Dictating the Agenda

Dictating the Agenda examines how contemporary authoritarian regimes are undermining the global influence of Western democratic liberal ideas and advocacy. They achieve this by projecting their agendas into global arenas often considered "non-political," such as consumer boycotts, global media, transnational higher education, and international sports. While globalization-marked by economic exchange, technological innovation, and consumerism-was once believed to inevitably spread US-style liberalism worldwide, the past decade has proven otherwise. Authoritarian governments in Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia are now exploiting these very tools to discredit liberal activism, diminish the significance of liberal values in global governance, and advance their autocratic ideologies and agendas.