Rallying the world’s democracies with ‘trusted connectivity’ New Atlanticist by Kaush Arha A woman, wearing a protective face mask, walks past a 5G data network sign at a mobile phone store in Paris, France, on April 22, 2021. Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters. The competition between autocracy and democracy is the defining challenge of the twenty-first century—one that will in part play out through control over the digital and physical infrastructure that increasingly binds the world together. US President Joe Biden rallied the world’s leading democracies behind this cause at the Group of Seven (G7) summit last month. The G7 nations, comprising the world’s leading free economies and free societies, proclaimed that as they aim to meet global infrastructure demand, among many other goals, their efforts will be guided by shared democratic values. For China, the standard-bearer of an alternate, illiberal model, infrastructure investment serves a different purpose: to increase China’s global economic leverage for its political gain. To prevail in this competition, advance their values, and develop much-needed digital and physical infrastructure, the world’s leading democracies should adopt the principle of “trusted connectivity.”