I actually want to take this moment to point to a publication by a friend. The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and the Atlantic Council put out a book by Hardy Merriman, a colleague of ours, entitled “Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave: A Playbook for Countering the Authoritarian Threat”. It is all about investing in civil resistance and movements and people.
I think the key, especially if you don't want it to be top-down or one side lecturing to the other, is looking for natural allies in those places. Sometimes it will be an exiled movement, as in the Tibetan case. Often it's people on the ground. In most places in the world, even those that are slipping more and more towards authoritarianism, there are still people, movements, organizations and civil society groups that are the best defence in both the long game and the short term to fight for rights and freedoms and to create the societies that we want and need.
It's not always easy, but I think the answer itself is just so simple on one level. It does lie with the people.
I think what this “Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave” does is break it down and give really clear ideas for new principles for engagement, places government can put funding into foundations and fund organizations in general. I think there's been a problem with people being afraid and governments being afraid to talk about these things openly and to say really clearly that they are funding democratic resilience, resistance or whatever it might be. I don't think that helps anyone, especially the people on the ground in those places who most need....
I know Canada as a country just from my travels and work. I live in the U.S. now. I've travelled the world working on the Tibetan issue. Canada is looked to as a beacon by a lot of people all over the world. Canadians, the Canadian government and the Canadian Parliament say things clearly, as I believe you are doing, but we could do a lot more of it. We cannot underestimate the importance for the morale of people in places like Tibet of just being out there in front, speaking and leading—