EGN NEWS DESK
No matter the end result, the outcomes of the 2024 United States presidential election are sure to have international affect. How are residents and leaders in different components of the world viewing this election? What’s at stake for his or her international locations and areas?
This was the main focus of “The 2024 US Presidential Election: The World is Watching,” a Starr Forum held earlier this month on the MIT campus.
The Starr Forum is a public occasion sequence hosted by MIT’s Center for International Studies (CIS), and targeted on main points of worldwide curiosity. The occasion was moderated by Evan Lieberman, director of CIS and the Total Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa.
Experts in African, Asian, European, and Latin American politics assembled to share concepts with each other and the viewers.
Each provided knowledgeable commentary on their respective areas, situating their observations inside a number of contexts together with the international locations’ fashion of presidency, residents’ perceptions of American democratic norms, and America’s stature within the eyes of these international locations’ populations.
Perceptions of U.S. politics from throughout the globe
Katrina Burgess, professor of political financial system at Tufts University and the director of the Henry J. Leir Institute of Migration and Human Security, sought to tell apart the a number of political identities of members of the Latin American diaspora in America and their perceptions of America’s relationship with their international locations.
“American democracy is now not perceived as a normal bearer,” Burgess mentioned. “While members of those communities see benefits in aligning themselves with one of many presidential candidates due to positions on financial relations, immigration, and border safety, others have deeply-held views on fossil fuels and elevated entry to sustainable power options.”
Prerna Singh, Brown University’s Mahatma Gandhi Professor of Political Science and International Studies, spoke about India’s standing because the world’s largest democracy and described a rustic transferring away from democratic norms.
“Indian leaders don’t discuss with the press,” she mentioned. “Indian leaders don’t debate like Americans.”
The ethnically and linguistically various India, Singh famous, has elected a number of ladies to its highest authorities posts, whereas the United States has but to elect one. She described a model of “exclusionary nationalism” that threatened to maneuver India away from democracy and towards one thing like authoritarian rule.
John Githongo, the Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at CIS for 2024-25, shared his findings on African international locations’ views of the 2024 election.
“America’s delicate energy infrastructure in Africa is crumbling,” mentioned Githongo, a Kenyan native. “Chinese funding in Africa is up considerably and China is seen by many as a perfect political and financial accomplice.”
Youth-led protests in Kenya, Githongo famous, occurred in response to a failure of promised democratic reforms. He cautioned towards a possible return to a pre-Cold War posture in Africa, noting that the Biden administration was the primary in a while to aim to reestablish financial and political ties with African international locations.
Daniel Ziblatt, the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and the director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, described shifting political winds in Europe that seem much like elevated right-wing extremism and a model of populist agitation being noticed in America.
“We see the rise of the unconventional, antidemocratic proper in Europe and it appears to be like like shifts we’ve noticed within the U.S.,” he famous. “Trump supporters in Germany, Poland, and Hungary are more and more vocal.”
Ziblatt acknowledged the divisions within the historic transatlantic relationship between Europe and America as signs of broader challenges. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, power provide points, and nationwide safety apparatuses depending on American assist could proceed to trigger political ripples, he added.
Does America nonetheless have international affect?
Following every of their shows, the visitor audio system engaged in a dialog, taking questions from the viewers. There was settlement amongst panelists that there’s much less funding globally within the final result of the U.S. election than could have been noticed in previous elections.
Singh famous that, from the attitude of the Indian media, India has larger fish to fry.
Panelists diverged, nonetheless, when requested concerning the rise of political polarization and its reference to behaviors noticed in American circles.
“This development is international,” Burgess asserted. “There’s no causal relationship between American phenomena and different international locations’ perceptions.”
“I believe they’re studying from one another,” Ziblatt countered when requested about extremist components in America and Europe. “There’s energy in saying outrageous issues.”
Githongo asserted a sort of “trickle-down” was at work in some African international locations.
“Countries with right-leaning governments see these inclinations make their strategy to organizations like evangelical Christians,” he mentioned. “Their affect mirrors the rise of right-wing ideology in different African international locations and in America.”
Singh likened the continued splintering of American audiences to India’s caste system.
“I believe the place caste is available in is with the Indian diaspora,” she mentioned. “Indian-American enterprise and tech leaders are likely to hail from excessive castes.” These leaders, she mentioned, have outsized affect of their American communities and in India.
