WASHINGTON - - The Swiss Foundation hosted a roundtable discussion on May 1, 2002 on the Challenges of Democracy Promotion in the Aftermath of 9/11. The Foundation’s aim is to contribute to the debate on international politics and policies. One of its key focus is direct democracy. The speakers of the roundtable – Nicole Bibbins, Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Robert Herman, Co-Director, Democracy Coalition Project, Open Society Institute, and Walter Raymond Jr., President, Council for a Community of Democracies – discussed the global implications of September 11 and its aftermath for democracy-promotion, particularly in view of the second summit meeting of the ‘Community of Democracies,’ to be held in Seoul in November 2002. The discussion was moderated by Heiner Hänggi, Visiting Scholar, Swiss Foundation for World Affairs, SAIS. The audience included a prestigious selection of NGOs, scholars, policy-makers, and journalists.

Bibbins emphasized that the pledge of President Bush at Monterrey, Mexico at the International Conference on Financing Development, to provide additional $10 billion as core development assistance over the next three budget years is a clear proof of the Administration’s strategic engagement in democracy promotion. The exact criteria for selecting the countries that would benefit from this additional appropriation of foreign aid, however requires further discussion. Responding to a question, Bibbins pointed out that the fact that democracy appears both as an objective and as a criteria does not send conflicting signals. Conditionality is important to steer emerging and new democracies toward a higher level of attainment. To a remark, regarding the skyrocketing defense spending compared to the relatively low increase of the democracy budget, she pointed out the primus inter pares position of national security. The administration must guarantee the security of the country and its people, which, certainly, does not preclude the simultaneous and long-term engagement in democracy promotion.

Herman warned against a potential challenge, namely, that forming ‘coalitions of expediency’ must not overshadow the long-term mission of genuinely strengthening the Community of Democracies, a movement that was conceived in June 2000, and which must be pursued to guarantee lasting success. As development and politics cannot be divided, he drew attention to the importance of engaging the international financial institutions in democracy-promotion. Herman underscored that, as their system of conditionality often proves counter-productive, the IFIs must revise the method and standards of selection to better assist countries in need of economic and political development. The erosion of democratic principles must send warning signs and galvanize the international community to speak with one voice. Commenting on terrorism as a tool of foreign policy, ha articulated that no matter how much money is spent on direct counter-terrorism measures, future administrations will face a challenge if we do not pay immediate attention to promoting the underlying values of tolerance, compromise, and pluralism worldwide.

Raymond gave a historic retrospective from President Reagan’s pivotal Westminster speech in June 8, 1982 spanning two decades of democracy-promotion evolution until 2002. Raymond believed that the time is right to revive President Reagan’s call to assist the campaign for democracy. He expressed his view on the collective responsibility of NGOs and the government to deepen and strengthen the movement of the Community of Democracies. The upcoming conference in Seoul (November 10-12, 2002) is designed to provide a forum for exchange between the official ministerial meeting and the non-official meeting of the non-governmental organizations. This interface strives to become a milestone, where the ministerial meeting could absorb and integrate recommendations made by the NGO Forum into the official policy-making. Raymond emphasized that the action-oriented approach at Seoul could and must bring tangibles with measurable results by the next meeting of the Community of Democracies in Chile in 2004. He also noted that active engagement of a Democracy Support Group at the U.S. Congress would be a key element to commit sufficient amount of legislative action to democracy-promotion, commensurate with its intrinsic and long-term value.

The Council for a Community of Democracies is a Washington based advocacy group chaired by ex-U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter.  The Council President is former NSC official Walter Raymond, Jr.