Freedom House Conclusion Authoritarianism Comes Calling Until very recently, the spread of the methods and strategies described in this report has largely been greeted with complacency and indifference in the democratic world. Even as it became clear that the rejection of liberal values by Russia, China, and other authoritarian states was a permanent fixture of global politics, democracies convinced themselves that although modern authoritarianism posed a challenge to the spread of freedom beyond its current reach, their own freedoms were in no jeopardy. In the aftermath of the stunning events of 2016, it is ject to debate. But there is strong evidence, endorsed apparent that the post-Cold War democratic order is by the entirety of the U.S. intelligence establishment in fact facing an unprecedented threat. Britain’s vote and numerous independent analyses, that the inter- to leave the European Union (EU), the election of Don- ference did occur. ald Trump as president of the United States, and the emergence of populist demagogues across Europe Just as worrying is the suggestion that the United have all raised questions about the future of democra- States, much like Russia itself, has entered a “post-truth cy in its traditional bastions. era,” in which lies and distortions carry as much weight as facts. Clearly, at least some of this hand-wring- It can no longer be assumed that Russia's challenge ing was a partisan reaction to Trumps victory. But it to democracy is limited to its policies of internal followed an election in which the winning candidate repression and aggression toward neighbors like falsely claimed, among other things, that the balloting Ukraine and Georgia. The Kremlin’s development of was rigged against him, that violent crime had reached parallel institutions—government-controlled civil record levels, and that undocumented immigrants were society, a propaganda machine based on the latest responsible for a large share of the vi