"The two most important things that can be done to promote democracy in the world is first, to bring moral clarity back to world affairs and second, to link international policies to the advance of democracy around the globe"
About this Quote
Sharansky is smuggling a dissident’s hard-won certainty into the language of statecraft: democracy doesn’t spread by accident, and pretending geopolitics is morally neutral is how tyrannies cash in. “Moral clarity” is doing the heavy lifting here. It’s a rebuke to the post-Cold War habit of treating regimes as interchangeable “partners” so long as they deliver stability, oil, or intelligence. For someone who endured Soviet imprisonment, the idea that values are optional isn’t sophistication; it’s complicity dressed as realism.
The line also exposes a strategic wager. By insisting that international policies be “linked” to democratic advance, Sharansky is pushing against the transactional logic that says human rights are a boutique concern, to be raised only after the deal is signed. He’s arguing for conditionality: aid, trade, diplomatic recognition, even security cooperation should come with political expectations. That’s not just ethics; it’s a theory of leverage.
The subtext is a warning about the cost of ambiguity. When democracies refuse to name oppression as oppression, they wind up underwriting it, then acting surprised when “stability” becomes radicalization, refugee flows, or war. Still, the formulation is deliberately blunt, almost programmatic, and that bluntness is the point: it turns a moral narrative into a policy checklist.
Context matters. Sharansky’s worldview is shaped by the Cold War’s clean ideological contrast and by Israel’s security dilemmas, where democratic solidarity can feel like survival, not sentiment. The quote is less a plea for idealism than a demand that democracies stop pretending their interests are value-free.
The line also exposes a strategic wager. By insisting that international policies be “linked” to democratic advance, Sharansky is pushing against the transactional logic that says human rights are a boutique concern, to be raised only after the deal is signed. He’s arguing for conditionality: aid, trade, diplomatic recognition, even security cooperation should come with political expectations. That’s not just ethics; it’s a theory of leverage.
The subtext is a warning about the cost of ambiguity. When democracies refuse to name oppression as oppression, they wind up underwriting it, then acting surprised when “stability” becomes radicalization, refugee flows, or war. Still, the formulation is deliberately blunt, almost programmatic, and that bluntness is the point: it turns a moral narrative into a policy checklist.
Context matters. Sharansky’s worldview is shaped by the Cold War’s clean ideological contrast and by Israel’s security dilemmas, where democratic solidarity can feel like survival, not sentiment. The quote is less a plea for idealism than a demand that democracies stop pretending their interests are value-free.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|
More Quotes by Natan
Add to List
