World affairs have been increasingly framed as a contest between democracies and autocracies. Some argue that this discourse risks deepening rifts between countries and blocs in our already divided world. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also somewhat sharpened the tensions between democracies and autocracies. Would this cleavage have a more central place in structuring the international system, or will these values be more subjugated to realpolitik, where the democracy-autocracy dichotomy has little place in countries’ strategic reasoning?

In light of the current global crisis, will the so-called geopolitics of democracy lose its importance for Western countries, and the more pragmatic approach would prevail? What does the rest of the world think about this?