make Americanization synonymous with a multitude of sins—especially chaos.
    What we are seeing is a massive challenge to the Western worldview. Around the world, events have seemed to contradict our fundamental assumptions. Freedom has brought not wealth to millions, but dissolution of wealth—first in the post-Soviet years in the Warsaw Pact countries, then in South America, and finally in Europe and the U.S. after the financial crisis. Assessing the rivalry between India and China, the world saw better economic results for the less democratic model in China. The example of Iraq also weighed against the West. Who wants freedom if it leads to carnage?
    Russia and China have used this new skepticism about freedom to develop appeals and arguments for their hybrid systems, which are far from democratic yet not as monolithic as the old Communist powers. This hybrid quality, in fact, is the key to their appeal: Russia and China promise economic prosperity and national security, but they also make clear that the American promise of individual rights is not part of the package. Millions in Russia, China, and elsewhere have embraced these alternative models.
    For all the concern we have expressed over military and nuclear strength, about cyber-war tactics and economic competition, the war over ideas and values is every bit as important. It is this field of conflict that could determine the outcome of the struggle. America and the West offer the same set of compelling values to the world as we always have, and these values remain humanity’s best hope. But we are failing to convince the world of this as we once did (and it’s hard not to wonder if we’re failing because we doubt these values ourselves). Faced with rapid and often frightening change across the globe, we are not offering a clear road map to the future.
    Russia and China do, and they busily make their case, in word and deed.
    THE AXIS VALUE PROPOSITION
    At first glance, except for their unifying anti-Americanism, there could be no more disparate countries than Russia and China. Ethnically, culturally, and geographically, they inhabit largely different worlds. One might describe Russia as a once-socialist, pseudo-democratic oligopoly and China as a pseudo-socialist, market-oriented, one-party state. But, in fact, they share fundamental political and economic flaws.
    Both suffer from deep and widespread corruption. Both operate a barely disguised kleptocracy from the top down. Both are run by elites terrified of the instability inherent in the system’s inequities. Simmering ethnic issues trouble both countries with no apparent solution on the horizon other than intimidation and repression, while the majority ethnic group equates the nation’s cultural identity with its own. And, of course, lack of transparency in government goes hand in hand