At home and abroad, a fight for freedom and democracy
Peter Berkowitz (far right), Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution from Stanford University, speaks on a panel about human rights in the age of great power competition. Moderated by McCain Institute’s Corban Teague (far left), the panel included speakers Elliott Abrams (second from left), former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush and deputy national security advisor in the President George W. Bush administration; Olivia Enos (third from left), senior fellow of human rights at Hudson Institute; and Dan Twining (second from right), president at the International Republican Institute. Photo courtesy of Hager Sharp
“If John McCain were here today, he would be on the front lines, standing with our democratic allies and serving as a voice for the voiceless, and boy, would he be loud,” said the McCain Institute’s executive director, Evelyn Farkas, as she kicked off the institute’s Washington Forum Dec. 5 at the U.S. Navy Memorial Center where policymakers, activists and experts gathered to focus on the forum’s theme: “Democracy, Human Rights and Leadership in Action.”
Inspired by the maverick spirit of Sen. John McCain, the forum placed a strong emphasis on harnessing innovation and collaboration to meet a variety of domestic and global challenges.
“We will hear from individuals who are on the front lines of the struggle between autocracy, democracy and human rights. And although these are challenging subjects, we hope that you will leave here today feeling energized and equipped to act,” Farkas said.
Featured speakers included U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell; former Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams; Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Ukraine Denys Sienik; former Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Rusty Bowers; and two former political prisoners: Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López and businessman Siamak Namazi, who was held hostage in Iran.
During the forum, panelists discussed topics including rising authoritarianism, eroding democratic norms, growing violations of human rights and a lack of principled, character-driven leadership at home and abroad.
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Leopoldo López, Venezuelan opposition leader and pro-democracy activist and the McCain Institute Washington Forum’s keynote speaker, recounts his time as a political prisoner from 2014 to 2020 on charges of inciting anti-government protests.
Photo courtesy of Hager Sharp
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Featured speaker Kurt Campbell (right), the 22nd U.S. deputy secretary of state, discusses the latest topics in foreign affairs from South Korea to Angola with PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz at the McCain Institute Washington Forum on Dec. 5.
Photo courtesy of Hager Sharp
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The U.S. Policy Towards Russia panel at McCain Institute Washington Forum included (from left) Stephen Biegun, senior vice president, Global Public Policy, Boeing; David Kramer, executive director at the George W. Bush Institute and former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor; Brian Whitmore, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center; and Matt Zweig, senior director of policy at FDD Action.
Photo courtesy of Hager Sharp
Democracy requires sustained commitment
Only sustained, coordinated support from democratic governments around the world will turn the tide against autocracy, according to López, and autocrats will need to be held to account.
“Anyone imprisoning, torturing and killing the freedom fighters and democracy defenders in Venezuela and elsewhere should be sanctioned,” said López, who was imprisoned following protests against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government.
Maduro, who succeeded President Hugo Chávez in 2013, has overseen staggering economic hardship and hyperinflation. Despite election results that international monitors determined were neither free nor fair, Maduro was declared president for a third six-year term in July of this year. Now, critics are hoping the U.S. imposes new and stricter sanctions to hold Maduro accountable.
López emphasized that bringing democracy to Venezuela will require engagement and commitment beyond the United States.
Human rights do not choose a side
“One thing that I wanted to highlight on this panel is that John McCain was a conservative. (Human rights are) seen often as something that is more the domain of the left,” moderator Corban Teague, director of human rights and freedom programs at the McCain Institute, said. “How did his conservative principles inform his human rights work?”
As was clear in his 2018 farewell statement to the Senate, to McCain, human rights and personal liberty were not partisan issues.
“(The United States) is a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world,” he wrote in the statement.
America’s longest-held hostage on reintegration into society
After almost eight years, Siamak Namazi was finally freed after being incarcerated during a 2015 family trip to Iran. While he was imprisoned, he had time to think about the meaning of freedom and personal resilience.
“In the darkest of the 2,898 days … eight years that I spent imprisoned, I do recall sometimes thinking about the example of Sen. McCain and being inspired,” Namazi said.
Once he was freed, Namazi said there were many challenges with reintegrating into society.
Roger Carstens, special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the U.S. Department of State, shared a different point of view. From the moment a former hostage steps off a plane in San Antonio, Texas, newly freed prisoners immediately receive a variety of medical, psychological and dental evaluations. And then prisoners are given the opportunity to tell the world their stories.
Namazi believes the country has two sacred duties related to freeing Americans who are political prisoners: “One is to do whatever you can to get that innocent American out of a foreign dungeon. … Second, we have to do whatever we can to upend the business model. … Deterrence, to me, means coming out with such draconian consequences for taking an American that these rogue states would get out of the hostage-taking business.”
Strengthening strategic ties to protect freedom
In a conversation with PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell shared his thoughts on recent international issues — including the declaration and revoking of martial law by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
“Our most important role is to have confidence in (South Korea) and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Korea,” said Campbell, who praises America’s “rock solid” alliance with South Korea.
Meanwhile, more than 7,000 miles away from South Korea is the Lobito Corridor in sub-Saharan Africa. The Lobito Corridor will help bridge the global infrastructure gap between Africa’s Indian and Atlantic Ocean coasts through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI).
In early December, President Biden made a historic visit to Angola, bolstering the U.S.-Angola relationship.
While the U.S. has been deepening its ties as a strategic partner to countries in the region, China, too, has long invested in nations like Angola for its crude oil. Angola is currently one of the partner countries of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
“I do want to acknowledge that the overriding character of our relationship with China is competitive,” Campbell said. “I will also say that we often invest in different things than sometimes China does. I think our dominant goal in many of these places is to work more closely with like-minded partners.”
When it comes to India, Campbell says the global power is now the largest country in the world, making it one of the most strategic and consequential relationships of the 21st century.
“We've been able to undertake remarkable arenas of cooperation in space, in technology, in particular, in education. You will have seen most recently that the largest number of foreign students in the United States come from India,” he added. “The sense of the strength of the diaspora, the connectivity between our two societies is remarkable.”
Watch the panel sessions from on the McCain Institute Washington Forum on YouTube.
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