Twenty-four hours after the Republican candidate to Governor of the State of Georgia, David Perdue, announced that, of having occupied that position, he would not have recognized the results in that territory of the 2020 elections, which won Joe Biden, the United States celebrates the First 'summit of democracy'.
With such an internal situation, it is worth asking whether the US can face what Biden has qualified as "the challenge of our time": the recoil of democracy worldwide. For two decades, the values of liberal democracy are in withdrawal inside and outside the United States. And this virtual meeting, because of the Covid-19, attending more than 100 heads of state and government from all over the world, and several hundred personalities of civil society, will try to lay the foundations to reverse the trend. It is an unprecedented initiative, which is born with the vocation to continue each year. In fact, next year there will be a new 'summit', in which a series of work documents created by the countries attending this meeting will be analyzed. The great doubt is what will be the journey of all that in practice.
Among the countries that have not been invited, the two major US competitors in the world, China and Russia stand out. But also a series of allies of Washington, such as Hungary, Singapore, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. In return, governments such as Angola - who carries governed by the same party since it reached the independence of Portugal, 46 years ago - and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Realism, as well, collides democracy. In all the classifications of political freedoms of the world, Hungary is ahead of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and, conversely, it is worth asking how it goes to the US contain Iran without the support of Saudi Arabia, or China without Singapore, No matter how many countries are not democracies.
That is historically the great paradox of US foreign policy: how to defend democracy in a world in which many allied countries are not democratic. And Biden has not broken with her. The axis of the external action of it is to stop the expansion of China. Which poses, again, the same problem: democracy or realism? Because China never asks questions about human rights in the countries in which it invests.
So political and strategic reality is very different from ideological principles. Washington can say that he promotes democracy but, in practice, authoritarian models extend. And that plays in a special way to its rivalry with China. "When it comes to containing Chinese penetration in Latin America, the United States does not exist," the former Vice President of Colombia and former Ambassador of that country in Washington Francisco Santos, which has been explained in the podcast. One Decision How, when I had left politics, the Chinese authorities tried to intercede before the Government of Juan Manuel Santos for him to deliver a contract to a Chinese company.
Shortly after, the son of saints, who is a congressman, had to cancel a trip to Taiwan - who is at the 'summit for democracy', which has not been liked from Beijing - due to China's pressures. All those are the policies that, in theory, go against the values of the 'summit'. But, at the same time, they are part of a strategy that that country, which is the greatest dictatorship of the world, began at first in practice during the presidency of George W. Bush, and two decades ago, and against which the US has made very Little to date
The summit lasts two days, in which the Heads of State and Government, which represent more than half of the countries of the world, will hold a series of meetings behind closed doors on a series of topics, among which the recovery stand out of democracy and institutions after the COVID-19, the fight against corruption, the defense of human rights - including, in a prominence, that of freedom of expression - and digitalization and impact on democratic societies will be the Main topics of the Summit, although, in the end, the key is summarized in what they said biden in their now only speech before the US Congress, April 28: "We have to demonstrate that democracy still works, that our government It works and that we can attend to the needs of citizens. "
It is, thus, a very online initiative with others launched by Biden, such as the alliance with Australia and Britain baptized as Aukus, the revitalization of the Quad, of which also form India, Japan, and Australia, the Trade and Technology Council Created on the 'summit' with the EU of Pittsburgh in September, or the 'Summit' of Ciber Security of October. The problem is that the Aukus, the Quad, and the Trade and Technology Council have very clear objectives. But the 'summit' by democracy, no.
That has led some skeptics to question their existence. As it has written at Foreign Policy Stephen Walt, professor at Harvard and, in general, supporter of 'Realismo', a theory that, in the world arena, countries must maximize their strategic advantages moved only for the reason for state, the Summit "illustrates two recurring problems in the United States foreign policy: the inability to set clear priorities, and the tendency to proclaim noble objectives that is not able to achieve".
Date Of Update: 08 December 2021, 21:00
