The most fundamental source of national power is the belief of the population that their government is serving their interests. Support of the population for their political system and active engagement in it are key. In an age of individualism, a bottom-up approach is required to ensure that the system is serving the people; they are therefore willing and able to defend it against external and internal threats, and supportive of making sacrifices toward that end.
What must be defended is not just a system of democratic voting but the principles of individual liberty and the rule of law – in other words, “liberal democracy”. The threats to liberal democracy include both externally generated challenges and those that arise within democratic systems. Today’s external threats emanate particularly (and mainly) from autocratic regimes in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, but not exclusively so.
The vulnerabilities are manifold with opportunities for attacks on liberal democracy magnified when publics are dissatisfied and mistrustful of their government. Sources of dissatisfaction can include economic, social, being left behind by technology and technology that contributes to fragmentation of the information base.
There are three forms of resilience; active defence, the restoration of trust and diminution of fragmentation, and the education of populations. Active defence will be built on a stronger partnership between state and citizens through greater transparency regarding the sources of disinformation, particularly content generators. It is very important for the public to be aware of who and for what purpose information is being created and circulated. This may require providing far more open access to classified information when release would enhance defence against attacks while not revealing sources and methods.
Restoring trust and diminishing fragmentation can only be achieved if populations know that they are being heard and listened to and that the system of governance is agile enough to respond to inequities and any shortcomings of the system that may punish one or other community. Finally, educating populations requires the use of all available means and events to help promote critical thinking and civics, starting at the earliest stages of the education process and continuing through adulthood. This may require creating new institutional frameworks or the enhancing of existing ones across the Euro-Atlantic and global democratic communities aimed at promoting a better understanding of the requirements for and benefits of resilient liberal democracy.