STRATEGIC

24 Strategic Choices for a Turbulent World: In Pursuit of Security and Opportunity
lished democracies began to decline, a trend often referred to as a
“democracy recession.” 13
Expanding Alliances at Little Short-Term Cost
A notable feature of the immediate post–Cold War years was the expansion
of alliances and partnerships. Altogether, the United States has significant
security commitments to approximately 140 nations, roughly
half of which are highly formalized through treaty obligations. 14
The United States has excelled in its ability to develop and sustain
such relationships as NATO, other major alliances, and multilateral
Figure 2.4
Expansion of Democracy, 1947–2014
The number of world citizens living under different political systems.
7
1955
Full democracy 553,397,036
6
Democracy 428,970,303
Open anocracy 243,099,909
5
Closed anocracy 175,045,154
Autocracy 1,175,060,965
4
Colonial regime 172,861,565
No data 13,216,049
Billions of people
3
2
1
0
1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2009
Year
SOURCE: Max Roser, “Political Regime,” OurWorldInData.org, website, undated-b.
RAND RR1631-2.4
13 According to Freedom House rankings, the number of countries where freedom is declining
has outstripped the number where freedom is increasing each year from 2006 to 2016.
See Freedom House, 2016a; and Freedom House, “Maps and Graphics,” web page, 2016c.
See also, Larry Diamond, “Facing Up to the Democracy Recession,” Journal of Democracy,
Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2015.
14 Jennifer Kavanagh, U.S. Security-Related Agreements in Force Since 1955: Introducing a
New Database, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-736-AF, 2014.