According to the US Department of State, the second Summit for Democracy, aiming at “advancing democracies and addressing the world’s most pressing challenges”, will be held on 29-30 March 2023. The United States will co-host the Summit with the governments of Costa Rica, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, and Republic of Zambia and assemble world leaders in a virtual and plenary format.
The summit aims to address the promotion of respect for human rights as well as fighting corruption and standing up against authoritarian regimes. The purpose of the democratic summit is to tackle problems facing the world; however it could cause more harm than good. This goal is not necessarily a good fit with today’s reality. Since we now live in a complicated and interdependent world, the globe divided into good and bad countries may seem quite an impossible model.
The concepts of the summit comes across as a solution for all the world’s problems but, as we all know, things are very different in today’s world. The notion of “America is back” may have made people feel better in the past, but nowadays people have different opinions and this might not be the case. Today, citizens in different countries often prefer to tackle their difficulties by choosing their own leaders and solving their problems internally without involving other countries. This makes it impossible for any country to be the leader of the whole world.
Conversely, Biden recently became the face of price hiking, which is in fact, in full swing worldwide. This led him to receive a good number of critics regarding anything he decides to do. The country is also losing thousands due to illness every week and this paints a bad picture of Biden. Not to mention, the several scandals and controversial changes that have been occurring; for example, the congress attack and Ohio train derailment. It seems to many that America should better organize its national democratic environment first.
We didn’t forget the the train derailment that occurred last 3rd February in the village of East Palestine, Ohio. The train that carried hazardous materials, including the extremely dangerous vinyl chloride, exploded spilling all its content into the soil and intoxicating the atmosphere with the dioxins released after the burning. More than 43.000 animals were the estimated victims. One more time we witnessed another example of the dysfunctional systems of the country that aims to save the world with its policies but in the end we can’t do nothing but wonder if the USA should better organize its national democratic environment first instead.
Furthermore, Biden government made a list of the guests who will attend the summit on democracy. Those invited to the summit include democracies that are liberal and others that are weak and even countries and states that have authoritarian form. America hopes for each invited country to make a series of commitments on each of these broad policy areas to promote democratic values. The challenges here are obvious.
One could summarize that there is a great likelihood that the summit will turn out to be ineffective, since the world’s democracies aren’t homogeneous and the concept of the democracy itself is not the same in different nations. Sharing similar governing philosophies does not mean that all these countries have to agree with the same strategic calculations of Washington or show identical interests. The US will make a huge mistake if they forces their will upon others or browbeats other democracies into participating in an ideological struggle against other countries.
Fellow, defense priorities and foreign affairs columnist at Newsweek, Daniel R. Depetris, wrote:
“If ideology was the main driving force in geopolitics, basing U.S. foreign policy on ideological competition would make some degree of sense. Unfortunately, the world isn’t so dogmatic. Interests, not values, guide state behavior in the international system. Reducing the world’s nuclear weapons stockpiles, for example, is impossible without Russia’s buy-in. The U.S. won’t be able to deal with North Korea effectively if China isn’t at least read into the process. Striking a nuclear agreement with Iran won’t happen unless Iran itself agrees to participate. In sum, the U.S. has no choice but to branch out from their fellow liberal democracies if it wants to get things done. Launching a values-based crusade against them, however emotionally satisfying it may be, undermines the pragmatism that is often the key between success and failure in international relation”.
References
Islam, S. (2020) Biden’s Democracy Summit Is a Risky Venture. Brussels, November 24.
Soare, S. R. (2021) Biden’s Security Policy: Democratic Security or Democratic Exceptionalism? Intereconomics, 56(1), 14-20.
Biden Jr, J. R. (2020) Why American Must Lead Again: Recusing US Foreign Policy after Trump. Foreign Aff., 99, 64.
Brands, H., & Edel, C. (2021) A Grand Strategy of Democratic Solidarity. The Washington Quarterly, 44(1), 29-47.
Depetris, D. R. (2021) Is Biden’s Summit for Democracy a Good Idea? Newsweek, August 18.
