Democracy in retreat and Korea's timely co-hosting of 2023 Democracy Summit

By Yun Byung-se

Quo vadis, democracy? In August, then U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) Michelle Bachelet revealed a grim picture of the current state of democracy in her speech titled, "Crisis and fragility of democracy in the world."

She reported that in 2021, the level of democracy enjoyed globally by the average person was down to 1989 levels, backsliding 30 years. Last year, almost one-third of the global population lived under authoritarian rule and the number of countries leaning toward authoritarianism was three times that of those leaning toward democracy. The decline is assessed to be particularly prominent in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific, as well as in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Freedom House also reported in its "Freedom in the World 2022" report that the present threat to democracy is the product of 16 consecutive years of declining global freedom. Bachelet dubbed it "ailing democracy." Others call it "democratic recession," "democratic decay," or "democracy at default." The unpleasant truth is that the consensus on democratic norms has shown signs of fraying in recent years, with increased polarization, disillusionment and authoritarian patterns of governance, including in some established democracies. Even the 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy stated that "we have not always lived up to our ideals and in recent years, our democracy has been challenged from within."

It is against this backdrop that the U.S., South Korea and three other countries jointly announced, on Nov. 30, the convening of the second virtual Summit for Democracy next March. This event will be a follow-up to the first summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden this time last year "to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action." Among others, the fact that four countries ―representing Asia (South Korea), Europe (the Netherlands), Latin America (Costa Rica) and Africa (Zambia) ― are co-hosting the summit with the U.S. this time makes a distinction between the two summits.

For the Yoon Suk-yeol government, this co-hosting is a natural corollary of its policy and philosophy, which puts freedom, human rights and democracy on top. It is well reflected in its "global pivotal state" initiative and new Indo-Pacific strategy, and it is also a continuum and expansion of South Korea's growing role in promoting democracy at home and abroad in recent decades.

To illustrate, South Korea served as a member of the 17-country Convening Group for the Community of Democracies (CoD), initiated by the Bill Clinton administration, and hosted the second ministerial meeting of the CoD in Seoul in 2002. It is now a member of both CoD Governing Council and Executive Committee.

It has been a leading member of the Bali Democracy Forum for the Asia-Pacific, inaugurated by Indonesia in 2008. Korea served as an active member of U.N. Human Rights Council five consecutive times, in addition to holding the chairmanship of the council in 2016. The U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul opened in 2015 as a follow-up to the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea. South Korea actively supported the "Human Rights Up Front" initiative by then U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The joint statement on the second Summit for Democracy shared the sense of crisis mentioned above in that democracy and human rights are under threat around the world and democracies are confronting serious challenges from within and outside of their borders.

This time last year, The Economist magazine predicted that the year 2022 would see the rivalry between democracy and autocracy. This situation became a reality. As we are witnessing, the war in Ukraine has shaken the very tenets of the U.N. Charter and the international order. We confirmed that aggressive authoritarianism has posed a big challenge to international peace and stability, undermining the democratic political processes of other countries.

To our relief, many countries including non-democracies also joined the world's democracies in rejecting these behaviors at the U.N. and in many other fora. It reminded us of the longstanding proposition for democratic peace and the need for democratic collaboration, despite some weaknesses of democracies.

The 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy report has made this point clearly. It stated that the range of nations that support the vision of a free, open, prosperous and secure world is broad and powerful. This range includes U.S. allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific as well as key partners around the world that share much of the vision for regional and international order, as well as countries that do not embrace democratic institutions but nevertheless depend upon and support a rules-based international system.

This situation seems to be a major reason why President Biden stressed the need for global democratic renewal and tries to rally the free world under the flag of democracy. Certainly, South Korea is now well positioned to stand together to safeguard peace, human rights, the rule of law and democracy. In the May summit, President Biden and President Yoon reaffirmed their commitments to a global comprehensive strategic alliance "firmly rooted in the shared values of promoting democracy and advancing human rights." Biden especially appreciated Yoon's initiative to embrace greater regional and global responsibilities, and enthusiastically welcomed South Korea for taking a leadership role in the Summit for Democracy process.

But the road to the 2023 summit or to a democratic alliance ultimately will be rough and bumpy. There are challenges galore. Among other things, autocracies as well as non-democracies are also strengthening their collaboration across the world and will continue to do so. Many of them are either Korea's neighbors or close partners in a bilateral context. Sometimes, national interests may conflict with the commitment to democratic principles and universal values, as we have witnessed in several foreign cases this year.

Setting criteria of democracy for invitation purposes is always a tough job and sometimes controversial and sensitive. Not being invited does not necessarily mean that a country is autocratic, as being invited does not indicate a clean bill of health ipso facto. In particular, co-hosting could involve the risk of retaliation: political, diplomatic or economic.

For all that, the Yoon government's decision to co-host the event will be the right move in the right direction at the right time for implementing its global pivotal state initiative. It also reflects the enhanced stature of Korea in the global endeavor to renew and promote democracy and human rights. Last, but not least, It will send an unequivocal message to North Korea, which ranks last in the 2022 Freedom House global index. As Bachelet emphasized, precisely in this moment of uncertainty and unpredictability, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to democracy and human rights. Democracy is resilient.

Yun Byung-se, a former foreign minister of South Korea (2013-2017), is now a board member of the Korea Peace Foundation and a member of several ex-global leaders' forums and task forces, including the Astana Forum and its Consultative Council as well as the Task Force on U.S. Allies and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.