The New Containment:
Undermining Democracy
by Christopher Walker
Nearly seven decades ago, George F. Kennan authored a seminal article that argued for a policy of containment to combat the spread of Soviet influence. Kennan’s essay came at a time when the Soviet Union, a frenemy to the West during World War II, was becoming increasingly hostile and expansionist in the postwar era. In a devastated Europe, Joseph Stalin was methodically installing puppet regimes in countries to his west. Communism was on the march. The American public saw an increasing threat but had little appetite for further military conflict after the end of years of global war.
This was the context into which Kennan boldly stepped with his argument against an immediate military “rollback” of Soviet advances. In what was initially known as the “X Article” because of his anonymous authorship, he wrote in 1947 that, to meet the Soviet challenge, the United States needed to pursue “a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counterforce at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interest of a peaceful and stable world.” Quickly becoming a cause célèbre, Kennan’s doctrine was controversial. Some criticized it for being too defensive in responding to the Soviet threat. Others felt the concept was too broadly conceived and not sufficiently focused on vital US interests. In the end, however, the concept Kennan articulated would become the basic strategy the United States followed throughout the Cold War.
In an unanticipated twist, and in an irony of history, influential authoritarian powers, led by China and Russia, have forged their own version of containment in the post–Cold War era. But it turns Kennan’s ideas about tyranny upside down, seeking to contain the spread of democracy rather than the growth of totalitarianism.
Questions about law and freedom have haunted societies for centuries, and as past thinkers have concluded, self-limitation seems to be essential to living in a world that prizes both.
Today, in response to what they identify as critical challenges to their own regime interests, the resurgent authoritarians have marshaled vast resources to counter democratic development around the globe. This evolving “containment of democracy” has three key elements. First, it aims to erode the rules-based institutions that have established global democratic norms and cemented the post–Cold War liberal order. Second, it looks to check the reform ambitions of aspiring democracies and subvert the vitality of young democratic countries. And third, by systematically assailing the established democracies and the central ideas associated with them, it seeks to reshape the manner in which the world thinks about democracy.
The leaders in this new containment effort are influential authoritarian countries as diverse as China, Venezuela, and Russia, all of whom are compatible with each other, as well as bitter enemies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. The manner by which diverse authoritarian regimes counter democracy may vary. Russia takes an open and belligerent stance, as does the leadership in Iran and Venezuela. The Chinese government takes a more nuanced approach to checking the development of democracy, although it has become increasingly assertive since Xi Jinping has assumed the position of China’s paramount leader.
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by Christopher Walker
Nearly seven decades ago, George F. Kennan authored a seminal article that argued for a policy of containment to combat the spread of Soviet influence. Kennan’s essay came at a time when the Soviet Union, a frenemy to the West during World War II, was becoming increasingly hostile and expansionist in the postwar era. In a devastated Europe, Joseph Stalin was methodically installing puppet regimes in countries to his west. Communism was on the march. The American public saw an increasing threat but had little appetite for further military conflict after the end of years of global war.
This was the context into which Kennan boldly stepped with his argument against an immediate military “rollback” of Soviet advances. In what was initially known as the “X Article” because of his anonymous authorship, he wrote in 1947 that, to meet the Soviet challenge, the United States needed to pursue “a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counterforce at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interest of a peaceful and stable world.” Quickly becoming a cause célèbre, Kennan’s doctrine was controversial. Some criticized it for being too defensive in responding to the Soviet threat. Others felt the concept was too broadly conceived and not sufficiently focused on vital US interests. In the end, however, the concept Kennan articulated would become the basic strategy the United States followed throughout the Cold War.
In an unanticipated twist, and in an irony of history, influential authoritarian powers, led by China and Russia, have forged their own version of containment in the post–Cold War era. But it turns Kennan’s ideas about tyranny upside down, seeking to contain the spread of democracy rather than the growth of totalitarianism.
Questions about law and freedom have haunted societies for centuries, and as past thinkers have concluded, self-limitation seems to be essential to living in a world that prizes both.
Today, in response to what they identify as critical challenges to their own regime interests, the resurgent authoritarians have marshaled vast resources to counter democratic development around the globe. This evolving “containment of democracy” has three key elements. First, it aims to erode the rules-based institutions that have established global democratic norms and cemented the post–Cold War liberal order. Second, it looks to check the reform ambitions of aspiring democracies and subvert the vitality of young democratic countries. And third, by systematically assailing the established democracies and the central ideas associated with them, it seeks to reshape the manner in which the world thinks about democracy.
The leaders in this new containment effort are influential authoritarian countries as diverse as China, Venezuela, and Russia, all of whom are compatible with each other, as well as bitter enemies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. The manner by which diverse authoritarian regimes counter democracy may vary. Russia takes an open and belligerent stance, as does the leadership in Iran and Venezuela. The Chinese government takes a more nuanced approach to checking the development of democracy, although it has become increasingly assertive since Xi Jinping has assumed the position of China’s paramount leader.
............................
Related Essay
The Uncertainty of Freedom
Michael Zantovsky | ESSAY
Publications by George F. Kennan
- "X" (July 1947), "The Sources of Soviet Conduct", Foreign Affairs 25 (4): 566–582, doi:10.2307/20030065,ISSN 0015-7120, JSTOR 20030065
- Kennan, George F. (1948), Policy Planning Study (PPS) 23, Washington D.C.
- Kennan, George F. (1951), American Diplomacy, 1900–1950, Chicago: University of Chicago Press,OCLC 466719
- Kennan, George F. (1954), Realities of American Foreign Policy, Princeton: Princeton University Press,OCLC 475829
- Kennan, George F. (1956), Russia Leaves the War, Princeton: Princeton University Press, OCLC 1106320
- Kennan, George F. (1956), "The Sisson Documents," Journal of Modern History v. 28 (June, 1956), 130-54
- Kennan, George F. (1958), The Decision to Intervene, Princeton: Princeton University Press, OCLC 1106303
- Kennan, George F. (1958), Russia, the Atom, and the West, New York: Harper, OCLC 394718
- Kennan, George F. (1961), Russia and the West under Lenin and Stalin, Boston: Little, Brown and Company,OCLC 253164
- Kennan, George F. (1967), Memoirs: 1925–1950, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, OCLC 484922.
- Kennan, George F. (1968), From Prague after Munich: Diplomatic Papers, 1938–1940, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-05620-X
- Kennan, George F. (1968), Democracy and the Student Left, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 978-0-09-095070-6
- Kennan, George F. (1971), The Marquis de Custine and his "Russia in 1839", Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-05187-9
- Kennan, George F. (1972), Memoirs: 1950–1963, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, OCLC 4047526.
- Kennan, George F. (1978), The Cloud of Danger: Current Realities of American Foreign Policy, London:Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-132140-9
- Kennan, George F. (1979), The Decline of Bismarck's European Order: Franco-Russian Relations, 1875–1890, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-05282-4
- Kennan, George F. (1982), The Nuclear Delusion: Soviet-American Relations in the Atomic Age, New York:Pantheon Books, ISBN 0-394-52946-4
- Kennan, George F. (1984), The Fateful Alliance: France, Russia, and the Coming of the First World War, New York: Pantheon Books, ISBN 0-394-53494-8
- Kennan, George F. (1989), Sketches from a Life, New York: Pantheon Books, ISBN 0-394-57504-0
- Kennan, George F. (1993), Around the Cragged Hill: A Personal and Political Philosophy, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-31145-7
- Kennan, George F. (1996), At a Century's Ending: Reflections 1982–1995, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-31609-2
- Kennan, George F. (2000), An American Family: The Kennans, the First Three Generations, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-05034-3
- Kennan, George F. (2014), The Kennan Diaries, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0-393-07327-0
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