Hamilton 1

Kendale Hamilton

Dean Leonard

English 1201

1 Apr. 2021

Threats to the World’s Freedom

With the rapidly changing political climate of today’s world, it is important to consider

what the most immediate threats to freedom in America, as well as around the world are.

Certainly a few key countries and regimes come to mind, like Russia or North Korea, but it is

vital to understand the true threat countries like these pose, rather than using them as political

buzzwords. In addition, it is important to study other countries that may not be at the forefront of

the debate. Through strenuous research, I believe that the countries and regimes that pose the

greatest threats are the Russian Federation, the ayatollah of Iran, North Korea, and the Chinese

Communist Party (CCP).

To begin, it is necessary to establish the practices of these regimes which create the

aforementioned threats to domestic and international freedoms. Of all evil and immoral actions

committed by these regimes, the most dangerous are phony elections. Human rights violations

are undeniably evil, but also very hard to hide in today's world. One of the most current

examples of this is the Uighers being forced into concentration camps in China. In fact, when

appearing on the BBC, a chinese ambassador “was also confronted with drone footage that

appears to show Uighurs being blindfolded and led to trains. He said he "did not know" what the

video was showing” (“China's ambassador challenged on treatment of Uighurs”). With modern

day technology, it is nearly impossible to hide these sorts of actions. The leader of regimes that

commit these acts are almost always rapidly removed, and rightfully so. Beyond these
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unspeakable acts, there are certain encroachments on individuals that on a large scale, can be

equally, if not more dangerous than physical violence. The greatest of these is phony elections.

While the U.N. and the Geneva Convention have made large strides in preventing attacks on

human rights, there has not been much done on an international scale to secure free and fair

elections. To an extent, this is justified. Nations deserve sovereignty, and that includes the right

to conduct their elections as they see fit. However, creating an illusion of democracy when the

strings are being pulled from beyond the publics, there can be serious consequences. According

to the former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, “public confidence in the integrity

of the electoral process has independent significance because it encourages citizen participation

in the democratic process” (“Voter confidence”). A lack of election integrity leads to a lack of

confidence, which in turn leads to lack of participation without which, no democracy can thrive.

In connection to this, controlling the press and the streams of information are also very

dangerous. In today’s day and age, where information is spread primarily through the internet, it

is very easy to control what the public knows and what they think. This is particularly dangerous

because regimes can hide their true activities from their citizens. Another particularly recent

example of this comes from the novel Coronavirus. In the early days of the soon-to-be pandemic,

the Chinese government wanted to do everything possible to shift blame off of themselves for

the outbreak. Again from the BBC, a journalist recounts “In January and February, multiple

media outlets took the opportunity to publish hard-hitting investigations, which were widely

shared on social media. Later, as Beijing came up with a propaganda strategy, these reports were

stifled” (“China Covid-19: How state media and censorship took on coronavirus”). Last but not

least is much more traditional threats, usually involving military actions. Although imperialism

has seemed to become a thing of the past, similar activities can obviously be very dangerous, as
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the events of the last century have shown. Chris Hedges of the New York Times states that due

to war, 108 million people have been killed in the 20th century alone, and anywhere from 150

million to 1 billion people have been killed in all of human history (Hedges).

One of the most talked about regimes in our current political sphere seems to be North

Korea. Unlike some of the other nations that will be discussed, North Korea is not shy about

being an Authoritarian government. It is tough to even decide where to begin with North Korea,

but it is logical to start with the least nuanced area; attacks on human rights. It is very difficult to

get accurate numbers for these things, as our only source is the government itself, and there is a

massive incentive for them to lie, but estimates can be made. The UN News estimates that “More

than 10 million North Koreans are suffering “severe food shortages” after the worst harvest in a

decade” (Belgrave), yet this is nothing new. There have been reports of mass starvation in the

country for years, yet due to their hostile nature, it is nearly impossible for outsiders to help

improve the situation. Furthermore, North Korea also poses an immense military threat to its

neighbors, and the world as a whole. Almost any America could tell you about North Korea’s

military actions, as they have become fairly common at this point in time. In addition to their

frequency, “North Korea has one of the world’s largest conventional military forces, which,

combined with its missile and nuclear tests and aggressive rhetoric, has aroused concern

worldwide” (Albert). Although things seemed to settle down during the Trump administration,

tension appear to be rising again, as would be expected with a new administration.

Similar to North Korea, Iran is also a commonly discussed aggressor. Iran is similarly

militaristic, like North Korea. In fact, in most internet culture circles, it is believed that if the

U.S. were to enter a new military conflict, it would be with one of these two nations. However,

Iran attempts to disguise itself as a democracy, which as previously discussed can be very
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dangerous. Iran has a very intricate political structure, which at first glance would appear to be

more or less democratic. However, with further study, it is clear that the Supreme Leader, the

religious leader of the nation, truly holds a vast majority of the power. Similar to North Korea,

Iran has not kept its hands clean of human rights violations. The Iranian government restricts just

about everything our first amendment protects, speech, expression, assembly, you name it.

(Everything you need to know about human rights in Iran). Although Iran’s military itself is not

much of a concern, they were “Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran

continued its terrorist-related activity in 2019, including support for Hizballah, Palestinian

terrorist groups in Gaza, and various terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq, and throughout the Middle

East” (“Country Reports on Terrorism 2019: Iran”). It is also believed that Iran is a major factor

in the constant unrest in the middle east, due to their radical beliefs.

Since the long past days of the Cold War, the Russian Federation, more commonly

known as simply Russia, may still pose some threats to freedom. Although we can say with a fair

bit of certainty that Russia is not an immediate military threat, there “democracy” has rampant

flaws that are very concerning to the civil liberties of its citizens. Russia has arguably the largest

levels of voter fraud and election interference of any modernized nation. In a fairly widespread

video, someone can be seen stuffing countless numbers of ballots into Russian ballot boxes

without the election officials even doing as much as batting an eye (“CCTV shows apparent

ballot stuffing in Russian vote”). This paired with the disproportionate amount of power given to

the country's executives (and in particular Vladimir Putin) can lead to serious issues with the

integrity of their democracy. It is practically common knowledge that Putin manipulates the

institutions of his government in order to stay in office and give himself more power. As the

University of Helsinki notes, “For nearly two decades, it seems that Putin's power has only
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grown” (Skyten). It is even becoming apparent that Putin is beginning preparations to stay in

office even longer.

Finally, the Chinese Communist Party hits almost every one of these categories. China is

another nation that is not particularly shy about their authoritarian nature. In recent years, it is

highly speculated that the government has rounded up Uigher Muslims and placed them in

internment camps, as was discussed earlier. This of course is highly concerning to freedom, yet

oddly enough, this topic has become very politicized in America, when it should be remarkably

uncontroversial. Beyond that, China also heavily interferes with the flow of information within

its nation, by utilizing almost entirely state run media. This became particularly dangerous when

the CCP shut down information about the Covid-19 outbreak in order to keep the blame off of

themselves. This led other countries to use incorrect information when deciding what course of

action would be required to prevent a major virus outbreak (“China Covid-19: How state media

and censorship took on coronavirus”). Last but not least, China also has an extremely powerful

military (“China”). Somewhat Fortunately, violence involving the military has mostly been

mostly contained within the country itself, which is good for the world as a whole, as a war

between major global superpowers could prove remarkably dangerous. However, the military

has been mobilized many times against its own citizens, most notably in the Tiananmen Square

incident and overtaking of Hong Kong.

On a similar note, there are also a few groups that threaten freedom in America. Groups

like Antifa, the Proud Boys, and any other groups that promote violence to reach a political goal

are extremely dangerous to Americans. A prime example of this is the many riots that occured

over the summer. Many of these sprung out of Black Lives Matter protest, and it is clear that

most of the violent offenders do not hold the same values as said protestors. However, in order to
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prevent the entire movement with a broad brush, many that may have agreed with the core values

attempted to justify the violence. This is remarkably dangerous, as the US constitution enshrines

peaceful protests, and makes it clear that violence is unacceptable.

All in all, the world is a very diverse place, but we cannot allow these differences to

justify the government's overstepping into their citizens' lives and liberties. Obviously some of

these countries are committing acts far more egregious than others, but it is important to keep all

infringements in check when we strive to reach a better future for everyone, not just those living

within our borders.

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Works Cited

Albert, Eleanor. “North Korea’s Military Capabilities.” Council on Foreign Relations, 16. Nov.

2020, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/north-koreas-military-capabilities. Accessed 11

Apr. 2021.

Belgrave, James. “North Korean families facing deep ‘hunger crisis’ after worst harvest in 10

years, UN food assessment shows.” UN News, United Nations, 3 May 2019,

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1037831. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

“CCTV shows apparent ballot stuffing in Russian vote.” Youtube, uploaded by AFP News

Agency, 18, Mar. 2018.

“China Covid-19: How state media and censorship took on coronavirus.” BBC News, BBC, 29

Dec. 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55355401. Accessed 11 Apr.

2021.

"China." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/PC3010117166/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=be4aefff. Accessed 7 Mar. 2021.

“China: Power and Prosperity -- Watch the full documentary.” Youtube, uploaded by PBS

NewsHour, 22 Nov. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=JovtmKFxi3c&ab_channel=PBSNewsHour.

“China's ambassador challenged on treatment of Uighurs.” BBC News, BBC, 19 July 2020,

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-53463242. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

“Country Reports on Terrorism 2019: Iran.” U.S.Department of State, 2019. Accessed 11 Apr.

2021.
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“Everything you need to know about human rights in Iran.” Amnesty International, 2019,

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/iran/report-iran/.

Accessed 7 Mar. 2021.

Hedges, Chris. “What Every Person Should Know About War.” The New York Times, NYTCo,

6 July 2003, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/what-every-person-

should-know-about-war.html#:~:text=How%20many%20people%20have

%20died,150%20million%20to%201%20billion. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

Holbrook, Rebecca. Personal interview. TBD.

"Iran." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2016. Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/PC3021900093/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=d515a4e4. Accessed 7 Mar. 2021.

Shapiro, Ben. The Right Side of History. New York, Broadside Books, 2019.

Skyten, Emmi. “What keeps Putin in power?” University of Helsinki, 1 Nov. 2019,

https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/news/society-economy/what-keeps-putin-in-power. Accessed

11 Apr. 2021.

“The Targeting of Uighur Muslims in China.” Facing History and Ourselves, 16 Dec. 2020,

https://www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources/current-events/targeting-uighur-

muslims-china. Accessed 7 March 2021.

“Voter confidence.” MIT Election Data + Science Lab, MIT, 2 Apr. 2021,

https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/voter-confidence. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

Wood, Bryan. “What is happening with the Uighers in China?” PBS News Hour, PBS,

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/. Accessed 7 March 2021.

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Worth, Robert F. “Iran Mutes a Chorus of Voices for Reform.” The New York Times, 19 April

2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/world/middleeast/20iran.html. Accessed 7

Mar. 2021.