Current threats to democracy and the liberal world order from authoritarian populism are due to the failures in governance and civics that have given it fertile ground.
Like terrorism, hybrid warfare, and other distributed people-centric challenges in peace and security within and beyond borders, authoritarian populism is an international strategic challenge in human security and peacebuilding. Strategies to combat authoritarian populism must: first, distinguish it as an international security challenge, including its use of strategic narratives to sway populaces; second, see it as a result of failed citizenship as much as failed government; and third, employ a strategic peacebuilding approach to governance and citizenship that is as bottom-up as top-down.
Read the full article by Christopher Holshek, first published in Sicherheit und Frieden (Security and Peace) 37, 1/2019: Populism’s Call to Citizenship.