Democracy Support in Hard Places: Can we do better?

With its forthcoming Summit for Democracy, the Biden administration has underscored its emphasis on reinforcing democracy, human rights, and governance around the world and at home. Yet the challenges to this lofty objective are steep, and recent events in Afghanistan and Sudan and beyond have laid bare the difficulty of building up democratic societies in conflict-affected states in particular.

While the U.S. government often approaches democracy support as a separate initiative from efforts to mitigate and stabilize conflicts, these two efforts often overlap on the ground. What have we learned from these experiences? How should the United States approach issues of democracy in its forthcoming Global Fragility Strategy?

Join us as we take stock of lessons learned on international democracy support in conflict-affected contexts, and as we discuss how to formulate a new playbook to assist democracies in fragile settings.