|
Newsletter 138 8 December 2021
Summit for Democracy
Spotlight Issue
As the Biden administration's Summit for Democracy starts, we've got all you need to understand the main aims, issues, and players surrounding the event. The main Summit is taking place on 9 and 10 December is surrounded by a range of events on 8 December ('Day Zero') and has been preceded by a diverse mix of events since mid-November. It's the first of two Summits, and aims to bring government, civil society, and the private sector together to set an agenda for renewing democracy in states worldwide as well as collective international action, on: (1) Defending against authoritarianism; (2) Addressing and fighting corruption; nad (3) Promoting respect for human rights.
The Summit is mainly online due to Covid-19, with a guest list including participants from 111 states and territories, from Albania to Zambia. The Second Summit is scheduled to take place in about one years’ time, envisaged as an in-person event, expected to build on and reflect on the consultations, coordination, and actions taken after the first Summit. It appears that organising the Summit has been a serious challenge, not least due to the gutting of the State Department during the Trump presidency. We'll be watching it closely, and letting you know what we think!
In this Update we're highlighting:
- SummitUp video series with 2-minute explainers of key issues
- International IDEA 5 messages for the Summit
- Global views on the Summit, gathered by the Carnegie Endowment
- Our pick of readings from countries and regions worldwide
|
|
|
SummitUp Video Series
COVID-DEM Director Tom Daly has challenged himself to sum up the aims, key issues, and players in this short series of video explainers:
1: Introduction
2: 'What's It All About?'
3: 'Who's Invited?'
4: 'How has the World Responded?'
5: 'Can the US Lead on Democracy Today?'
Coming soon: watch out for analysis of the view from Australia and the Asia-Pacific
|
|
|
International IDEA 5 Messages for the Summit
A group of pro-democracy institutions and organizations working globally to support human rights defenders, independent media, civil society, and democratic transformations agreed to address these Five Messages to leading democracies on the occasion of the Summit for Democracy. Internaitonal IDEA believes these issues are of crucial importance for advancing democracy worldwide.
1. Show solidarity with the world’s democrats. Democracies must deploy resources more effectively to assist the citizens of autocracies and weak democracies.
2. Renew international settings. Democracies must reform international institutions so that they reflect and promote democratic values.
3. Scale-up support to independent, ethical media and the overall information ecosystem to ensure access to accurate information while addressing mis-/disinformation. Democracies must promote independent, verified, and fact-checked information.
4. Strengthen and support existing structures and encourage the creation of new structures and systems to enable greater transparency, accountability, and coordination among governments, technology companies, and civil society. Democracies must address the business models of internet platforms and algorithms that actively push harmful, violent content.
5. Put our own house in order. Democracies must restore their credibility.
|
|
|
Global Views of the Summit
On 6 December the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace rounded up what some global players are looking for on the eve of the Summit, from Africa, Europe, Japan, Latin America, South Asia, and the USA itself. Wrapping up, Frances Z. Brown offers 4 key messages:
Participant commitments must be specific and tangible. At risk of stating the obvious, yet necessary—they should also be meaningful.
Civil society will have a key role to play in monitoring governments’ progress on meeting commitments.
If the summit’s success is a priority to Biden, following up on other countries’ commitments should be central to the U.S. government’s own work, as well.
Broadening the agenda: In the coming year, the Biden administration will need to shift from a focus on the tactics of summit planning to a strategy of global democracy reinforcement. Holding a summit is not an end goal in itself—but supporters of democracy everywhere hope that it succeeds in jump-starting progress toward broader democratic renewal.
|
|
|
Additional Readings
Here's our pick of some readings with insights on the Summit, as well as criticism, from a range of countries and regions worldwide:
General
Ted PICCONE, ‘The Awkward Guests: Parsing the Summit for Democracy Invitation List’ Brookings (7 December)
Ashley PARKER and John HUDSON, ‘Biden’s “Summit for Democracy” Includes Countries That Hardly Seem to Qualify’ The Washington Post (7 December)
Alberto NARDELLI, ‘Hungary Sink EU’s Joint Role in Biden’s Democracy Summit’ Bloomberg (2 December)
Steven FELDSTEIN, 'Who’s In and Who’s Out From Biden’s Democracy Summit' Carnegie Endowment (22 November 2021)
Nahal TOOSI, 'An 'Illustrative Menu of Options': Biden’s big democracy summit is a grab bag of vague ideas' Politico (4 November 2021)
William BRIGGS, ‘Biden’s Summit for Democracy: China-Bashing and the Economics of Human Rights’ Pearls and Irritations (30 August 2021)
Julia LEININGER, ‘Time Is Ripe for a Global Democracy Summit’ German Development Institute (19 January)
David ADLER and Stephen WERTHEIM, Biden Wants To Convene An International 'Summit For Democracy. He Shouldn't' The Guardian (22 December 2020)
EU
Ursula VON DER LEYEN, ‘Speech by President von der Leyen at the EU Ambassadors Conference 2021’ European Commission (7 December)
Erin JONES and Elisa LLEDÓ, ‘Global Views of Biden’s Democracy Summit’ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (6 December)
Josep BORRELL, ‘We Need Straight-Talk and Determined Action on Democracy’ European External Action Service (24 November)
Russia & China
Anatoly ANTONOV and QIN Gang, ‘Russian and Chinese Ambassadors: Respecting People’s Democratic Rights’ The National Interest (26 November)
LE Yucheng, ‘The So-Called “Democracy Summit” Has Been Reduced to a Complete Farce’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (3 December)
USA
Ashley QUARCOO,‘Global Views of Biden’s Democracy Summit’ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (6 December)
Aaron David MILLER and Richard SOKOLSKY, ‘Biden Is Right That Global Democracy Is at Risk. But the Threat Isn’t China’ The Washington Post (3 December)
Latin America
Oliver STUENKEL,‘Global Views of Biden’s Democracy Summit’ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (6 December)
Oliver STUENKEL, ‘How Biden’s “Democracy Summit” Might Actually Benefit the Americas’ Americas Quarterly (7 December)
Australia
Chris ZAPPONE & Eryk BAGSHAW, ‘Insecure World: Everyday Cross-border Harassment a New Reality for Democracy’ Sydney Morning Herald (5 December 2021)
Ben OQUIST, ‘Now More Than Ever We Should Be Strengthening Democracy. We’re Not.’ The Australia Institute (26 December 2020)
Anthony FUNNELL, ‘A New Alliance of Democracies’ Future Tense by ABC (8 August 2021)
Ben SCOTT, ‘Australia Right to Back Biden on Democracy’ The Interpreter (6 July 2021)
Asia-Pacific
Erin HALE, ‘Taiwan to Participate in US Summit for Democracy as China Snubbed’ Voice of America (6 December)
Maiko ICHIHARA, ‘Global Views of Biden’s Democracy Summit’ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (6 December)
Aqil SHAH, ‘Global Views of Biden’s Democracy Summit’ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (6 December)
Anna MALINDOG-UY, ‘Will the US Democracy Summit Divide the WORLD?’ The ASEAN Post (5 December)
Andrew YEO, ‘Will Asia Buy into the Summit for Democracy?’ Brookings (1 December)
Shannon TIEZZI, 'Which Asia-Pacific Countries Were (and Weren’t) Invited to the US Summit for Democracy?' The Diplomat (1 December 2021)
John FENG, ‘Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy Is Missing Some Surprising Countries’ Newsweek (25 November)
|
|
|
COVID-DEM is You
Every day we work with people worldwide to build this platform for helping us understand how the pandemic is challenging and re-shaping democracy globally, and the many ways we can defend and improve our democracies. Our sincere thanks to every one of you who has helped us to develop COVID-DEM into what it is today. Don't hesitate to send us your work and suggestions, to coviddem@gmail.com or through our online form.
Dr Tom Gerald Daly
Director
Find out more about Tom here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
