Samantha Power, it is really good to have you on this morning. Sam, first, if you could just talk to us about the dire need that exists right now, especially getting into Syria.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, viewers at this stage probably don't need help, sort of, comprehending the scope of this. But in Türkiye, of the 3 million people living in the earthquake affected zone, one million people have had their homes damaged or destroyed. I mean, that just kind of boggles the mind. In Syria, there are about 350,000 people who are displaced. We have the death toll that is, of course, tragically increasing every hour of every day. But in Syria, so many of the buildings have not been penetrated by search and rescue crews. We support a group called the White Helmets, which did heroic work, as you remember, when Assad and the Russians were bombarding Aleppo and other parts of northwestern Syria, rescuing people digging them out of the rubble. But they're just one organization. So, the fact that the border crossings have finally been opened by the Syrian government, which had persisted even in the early days after the earthquake, means that we now have hundreds of trucks that are crossing into northwestern Syria with supplies to help the displaced with water with food, pop-up tents, the kinds of supplies that should have been there from the beginning.
KATTY KAY: Sam, it’s Katty, here. We're looking at the photos of the devastation as we speak to you. What's the future for the people who have survived? I mean, at the moment, clearly, a lot of these buildings are unstable. There isn't much in the way of sanitation, I understand. Project out six months to a year, are people are just going to have to leave this whole area? Many of these people have already been because they're refugees from Syria. So what does the future hold for people in this region?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I think, again, to define the region broadly, in Türkiye, of course, the government is bringing all resources to bear. There [are] search and rescue teams, you know, from more than 50 countries, which I think is important in the here and now, but also reflective of the ease with which – if the Türkish government wants it – the international community will be there to provide support.
Syria is just much more challenging. So I think in Türkiye, you see, large funding appeals. You see the government itself, its citizens, zooming in. And you'll see construction commence, rather quickly, you'll also see people moving elsewhere in the country. In Syria, the people who live in the opposition held areas don't want to go near regime held areas because they fear that they'll be arrested, tortured, disappeared. And again the war is still – it's over in the public imagination for many, but not for those living in mortal fear of the brutal Assad regime. So, I think the goal right now is temporary housing, then longer term conversations about what reconstruction can look like. There's so much need in the world with the war in Ukraine and all the knock on effects in terms of food insecurity and the risk of famine. So mobilizing international resources to help that rebuilding effort in northwestern Syria, as well as in southern Türkiye, is going to be a key part of the U.S.’s message right now. We're the leading donor in Syria. We were the first out of the gate with an $85 million commitment for the earthquake response, but other donors really have to step up.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And Samantha Power you also have a new piece in Foreign Affairs entitled How Democracy Can Win the Right Way to Counter Autocracy. And you write: Early 2022 may prove to be a high-water mark for authoritarianism. Putin’s ambitions to dominate Ukraine failed miserably…The past few years have also demonstrated the shortcomings of Beijing’s model… Elsewhere, public support for populist parties, leaders, and antipluralist attitudes has dropped significantly since 2020. After years of democratic backsliding, the world’s autocrats are finally on the defensive. But to seize this moment and swing the pendulum of history back toward democratic rule, we must break down the wall that separates democratic advocacy from economic development work and demonstrate that democracies can deliver for their people. We must also redouble our efforts to counter digital surveillance and disinformation while upholding freedom of expression. And we must update the traditional democratic assistance playbook to help our partners respond to ever more sophisticated campaigns against them. Only then can we beat back antidemocratic forces and extend the reach of freedom.
And Katty Kay, I'll toss it to you. This guidance applies not just to countries around the world, but America.
KATTY KAY: Yeah, I mean, the threat of disinformation to our democracies is very real. It's why all of our news organizations now have correspondents who study misinformation. If people can't trust the information they're getting, how can they possibly make informed choices about the people that they're going to elect? And we see that becoming more of a problem, the more advanced technology becomes. And the AI is posing huge opportunities, but it also has very real challenges. But I was just wondering, though, to Samantha, to your point about, it's quite an optimistic take that you're giving us on the sort of decline of populism authoritarianism. But if you look at a continent that you know well, Africa for example, what we see is the very clear dominance of somewhere like China, and increasingly Russia in that continent. And I wonder if the struggles are just playing out in different regions of the world?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I think the polling that is cited in the article is global. And you do see a disillusionment with those kinds of populist ethno-nationalist forces – not sufficient disillusionment, mind you. But that's why one of the points of emphasis that I make is the importance of those that are pursuing political reform that are fighting misinformation that are telling the truth, also, delivering economically.
And this is a point that President Biden makes again and again, and why in the midterm elections, you know, the Democratic Party did better than anybody expected, because people sense that there will be – economic headwinds were being combated, the jobs are coming back, unemployment was going down. Something similar is playing out in every other country – if you are pursuing a path of political reform, if you are actually protecting and enhancing the rule of law, if you don't want the kind of debt distress that comes with these large Chinese loans – is the international community going to be there, is the private sector going to be there, are citizens going to see that alongside democratic moves or democratization moves, rule of law strengthening and anti-corruption fighting, that there are actually meaningful changes in their lives.
Positive changes, that's really hard right now coming out of COVID, with supply chain challenges, with inflation, because of Putin’s war, and all of the knock on effects of the food security in Africa and elsewhere. But there really is a lot of buyer's remorse about this large debt that has been incurred, often not with the kind of infrastructure that people expected to show up or local workers not being hired to actually do the work but people being brought in from outside, from the People's Republic of China, for example.
And so this is a moment that if we can modernize our playbook, pay more attention to the economic side of the democracy promotion effort, and as you know, get much more sophisticated in training young people to distinguish what is fact and what is fiction while telling our own story far more compellingly than we have. I think this is a moment we can seize.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: All right, USAID Administrator Samantha Power. Important piece in Foreign Affairs, How Democracy Can Win. We appreciate your coming on the show this morning. Thank you.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thanks, Mika.
Original source can be found here.
