US President Joe Biden recently invited to the “Summit for Democracy”. Indeed, the struggle for the rule of law, for freedom of the press, expression and assembly across national borders is a necessary response to the increasing penetration of authoritarian systems. According to a current report by the Bertelsmann Foundation, only a third of all governments worldwide guarantee democratic participation.
It was a summit for democracy – but not a summit for democrats. This distinguishes Biden’s summit from efforts to promote the formation of a new global bloc under the banner of democracy. Such a block formation would not be expedient – above all, it would not be in Europe’s interest.
If the “old continent” does not want to expose itself in the age of the new bipolarity between the USA and China to make a decision for one superpower and against the other, it needs allies with similar or similar interests in Asia and Latin America – especially among the emerging economies that now make up the majority of the G20 countries.
The countries of the global south, however, perceive Europe and the USA less as democracies than as former colonial powers. It took Germany more than 100 years to recognize its own crimes in what is now Namibia as genocide. Politicians in the Federal Republic of Germany are still amazed when the frigate “Bayern” is not allowed to enter the port of Shanghai.
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Does our political class no longer know that the Chinese Boxer Rebellion under the leadership of Wilhelm II’s Imperial Navy was bloodily suppressed 120 years ago? History shows that democracy and colonialism are not a pair of opposites. The decolonization of Kenya, like the independence of India, was fought for against Westminster democracy, and the freedom of Algeria against the French republic.
The USA covered Latin America with military dictatorships
The narrative of democracy, which history also makes clear, must not be confused with the realpolitik of the states of democratic capitalism. NATO claims to be a community of values - and had fascist Portugal as a founding member in 1949. To this day, the autocratic regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is part of the North Atlantic Pact – Turkey is supplied with state-of-the-art weapons.
When Vietnam tried to unite in a peaceful way, the US began to bomb it back “to the Stone Age”. The United States did not even shrink from the use of chemical and biological weapons to protect “the free world” from the alleged threat of communism.
Washington covered its “backyard” Latin America with military dictatorships for fear of social democrats like Chile’s head of state Salvador Allende. The democracies there were often enforced by left-wing guerrillas against the resistance of the USA. In Brazil and Uruguay, former “terrorists” rose to become presidents.
So it is anything but a new finding: When in doubt, the states of democratic capitalism pursue solid interest politics. That should teach us humility. From the point of view of many non-European countries, the much invoked “Western values” are no more than Xi Jinping’s formula of the “common fate of humanity”. Above all, it is seen as propaganda in the service of one’s own interests.
How about Realpolitik?
Instead of being outraged about it, how about being honest? To stand by the fact that international politics is politics of interests? In short: how about realpolitik? Sure, such a realpolitik would be inconvenient. Europe has paramount common interests with the United States, more so than with any other country. But also tangible different interests, as we have not only known since the presidency of Donald Trump. The equally convenient and popular division of the world into good and bad does not work. In the globalized world, “fifty shades of gray” dominate.
Instead of erecting ideological walls and conjuring up a new bipolar world, Europe must focus on common global interests. Without the USA and China, for example, there will be no mitigation of the climate crisis – and also no successful fight against global poverty.
Partnerships based on common interests can advance Europe’s technological sovereignty. For example, it is not in the spirit of this sovereignty to depend on Chinese or American tech giants for cloud technologies, which, in addition to the private-sector oligopolies, also offer the local secret services endless possibilities for data collection and processing. If it says European data protection, it should also contain European industrial policy.
In addition, Europe urgently needs to develop its own alliance policy towards the states of Southeast Asia. Because the system rivalry between democracies and autocracies is not in the interests of the Asean states. You don’t want to be forced to choose between the US and China.
Democratic capitalism doesn’t have to hide
While the US is needed to counter China’s claims to power in the South China Sea, China, as its most important trading partner, is crucial for growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. It is precisely against this background that an EU trade agreement with autocratic Vietnam does not only seem to be welcomed, but also wise.
There is no question that such international trade agreements are not suitable for democratizing the world. But they offer an opportunity to enforce globally agreed rules – from the Paris climate agreement to the ban on forced and child labor. The European Union still seems far too despondent here. Multilaterally agreed norms not only secure universal values, they also correspond to Europe’s interests. An effective EU supply chain law, for example, is not only correct from a moral point of view, it also guarantees protection for cleanly working companies.
In such a realpolitik, global values clearly play a role – but unlike in a geostrategy of democracy versus autocracy. “The primary conflict between democracy and authoritarianism is not fought between countries, but within them,” writes US politician Bernie Sanders, referring to his own country. The same is true for Hungary and Poland.
The countries of democratic capitalism do not have to hide in the system rivalry with authoritarian states. After all, why do Russian oligarchs or officials of the Chinese Communist Party bunker their private assets in Europe or the USA? Because they know that legal certainty is a historic achievement of democratic capitalism.
The struggle for democracy in our societies, relaxed self-confidence and humility before one’s own history are more important for a value-based realpolitik than any new block formation.
The author: Jürgen Trittin is the foreign policy spokesman for the parliamentary group of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen. He was chairman of the party and in the government of Gerhard Schröder Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
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