Virtual Event on
“From a Summit for Democracy to a League of Democracies”
Democracy is facing multiple challenges, from social media-driven fake news to foreign interference in elections. Ever since the events of 9/11, democracy and human rights have been in retreat across the world according to Freedom House.
At the same time, Western democracies see their power and confidence declining relative to China and other emerging countries. Deep rifts have emerged in the relations between the West and both Russia and China, sometimes reminiscent of the Cold War. Meanwhile, humanity faces the short-term crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and long-term challenge of climate change.
Against this backdrop several world leaders – including President Biden, Prime Minister Johnson and NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg – have recently voiced support for greater collaboration between the world’s democracies. For some, the emphasis is on repairing democracy internally. For others, it is to tighten the bonds among democracies in order to tackle global challenges and engage China and Russia from a position of strength.
This webinar will explore the idea of building on President Biden’s Summit for Democracy to create a permanent forum among the world’s democracies to tackle global challenges.
Our panel consists of advocates of several versions of this idea: a D10, a concert of democracies, alliance of democracies or community of democracies. They will discuss the following questions: What would be the purposes of such a community of democracies? What would be its value-added compared to existing intergovernmental organizations? Which countries would qualify as democracies? Wouldn’t such a community worsen the tensions between democracies and China and Russia?
This event is sponsored by the Coalition for a World Security Community, a global organization advocating for a community of the world’s democracies to promote peace and security and tackle other global challenges.
Speakers
- John Ikenberry, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
- Ash Jain, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
- Mariam Chikhladze, Fellow, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
- Tiziana Stella, Executive Director, Streit Council
- Didier Jacobs, Vice-President, Coalition for a World Security Community
Moderator
- Richard Ponzio, Director, Global Governance, Justice & Security Program and Senior Fellow, The Stimson Center
Watch the full discussion here or below.
