Posted on Dec. 2021 at 9:00
Exercise is not without its risks. The United States agrees Thursday and Friday some 111 leaders of countries to a summit for the democracy. The organization of this event, in virtual mode, was a campaign pledge of candidate Biden, whom he had promised to honor during his first year in office, with the initial objective of “facing the threats to our common values “. In his sights, the authoritarian regimes he abhors, even if, remarks a keen observer, “he does nothing to help Russian opponents, prefers to focus on the Uighurs in China”, and goes straight to the clash by inviting Taiwan on the nose and beard of Beijing.
Washington’s guest list has been the subject of discussion and comment for months, and offended many diplomats, even among countries that received their invitations. France will participate in the event but it had expressed its “reservations”, being more favorable to an alliance for multilateralism with the development of tools and methodologies than to a summit tending to stigmatize the countries excluded from it. this circle.
China and Russia are not invited, nor Iran or Turkey. Washington did not send an invitation to Hungary either, causing unease in some European capitals keen to promote the European Union as a democratic entity. Countries also had to beg for their invitation, such as Kosovo. This was granted to democratic countries, to those engaged in a “virtuous” process or contributing to regional stability.
According to the Carnegie Foundation, several invited countries do not meet the usual criteria for democracy. By excluding certain states without always explicitly giving the criteria and the reasons, Washington is taking the risk of giving Beijing a lever to unite the rejected, points out a diplomat. The Russian and Chinese ambassadors in Washington have also protested together against the operation, in an article signed together in “National Interest”.
Message to Americans
The summit is to be held around three themes: defense against authoritarianism, the fight against corruption and the promotion of human rights. To mitigate the risks of antagonism, the US State Department now presents the operation with a positive vision: “listen, learn, engage”. Civil society and the business world will also be asked to make their contributions. It is about encouraging unifying rather than antagonistic initiatives, like the council on trade and technology which brings together Europeans and Americans to repair the affronts of the trade war waged by the Trump administration against Brussels.
The Summit also aims, for the White House, to send a message to the Americans. Congress is continuing its investigation into the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, in a climate of mistrust on the part of Republicans. The attack seriously damaged the reputation of the United States, and a report has just classified the country among the “retreating democracies”. According to Freedom House, they fell to the 61e place.
In the United States, the often very partisan electoral division of constituencies, attacks on the right to vote in states, flexible regulation allowing for rampant disinformation and the limitless financing of electoral campaigns also weaken democracy, and now its word. Not to mention certain practices that most mature democracies have got rid of, foremost among which is the death penalty.
While a second Summit is already scheduled in a year for a first assessment, the White House is trying to initiate a movement by launching a series of measures on the chosen themes. It has just published its first anti-corruption strategy, which aims to improve transparency in asset holding and targets in particular money laundering in real estate. The White House also announced Monday a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics next year, because of the “genocide and crimes against humanity underway in Xinjiang”. American athletes will participate well in the Games, but no officials will be coming to Beijing.
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