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Well, i mean, first, if you take that 30—year span that you note, i mean, the world has gone from, say, eastern europe being a bunch of communist soviet dictatorships to european union democracies. you know, latin america has gone from being mostly military dictatorships to mostly democracies. so, i mean, the overall trend in many ways is positive. but you're right, there has been this backsliding in recent years. but, you know, what i look at is in a series of countries over the last few years, there has been a huge popular outpouring of support for democracy, against autocracy. and you see...

The triumph of liberal democracy. and what we've seen over the last 30 years is that many of those assumptions were wrong, and that quite literally, right now, many countries are actively leaning much more toward authoritarianism than they were 15 years ago. yeah. well, i mean, first, if you take that 30—year span that you note, i mean, the world has gone from, say, eastern europe being a bunch of communist soviet dictatorships to european union democracies. you know, latin america has gone from being mostly military dictatorships to mostly democracies. so, i mean, the overall trend in many ...

Well, i mean, first, if you take that 30—year span that you note, i mean, the world has gone from, say, eastern europe being a bunch of communist soviet dictatorships to european union democracies. you know, latin america has gone from being mostly military dictatorships to mostly democracies. so, i mean, the overall trend in many ways is positive. but you're right, there has been this backsliding in recent years. but, you know, what i look at is in a series of countries over the last few years, there has been a huge popular outpouring of support for democracy, against autocracy. and you see...

He's now investigating this at saakashvili's request. do you have any doubt that this investigation leads back to moscow, to putin? >> we have no doubt at all. this is a story about good versus evil, about the police state versus the free state. remember, saakashvili is the father of democracy in that region. he brought democracy there. there was a nonviolent shift in power for the first time ever in the region when he gave power to the current ruling party, the georgian dream, who is led by -- the architect is an oligarch and clearly a putin proxy. so that is what we're dealing with here, and...

Will saudi arabia move ahead if the situation on the ground grows worse? there's reasons to be skeptical. will the countries in the arab world that have made peace with israel, like the uae and bahrain, could there be backsliding if things get bad enough, particularly around islamic holy places? i would simply say, once again i fear the middle east will be a source of problematic news. >> in your book, you talk urgently about the significant threat to our democracy. the bill of obligations, americans need to know about their citizenship, know about their obligations and then act on it. >> abso...