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WASHINGTON – Among President Biden’s more specific foreign policy promises was a pledge to convene a world summit on democracy in his first year in office. The rally is said to be meant to take a public stand against the authoritarian and populist tides that have risen under President Donald J. Trump and, as Mr. Biden and his advisers see, threaten to overwhelm Western political values.
In the weeks since Mr. Biden’s election, however, America’s own democracy has been astounding. This month, a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power. Next week, the Senate will begin its second presidential impeachment trial against Mr. Trump in a year. Republicans in Congress are on the verge of imposing a legislative deadlock by blocking every move by Mr. Biden.
The sense of a dysfunctional, if not entirely broken, democratic system blackens foreign rivals – and suggests that the United States has no reason to lecture other countries.
“America is no longer leading the way and has therefore lost all rights to trace it,” Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, wrote on Facebook after the riot on Capitol Hill. “And, more, to impose it on others.”
Americans could “be proud of their democracy and their freedom,” Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, recently told reporters. But after witnessing so much political chaos, she added, “deep down, they can hope to be able to lead a life like the Chinese do.”
Administration officials say neither opportunistic comments from foreign rivals nor recent manifestations of good faith skepticism on the part of the country’s foreign policy analysts have tempered the plan Mr Biden promised as a candidate: convene a ‘summit for democracy’ where like-minded leaders could discuss ways to strengthen their own internal systems and protect them against threats such as corruption, electoral security, disinformation and the authoritarian model that s ‘took hold of China and Russia and infiltrated countries like Turkey and Brazil.
Writing in Foreign Affairs last spring, Biden said the event would “renew the spirit and common purpose of the nations of the free world. It will bring together the democracies of the world to strengthen our democratic institutions, honestly face the retreating nations and forge a common agenda.
A person familiar with planning for the summit, which has been underway since before the election, said Mr Biden was not deterred by recent political disputes in the United States and was likely to be the host of an event with other heads of state, although details such as when and where have not been determined. Others close to the process said they expected an event towards the end of the year. A White House official did not respond to a request for comment.
In Washington, however, a debate over the idea erupted among former US officials and academics. This relates closely to plans for the summit, but involves greater concerns about the country’s role as a world leader in the post-Trump era.
The immediate question is whether the political crisis is a reason to postpone the summit plan and reassess efforts to promote the democratic model around the world, as some argue.
“The United States has lost its credibility; there is no doubt about it, ”said James Goldgeier, professor of international relations at the American University and former assistant to the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. In a recent essay for Foreign Affairs, he argued that Mr Biden should instead hold a summit on democracy at home – one focused on “injustice and inequality” in the United States, including issues such as the right to vote and disinformation.
“If you have a total stalemate on Capitol Hill and you don’t have the capacity to do things to improve people’s lives, you’re not going to command a lot of moral authority,” Goldgeier added.
“How can the United States spread democracy or be an example to others if it barely has a functioning democracy at home?” Emma Ashford, principal researcher at the Atlantic Council, wrote in Foreign Policy this month. “Washington’s foreign policy elites remain committed to preserving a three-decade foreign policy aimed at reshaping the world like America. They are far too jaded about what this image has become in 2020. “
Officials in the Biden administration say this criticism creates a false choice between restoring the country’s strength at home and its reputation abroad.
During public remarks in August, Jake Sullivan, who is now Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, spoke of “the intersection of domestic and foreign policy, not only as an abstract notion, but as the core of our grand strategy.
“Any effective strategy for American engagement in the world must begin with making these deep investments in the strength of our own democracy and democratic institutions,” Mr. Sullivan said, “and being on issues such as combating systemic racism.
With this work in progress, supporters of the summit say it would be an important moment for the world after four years in which Mr. Trump has praised strongman leaders like President Vladimir V Putin from Russia, Kim Jong-un from North Korea and Crown. Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, validating their arguments that stability and firm central control are more important than civil society and the popular will.
“I am very convinced that the events of the past few weeks – and years – make it necessary” to hold a summit, said Representative Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey and former senior State Department official for human rights. man and democracy to Obama. administration.
He argued that the Capitol riot and Mr. Trump’s broader efforts to overturn the election results demonstrated the resilience of key US institutions. “No one should look at these events and suggest that they undermine the strength of our example,” he said.
Mr Malinowski and other supporters of the summit admit that it brings practical complications, especially among those who, precisely, would be invited to attend.
In his essay on foreign affairs, Biden said his summit could draw inspiration from President Barack Obama’s four nuclear security summits, in which world leaders came together to share ideas and make specific commitments. concerning the reduction and securing of nuclear weapons.
Mr Biden added that his event would feature civil society organizations “who stand on the front lines in defense of democracy” and include a “call to action” for tech and social media companies that become ships of anti-democratic disinformation.
Yet countries like Turkey, Poland and Hungary, all NATO allies, are apparently democracies, but increasingly defined by authoritarian practices. Critics ask whether they should be invited and persuaded to adopt reforms, or excluded to deny them the status and stature of the democratic label.
One approach would be to create a D-10 Democracies Group, a concept devised by the State Department under the administration of President George W. Bush, in which the United States would be joined by Australia, Britain , Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.
Whatever form it takes, supporters of the idea say it would be a distant echo of Mr. Bush’s great “freedom agenda”, his call to turn autocracies in the Middle East into democracies that many now consider. as an example of the pride of the United States.
“It must be done with complete humility and serious honesty in the face of our shortcomings and the fact that we are not exporting an American model,” said Thomas Carothers, senior vice president of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Many supporters of the Democracy Summit agree that the political chaos calls for a deeply humble approach.
“I don’t think what he’s talking about is lecturing the world about democracy,” said Gayle Smith, former senior director of development and democracy for the Obama administration’s National Security Council.
“President Biden understands very well, and we have seen, obviously, that democracy is not something that you declare, ‘democracy’, and we are done,” added Ms Smith, who is now president and Executive Director of One Campaign, which campaigns globally against poverty and disease. “It’s an ongoing process.”
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