<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654198057122,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654198057122,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_45803198", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"962388"} }); ","_id":"00000181-25e3-df81-a381-67f72e750000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video Embed
It is often forgotten that democracy is not just a form of government but a way of life, and it is a way of life that Keith Krach has firmly embraced. It is, in fact, easy to be eloquent when writing about Krach, given that few leaders in the 21st century have so sincerely and fervently devoted themselves to peace through the defense of human dignity, justice, and freedom from authoritarianism. Through the force of his character and the nobility of his cause, Krach has distinguished himself as a singularly unique figure in the world, a man with “fire in the bones,” seeking to promote an active sense of solidarity among communities the rights and freedoms of which are affected by totalitarianism and working tirelessly to keep human freedom and dignity at the center of technological development.
Krach left a successful career in the private sector to work for the public good in 2019, when he was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate to serve as undersecretary of state. At the State Department, he identified the Chinese Communist Party as the foremost threat to human dignity in the present day and built the Clean Network Alliance of Democracies. It resulted in a technology-focused coalition of nations that ensured 5G technology and telecommunications equipment, one of the most consequential forms of infrastructure in the contemporary world, affecting everything from social media to smartphones and communication, were safe from abuse and manipulation by the CCP. The effects of his actions are far-reaching: He galvanized the world to reject the techno-authoritarian model that the CCP seeks to export, ensuring that the CCP’s surveillance state remained firmly within its own borders. He accomplished this by understanding what many do not: that modern technology can be harnessed to make democracy healthier, not just at home but around the world.
In moral terms, he took the fight to the doorstep of modern-day fascism by laying the groundwork for worldwide technological infrastructure based on the principle of trust and reinforced by solidarity and reciprocity — in other words, he put the theory of democracy into genuine practice and formed the practical basis for maintaining peace in the face of modern forms of authoritarianism.
Krach’s leadership also served as an inspiration for the transformational leaders of tomorrow. In May 2020, students across the U.S. and elsewhere in the free world began protesting against the corrosive influence of authoritarian governments on university campuses. University administrators treated international students from authoritarian countries as first-class tuition payers with second-class rights and were often failing in their duty to protect academic freedom without facing consequence from the very public they’re entrusted to support.
Further worsening the situation on campuses was the continued financial opaqueness of academic institutions and university endowments’ investments in many Chinese firms complicit in the genocide of Uyghurs. Few public officials were willing to speak up, seemingly unable or unwilling to respond to the demands of students from across the world, for fear of angering university administrators. Students demanded their rights and their freedoms and recognition of a dire situation present throughout academia, but few listened. Krach did, however, and publicly called upon university administrators to protect the rights of students and scholars while also defending academic freedom from influence and interference by the authoritarians and particularly the Chinese government.
He shed light on the continued exploitation of academic institutions by the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies and was the first public official to call upon the boards of private and public institutions to divest from companies complicit in the genocide of Uyghurs and other human rights atrocities committed by the CCP. In doing so, he helped lay the groundwork for the Uyghur genocide university divestment movement, a movement directly inspired by the successful student movement for divestment from Apartheid-era South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Students at the Catholic University of America, inspired in part by Krach’s work, successfully lobbied their university to become the first in the world to commit to divest from companies complicit in the genocide of Uyghurs and other human rights abuses. Since then, student leaders around the country, from George Washington University to UCLA and more than two dozen other institutions, have joined the fight for divestment. Krach played a key role in the creation of this movement.
Krach was the first public official in the world to refer to the persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in China as a genocide, an act of conscience that has stood the test of time and which gave hope to many in the Uyghur community that justice will be done.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that it is better to judge a man by his enemies than by his friends: Consider that the Chinese Communist Party levied sanctions against Krach and his family within minutes of him leaving the State Department in 2021. The mere fact that this morally bankrupt regime, which represents the greatest threat to human dignity in the modern world, saw fit to retaliate against Krach only serves to highlight the significance of his work further. To this end, we support the nomination of Krach for the Nobel Peace Prize and hope that he is considered on the merits of his own actions for the award.
John Metz is the president of the Athenai Institute, a student-founded nonprofit company urging universities to divest from entities complicit in the genocide of Uyghurs. Previously, he was national council chairman of the College Democrats of America. He can be reached at [email protected].
Rory O’Connor is the chairman of the Athenai Institute and an undergraduate student at the Catholic University of America. He can be reached at [email protected].
