On 1 October, Hybrid CoE organized a webinar together with the Alliance for Securing Democracy on the threatthat malign financial activity poses to democracies across the transatlantic space. Authoritarian powers like China and Russia are covertly financing political actors to undermine democracies. Authoritarians use malign financial activity as a geopolitical tool to exploit the openness of Western institutions and economies. Democracies must act – both domestically and in concert with allies – to strengthen their institutions and improve transparency in order to shine a light on authoritarian efforts and mitigate this growing threat.
In addition to Director Teija Tiilikainen and Senior Analyst Janne Jokinen from Hybrid CoE, the other panelists taking part in the interactive discussion were Ellen Weintraub, Commissioner on the US Federal Election Commission, and Josh Rudolph, Malign Finance Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. The panelists discussed the vulnerabilities that authoritarian actors exploit and the steps that democracies should take to both prevent and respond to this behaviour. The event highlighted the importance of transatlantic cooperation in countering financial threats and offered a deep dive into how each side of the Atlantic is actively attempting to address covert foreign money.
The webinar recording is available here.
See Hybrid CoE’s latest Working Paper on hybrid threats in the financial system here.
See ASD’s latest report on covert foreign money here.
