Western liberal democracies have not been perfect, but they learn from experience | Alexander Downer

There are many complex problems the world faces, but the “total destruction of Israel would be the beginning of the end”, writes Alexander Downer.

I’ve never trusted people who when asked about an issue knitted their brows and with a tone of pretentious sagacity tell us it’s a “complex problem”.

There’s plenty of that at the moment as turmoil engulfs Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Taiwan Straits.

It’s true, there’s a great deal of fascinating history to these places and over the last 2000 years that history has often been violent, characterised by wars and revolutions.

To understand all that is “complex”, meaning there’s a lot to learn.

But there’s another way of looking at these conflicts and it’s to ask yourself a simple question: who do you want to win? Imagine if President Putin were to defeat the Ukrainians.

‘The total destruction of Israel would be the beginning of the end for Western civilisation as they would see it,’ Writes Alexander Downer. Picture: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP.

It would of course be the end of a proud and independent country. More than that, it would be one giant step towards the re-establishment of the old Russian Empire and would set a precedent for military might redrawing the map of the world. It would also be a huge setback for not just America but the liberal democratic world it leads.

Or let’s take the Middle East. Israel is a liberal democratic state governed by the rule of law: like us. If Hamas and Hezbollah – who are just a front for Iran – were to defeat the Israeli defence force forcing the Israeli government to sign an unconditional surrender what would they do? They would abolish the state of Israel and replace it with an Islamic state where women were reduced to vassals, gays were executed and the modern economy disbanded.

The Jews would not be welcome and be driven into the sea. And by the way, just in case you’re inclined to rant at the Israelis for not agreeing to a two state solution, Iran and its proxies don’t want one. Understand that. The total destruction of Israel would be the beginning of the end for Western civilisation as they would see it. The worldwide ramifications would be huge. I would go so far as saying it would reorient the entire global system.

Imagine a world where the Iranian ayatollah and his mullahs became among the most powerful people on earth.

It’s not complicated. The history of the Middle East is of course. But whatever you think about the history – of the Samarians, the Phoenicians, the Jews, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the Muslims, the Turks – we are where we are. There’s no going backwards in time.

‘The thing about Western civilisation is it learns from experience. Things are changed if they are deemed to be wrong or unworkable’. Picture: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP

Then there’s Asia. Imagine if China destroyed liberal democratic Taiwan, seized total control of the whole of the South China Sea and reduced the countries of the region to surrogates of Beijing. Western norms of human rights, democracy and freedom would be expunged from the region.

And just to round off the horror of defeat, China, Iran and Russia would link-up to redesign the way the world works. Their ambitions are in the end different.

China doesn’t want an Islamic caliphate and Russia no longer shares Xi Jinping’s vision of communism and neither Xi nor Ayatollah Khamenei share Putin’s vision of an authoritarian kleptocracy. But all three of them are united in their loathing of the liberal democratic system. They want to get rid of it.

I know the Western liberal democracies have not been perfect. Of course they’ve got things wrong over the years. And what’s more, they’re still far from perfect. Some of you will think they haven’t done enough to deal with climate change. Some of you will think more could be done to achieve greater equality. Then there are the electric debates about immigration, identity, gender and race. We battle on.

Alexander Downer talks The need for Western civilisation to prevail. Picture: Supplied.

The thing about Western civilisation is it learns from experience.

Things are changed if they are deemed to be wrong or unworkable. Slavery was abolished, welfare was introduced, health systems became universally accessible and so on.

But stop and think of the achievements of the West since the 18th century.

Living standards have never been so high and poverty so low; never in history have people’s individual freedoms and rights been so respected.

The West has fought and won wars in support of the impregnable rock of individual freedom.

Plenty of alternative systems have been tried.

In the 20th century alone there were several authoritarian models from Soviet socialism to European fascism and Peronism in Latin America.

None of them stood the test of time.

They were incapable of lifting living standards and liberating individuals.

So when demonstrators are calling for the destruction of Israel, politicians calling for the withdrawal of support for Ukraine and commentators urging us to cede dominance of the Indo Pacific to China, it’s worth reflecting on what a major defeat of the West and its allies would look like.

So yes, there are many complex facts to understand but in the end we have to have the capacity to understand the simple core proposition.

And the simple point here is that Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan need to win.

Alexander Downer was foreign affairs minister from 1996-2007, and high commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2014-18.

Originally published as Western liberal democracies have not been perfect, but they learn from experience | Alexander Downer