US leadership is essential to counter surging anti-democratic influence

Two weeks ago, Beijing rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin to deepen their “no-limits” partnership. Just last week there were dangerous new reports on how Russia, China and Iran are attempting to disrupt the United Kingdom’s election next month.

These days, a week doesn’t seem to go by without new evidence of how our adversaries and competitors are brazenly working together to threaten the interests of the U.S. and our allies.

As Russia opens new fronts in Ukraine, China and Iran continue to provide the country with significant economic and military support, respectively. China’s purchases of Iranian oil and gas fuel proxy wars across the Middle East while Iran continues to produce weapons to kill Ukrainians and Americans. And Russia hosted Hamas leaders at the Kremlin just days following the Oct. 7th terrorist attacks on Israel.

I saw this growing nexus firsthand in my own travels — most recently in South Africa as part of an Aspen Institute congressional delegation. As expected, we saw China’s outsized footprint throughout the continent. More surprising was AFRICOM’s briefing on Moscow’s rapidly expanding economic investments, pacing what experts are seeing in Latin America and the Indo-Pacific.

At home, researchers are connecting the dots on Russia’s attempts to not only interfere with elections but also influence our foreign policy. Last summer, for example, following the Maui fires, a “Hawaii, not Ukraine” narrative first emerged from a newly created and dubious account on X. 

This type of playbook is becoming all too common: The narrative was amplified by Russia, it metastasized on social media and eventually crossed over into mainstream media creating foreign policy angst among voters.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) has called out how these influence campaigns impact policymakers: “We see directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor.”

Our adversaries’ objectives appear clear as they seek to undermine our national interests at home and in every corner of the world. While America cannot control Russia’s actions, we can decide whether and how we show up and engage on the global stage.

Even in an election year, here are three areas where I believe Republican and Democratic policymakers can work together to protect our nation’s security and economic interests.

First, when we think of national security spending, it’s not just defense — it’s also strengthening our civilian national security toolkit. In fact, the national security emergency funding package that Congress just approved underscores how supporting our allies and providing essential economic and humanitarian assistance matters to protecting America’s interests.

The need for supplemental resources has grown even more urgent in recent years, as core U.S. development and diplomatic funding remain flat while global threats have skyrocketed. Given this threat-resource mismatch, Congress has been forced to rely on emergency supplementals to bridge the gap.

Unfortunately, the final FY24 spending deal included serious cuts to America’s core economic and development assistance. If Congress does not readjust, the emerging challenges of today become the emergency threats of tomorrow.

Secondly, we must pay attention to the growing reality that economic security is national security. This includes heightened engagement in economic statecraft and greater use of America’s diplomatic and economic tools, strengthening supply chains, bolstering export markets in emerging economies, leveraging technology and diplomacy and ensuring the U.S. is setting the rules of the road on issues from trade to energy to artificial intelligence.

When I traveled to Kenya last year, Amb. Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, reminded our delegation that by 2050, 1 in 3 global workers looking for their first job will live in Africa — and our competitors are playing to win. The next day, our delegation visited impressive economic development programs led by USAID and the Development Finance Corporation that are bolstering opportunities in Kenya and here in the U.S.

At a time when China has increased its development investments around the world by 525 percent in the last 15 years alone, America cannot afford to take its foot off the gas.

Lastly, global crises have reached a fever pitch with nearly 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance from Sudan to Gaza to Haiti. In addition to the human toll, the growing conflict and turmoil from these crises add to mounting instability and security risks — making the world and America less safe.

It’s why I am honored to join hundreds of business, veteran, agricultural and local elected leaders from across the country on Capitol Hill this week to speak out on the imperative for America to be engaged in the world, because rarely has there been a more significant moment when global stability impacts American stability.

The good news is that America has the diplomatic and development tools to meet this moment. The question is whether America will confront these threats at the scale required because the fact is that we can pay now or pay later.

As my longtime friend, Gen. James Mattis, first told Congress more than a decade ago, “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.”

His words have never rung more true than today.

Liz Schrayer is president and CEO of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.