That’s key to global stability.
Norman L. Eisen 22, senior fellow in governance studies at Brookings, executive chair of the States United Democracy Center, former White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform, 10/31/2022, "Rule of law continues five-year decline, but bright spots emerge," Brookings, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rule-of-law-continues-five-year-decline-but-bright-spots-emerge, christian
The world is slowly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the blow it struck to the rule of law remains persistent and widespread, according to fresh survey data collected in 140 countries. While declines in performance were not as extreme as in 2021, this year’s findings from the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index underscore the alarming drops in nearly every rule of law factor measured, especially in fundamental rights and checks and balances, which are two critical pillars of the rule of law.
Overall, these trends toward authoritarianism and away from rules-based liberal democracy portend dark trouble ahead. As big-power geopolitical competition continues to heat up, the differences in how states govern themselves will have outsized influence in shaping solutions to some of our most intractable problems – digital disruption and disinformation, corruption and illicit trafficking, and outright war. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and its sophisticated disinformation tactics, shows just how dangerous this divergence has become.