Democracy International
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Three suggestions ahead of the 2021 democracy summit

US President Joseph Biden announced that he will host a democracy summit “to rally the nations of the world to defend democracy globally”, which may take place before the end of 2021.

DRI held conversations with officials from the US administration and numerous European foreign ministries, as well as civil society partners, to discuss what this democracy summit could look like.

In this briefing paper, Michael Meyer-Resende and Paul Zoubkov offer three suggestions ahead of the summit:

  1. The summit should be about democracy, not geopolitics, and involve citizens in open debates.
  2. The summit should be the beginning of a long-term process that includes diverse groups of society.
  3. The summit should not re-open acquired obligations for democratic governance and focus instead on those lacking implementation and new challenges.

You can download the full paper below. For more on this issue, read this policy paper recently co-published with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Photo credit: European Union

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DRI Suggestions for Summit on Democracy Download