Another step backward for democracy, another victory for dictatorship as Brazil is ending visa-free travel for Americans. Brazil visa requirements for US citizens
It is common knowledge at this point that Putin has been supporting right-wing politicians such as Donald Trump, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Viktor Orban, and Marine le Pen. Putin wants to see the European Union dissolve, the abolition of free trade and travel between democracies, and show that the only way forward is his antiquated dictatorial oligarchy.
To secure these ends, these politicians over the last 22 years have been hard at work attempting to dissolve the alliance. They do this by sowing distrust and discontent. Orban, the right-wing government of Austria, and Erdogan block the most obvious NATO expansions. Merkel blocked letting Ukraine into NATO, even before the Orange Revolution. The Bush administration issued visas to NATO tourists, despite the absolute lack of evidence that there was a problem with NATO tourists to begin with. Every single 9/11 attacker was a legal visitor in the United States and was issued a visa by the State Department despite having already been involved in terrorism and having traveled to Afghanistan since 1996. The reforms made since 9/11 would not have stopped any of the 9/11 attackers from attacking the United States. I hope that after the next time they attack us because they will absolutely attack us again, we will actually think about effective measures to stop terrorism instead of knee-jerk reactions that harm our alliances. The cynical side of me thinks that the reason they have not attempted another large attack on American soil is because they got what they wanted. American liberties have been reduced, visa-free travel has been almost fully eradicated except for Canadians, and the Taliban is in control of Afghanistan. Mission accomplished.
The system to expand visa-free travel to the United States is slow and bureaucratic which makes it harder to expand visa-free travel to countries as they improve. Expanding visa-free access requires uneducated customs agents to accept the majority of visa applications from countries they know little to nothing about in rushed decisions. This is not a reasonable way to form policy. This is by design.
There are now many countries that have full visa-free travel to the European Union, where they consistently cause no trouble at all, which require expensive visas to visit the United States. This is a step backward for the free world. It is a step towards oligarchy and dictatorship.
I do not believe that the imposition and expansion of visas by itself will inevitably lead to dictatorship. I also believe that it is impossible to fully slide to true dictatorship without the imposition and expansion of visas.
It is right and good for a country to want to expand visa-free access for its citizens. If a country wants to make it more possible for its citizens to travel abroad, it can use more effective methods. The United States has the C-2 visa which allows a foreign diplomat from a hostile regime to only come to this country for a limited time and only travel within a limited radius of where they are allowed to travel. What countries should do is a similar regime for countries that do not give visa-free travel to their citizens. Holders of diplomatic passports, embassy workers, and select wealthy business people from the hostile country (hostile in this case means they do not offer visa-free travel) will have visas valid for a period of 1 week, non-renewable, and expensive for the hostile government to pay for. They will be limited in the area they are allowed to travel in and will be monitored at all times. Ordinary passport holders might still have free visa-free travel to the visa-issuing country, but government workers will not until visas are lifted for all non-criminal citizens.
On the other hand, embassy workers and official passport holders from countries that offer visa-free travel will have the ability to travel wherever they want while in the country as long as they are employed by their government with no restrictions beyond normal security rules.
I think this is a more reasonable way to expand visa-free travel around the world. I think it is a paramount issue for all freedom-loving people in the world. It is an essential and effective bulwark against dictatorship.
The poem First They Came is a brilliant and moving poem, but it gets one thing wrong. The Nazis didn’t first come for the socialists…
They first ended freedom of movement.
I believe the OECD should expand to all countries that have a better democracy score, press freedom, and corruption perceptions than the worst-performing OECD member. This will lead to 94 member states of the OECD across every inhabited continent. The OECD can then build systematic standards for increasing integration across member states, along with clear guidelines on how countries are able to accede similar to what the European Union has. As clear benchmarks are set for reducing tariffs, travel barriers, work permits, and other protectionist measures in response to domestic improvements such as clamping down on corruption and improving the environment to work and do business, this can be a serious mechanism for the OECD to be the major force for good in the world. There will need to be a mechanism to expel a member if they violate basic standards in the worst-case scenario, and this will provide very tangible consequences for voters if they elect a demagogue hellbent on destroying democracy. The consequences can be seen very clearly in Brexit. With increased global collaboration this will be the most important forum in the world to tackle challenges such as climate change and increase dialogue beyond what we have today at both the government level and people-to-people dialogue. The OECD is already one of the greatest organizations in the world in collecting and distributing essential data which is used by experts to improve the lives of ordinary people. I believe it can be so much more.
