A Movement, Not a One-Man Show
There are enough one-man shows in the world of political punditry. The Next Move represents a team.
A more positive note: I recently won a rematch against my fellow World Chess Champion Vishy Anand, and my friend and RDI Hero of Democracy Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Call them small wins, but we don’t have enough good news these days. To celebrate, I’m giving away three chess sets, autographed by yours truly. Anyone signed up as a premium subscriber by October 31, 2025 will be automatically entered to win.1
Remember, I don’t take one kopek from your paid subscriptions. All proceeds support the work of the Renew Democracy Initiative, including direct aid to Ukraine, amplifying the work for political dissidents, and getting more content up on The Next Move.
The Next Move has been around for half a year now and we’re already passing milestone after milestone. 50,000 subscribers? Check. Breaking through into mainstream media like CNN and MSNBC? Check.
Here’s another great piece of news: Of the pieces we’ve published in October, just a quarter are from me. The others are all from my trusted friends and colleagues. And there’s more coming down the pike from them.
Why is that good news?
To answer that, I need to offer you a look behind the curtain and a caveat. To be clear, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll continue to publish columns at least once a week, write Substack notes, and join our premium subscribers on Zoom calls so that we can really connect.
But this is a group effort. The Next Move is powered by the small-but-mighty team from Renew Democracy Initiative.
And I must tell you that one of the most frequent questions I’ll ask my RDI colleagues is this: How are we going to make this less about me, and more about the fight for liberal democracy?
I ask my colleagues this because reinvigorating the Free World’s democratic survival instinct isn’t a vanity project. To be frank, plenty of people have cashed in on the crisis of liberty. There are enough one-man shows in the world of political punditry. The Next Move represents a team, and, in an aspirational sense, a movement.
Now, I know that many of you signed up for The Next Move because you like what I have to say, and I’m flattered, but there are countless others whose voices I want you to hear.
At The Next Move, we recruit authors with intention. I trust the analysis of our team, even when we disagree (and when we disagree, we sharpen one another’s thinking). Each piece serves a purpose: holding up a mirror to the pro-democracy movement, exposing strategic blind spots, cultivating thoughtful debate, and so on.
So here are a few of the best posts from our growing roster of authors. These are “evergreen pieces;” articles with lessons that transcend the news cycle. I hope you’ll read them just as loyally as you’ve read my work.
The Russian trolls lurking in the comments of The Next Move often ask “If you’re so pro-Ukraine, why don’t you go there?” I’m sure they feel terribly clever saying so. What they probably don’t realize is that RDI is on the frontlines in Ukraine, providing life-saving humanitarian aid—over $13 million worth since 2022. Jason Jay Smart interviews my colleague, RDI CEO Uriel Epshtein, about that work.
Many of the problems in the pro-democracy movement stem from the fact that Americans—especially young Americans—don’t think they have a system worth saving. Caitlin Forrest worked with the Renew Democracy Initiative to connect political dissidents with US high school and college students. She shines a light on the scope of the disillusionment—and lays out what RDI is actually doing to change things.
Evan Gottesman is RDI’s director of communications and special projects and managing editor of The Next Move. He also spends a lot more time looking at Russian propaganda than is probably healthy, but someone has to do it. Evan lays out what Americans need to know about how their words can be twisted by foreign authoritarians.
Terry Virts is a former commander of the International Space Station. He worked with Russians more closely than most Americans and watched his cosmonaut colleagues become Putin-boosters and Ukraine-haters. Terry provides a lesson in political radicalization from a perspective few others can.
The fight for freedom in America can’t be separated from the fight for freedom around the world. Sarah McLaughlin is a scholar with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), an organization whose consistency I deeply admire. She maps out the next frontline in the battle for democracy—America’s campuses—where hostile foreign interests like Qatar and China and growing federal overreach intersect.
RDI Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger wrote the book on the Nobel Peace Prize. No, really—he wrote a full history of the award (it’s called Peace, They Say, and I encourage you to read it!). When RDI Hero of Democracy and Venezuelan dissident María Corina Machado was named a Nobel laureate, Jay was better-placed than any to put the prize in context.
Apologists for dictators present a false choice between censorship and propaganda. Fatima Abo Alasrar is from Yemen, and for two decades studied Iranian information campaigns in her home country as well as Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. She shows readers how not to fall into the rhetorical traps laid by dictators and their mouthpieces.
So there you have it—and there’s more where all of that came from, both from me and from my colleagues and friends.
This is a team effort. We punch above our weight, but we need your support. Many of you have been very generous in helping The Next Move along by purchasing a premium subscription. I do not receive a cent from those contributions. It all goes back to advancing the work of RDI and getting more content up here on Substack.
If you’re unsure about supporting The Next Move, let me try to sweeten the deal: Right now, we’re offering 30% off an annual premium subscription. Premium subscribers get access to exclusive Zoom calls where we have real conversations about democracy. I’ve found those discussions incredibly illuminating, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Listen to one of our premium subscribers, who says:
I have a number of Substack subscriptions, and attend a lot of geopolitical events in person and online. This open access format, genuine audience interaction, is really unique.
On top of all of that, if you join as a premium subscriber by October 31, you’ll be automatically entered to win an autographed chess board. Click here to sign up.
1. Please see full rules and regulations for The Next Move 2025 raffle.
Inspiring. Thank you, Garry
GET ON BOARD folks. #GarryKASPAROV is creating a MOVEMENT.
He is not a one man show… but he moderates it all.
For more from KYIV POST see. https://tinyurl.com/3af9xjr8