Coalition for a World Security Community of Democratic Nations
A World Security Community (WSC) of Democratic Nations could be the starting point for an eventual democratic world federation, following an evolutionary path like that of the European Union. Europe was “not built all at once, or according to a single plan”, as the Schuman Declaration puts it. It evolved from the nucleus of the European Coal and Steel Community, founded by a smaller group, ‘the Six’, according to the ideas of Jean Monnet. We need to find a way of emulating this evolutionary process for the world community. A treaty forming a World Security Community of democratic nations might be the way to go, and could encompass for instance both NATO and the OECD.
In his Presidential campaign in the US, Republican Senator John McCain talked of a ‘League of Democracies’, while others on the Democratic side of politics have talked of a ‘Concert of Democracies’, so there could be some sympathy for such ideas on both sides of politics in the US. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has already set up a ‘Community of Democracies’, but its mission is simply to promote democracy, and does not answer the purpose.
We have formed a Coalition for a World Security Community of Democratic Nations to gather support for these ideas.
THIS IS SO STRONGLY IN TUNE WITH OUR CWSC MISSION STATEMENT !
“I strongly believe that NATO also should be a platform to help create a community of like-minded democracies and that is the reason why we’ve been reaching out to our partners in the Asia-Pacific.”
Jens Stoltenberg
Secretary-General NATO, 2020
SOURCE: NATO
Anders Fogh
Rasmussen
By Foto: Magnus Fröderbergderivative work: Colin - This file was derived from: Danmarks tidligere statsminister Anders Fough Rasmussen vid Nordiska Radets session i Helsingfors 2008-10-28 (1).jpg:, CC BY 2.5 dk, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25476584
March 2020. Our Coalition was established in 2018 with the help of seed funding from the Global Challenges Foundation (GCF) in Stockholm. We made a joint presentation from the GCF stall at the Paris Peace Forum in November that year. Our working group consists of a diverse group of around forty members from Australia, Europe and the United States and includes academics, NGO professionals, communication professionals, and civil servants
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In 2019, we first set up our website, thanks largely to Allen Luke, and have since begun an outreach program, seeking collaboration and support from other organizations with similar objectives.
Our working group already includes members from the World Citizens Association in Australia, Federal Union in Britain, the World Citizens March in France, the Stimson Institute, Oxfam and the Streit Council in the US, the United European Federalists (UEF) and the Young European Federalists (JEF) in Europe.
We recently made contact with the Alliance of Democracies Foundation Denmark, headed by Anders Fogh Rasmussen (former Secretary-General of NATO, and former Prime Minister of Denmark), and received an invitation to participate in the next Copenhagen Democracy Summit in June 2020. We were hoping to get Mr Rasmussen out to Australia later in the year and organize several public events to publicise these ideas, but that never eventuated due to Covid.
Didier Jacobs, the co-leader of our Coalition who is based in Washington, has recently made contact with Ash Jain, a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council. He previously worked for the Policy Planning unit at the US state Department, during which time he worked on the US engagement with the Community of Democracies, together with Anne-Marie Slaughter who supported a Concert of Democracies at the time. In a recent paper 'Present at the Re-Creation: A Global Strategy for Revitalizing, Adapting and Defending the Rules-Based International Order', by Matthew Kroenig, Deputy Director of the Scowcroft Center, and Ash Jain, Senior Fellow, he has been advocating an Alliance of Free Nations to provide strong political leadership to coordinate foreign policies across all issues (security, economy, environment etc.). So we have now established contacts with major organizations within the Atlantic movement on both sides of the ocean.
December 2021
We have had a very busy year in the lead-up to the first Summit for Democracy this month. See an outline of events below.
Chris Hamer
#DefendDemocracy Webinar
‘How to Unite the World’s Democratic Forces’
June 9th, 2021
This event was jointly sponsored by ourselves and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Copenhagen. Didier Jacobs represented us on the speaker’s panel. Alongside him on the panel were:
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Chairman of the Foundation, and former Prime Minister of Denmark and former NATO Secretary-General
Sir Mark Sedwill, former National Security Adviser (UK) and former Cabinet Secretary (UK)
Ash Jain, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
A link to a replay of the event is at the bottom of the next section.
In case you missed it, check out what our experts had to say about President Biden's trip to Europe, the upcoming G7 meeting, the formation of a Democracies 10/11, and what to expect from Biden's Summit for Democracy.
"The world needs not only a global policeman to restore international law and order, but also a global fireman to extinguish all the fires that have broken out because of the lack of American leadership in recent years." - Anders Fogh Rasmussen
"The key thing about democracies is that we are self correcting - we listen and we improve. Autocracies do not." Lord Mark Sedwill
"We envisage a global community of democratic nations, led by the D10/D15 and with NATO and OECD as executive arms." - Didier Jacobs
"What binds together these forces is that we need a better strategy to deal with the challenges from China and Russia"
- Ash Jain
Watch the full discussion here.
The webinar went very well, with a very friendly and collegial atmosphere! Everybody seemed to agree on most points. Didier did a great job at representing us in a realistic fashion, and he was well accepted as a member of the group. This will do great things to raise the public profile of our Coalition!
We had close to 200 registrations for the event and close to 80 join the webinar session.
This has been our first public presentation since the Paris Peace Forum in 2018, and it was an important opportunity to get our message out there, and make new contacts. We need to consider how to follow up on the event.
CGS Annual Conference
The Citizens for Global Solutions group in the US held their Annual Conference from 11-13 November 2021 via Zoom. This year’s conference theme was, "Paths to a World Federation: Initial Inspirations & Current Strategies". They invited leaders of 5 ‘paths’ that appear prominently in the historical literature of the World Federalist Movement and continue until today (one of them being yours truly!). These are:
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UN Charter Review - Shahr-yar Sharei
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The United Nations Parliamentary Assembly - Andreas Bummel
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Integrating the Regions - Fernando Iglesias
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Uniting the Democracies - Chris Hamer
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Creating a World Constitution - Glen T. Martin
The event, led by Bob Flax and Donna Park, forms an important part of the renewal process underway for the whole world federalist movement, and I enjoyed it very much, talking ‘face-to-face’ with other members of the movement.
You can find recordings of the full proceedings via the CGS website here.
Chris Hamer
We ourselves organized a one-hour webinar
"From a Summit for Democracy to a League of Democracies"
November 30, 2021
Our report on the event to International IDEA follows:
“This webinar was a contribution to the civil society working group on countering authoritarianism, in view of the alarming and growing challenges against Ukraine and Taiwan. It was sponsored by the Coalition for a World Security Community, a global organization advocating a community of the world’s democracies to promote peace and security and tackle other global challenges. Its purpose was to explore the idea of building on President Biden’s Summit for Democracy to create a permanent forum among the world’s democracies. Several versions of this idea were discussed: a D10, a concert of democracies, an alliance of democracies or a community of democracies.
Our speakers included
John Ikenberry, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
Ash Jain, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council; Mariam Chikhladze, Researcher and Election Integrity Fellow, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
Tiziana Stella, Executive Director, Streit Council for a Union of Democracies; and
Didier Jacobs, Vice-President, Coalition for a World Security Community.
The discussion was moderated by
Richard Ponzio, Director of Just Security 2020, the Stimson Center.
As well as merely countering the autocracies, there was discussion of the bright and hopeful prospects of such an alliance or community, as a first step towards an eventual democratic world federation, following the example set by Europe.
Recommendations
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The Summit for Democracy should become a yearly event, to act as the supreme council of a global organization of like-minded democracies;
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An initial grouping of members from around the globe (possibly a D10) should agree on the need for an alliance or community of democracies to provide collective security against any aggression from the autocracies, and to collaborate with the United Nations in dealing with other global challenges;
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A Commission should be appointed to draft a new Treaty between these initial members, setting up the new organization. “
A recording of the webinar can be found here.
Alliance of Democracies Webinar
“Is it time for an Alliance of Democracies?”
December 7th, 2021
On December 7, the Atlantic Council, in partnership with the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, discussed the upcoming Summit for Democracy and the potential to establish an Alliance of Democracies, in a webinar entitled “Is it time for an Alliance of Democracies?”
Speakers included:
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Founder, Alliance of Democracies Foundation, Former Prime Minister of Denmark, Former NATO Secretary General);
Damon Wilson (President, National Endowment for Democracy);
Johannes Vogel (Deputy Chair, Free Democratic Party, German Bundestag);
Tom Tugendhat (Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee, UK House of Commons); and a panel discussion between
Emma Ashford (Senior Fellow, New American Engagement Initiative, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council);
Ash Jain (Director for Democratic Order, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council); and
Jonas Parello-Plesner (Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation)
The discussion was moderated by
Ryan Heath (Senior Editor, Politico).
There was general agreement on the need for a new global alliance of democracies, and the discussion of various ways and means. Note the participation of leading members of the three organizations we have been trying to reach out to regarding our own project.
Missed the event? Watch here!
The event discussed a joint report, “An Alliance of Democracies: From Concept to Reality in an Era of Strategic Competition”, by Ash Jain, Matthew Kroenig, and Jonas Parello-Plesner.
Summit for Democracy
December 9-10th, 2021
The Summit took place December 9-10. Sessions were broadcast and open to the public. Please check the website for all information on viewing sessions, the agenda and official side events: https://www.state.gov/summit-for-democracy/
The Summit featured remarks and discussions with President Biden and senior U.S. officials, foreign leaders, and civil society in two half-days of sessions, providing an opportunity to highlight commitments along the Summit’s three pillars: strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights. Topics of thematic sessions included bolstering democratic resilience, technology and democracy, protecting democratic institutions, and protecting human rights.
Many civil society organizations have independently coordinated activities around the Summit. You can learn more about those events here: https://summit4democracy.org/
The 2021 Summit will be followed by a year of consultation, coordination, and delivery. During this year of action, the United States will work collaboratively with participating governments and non-governmental actors to showcase progress on collective commitments, and to develop new pledges and initiatives that can be announced at a second Summit for Democracy.
Civil Society working group on ‘Countering Authoritarianism’
John Davenport and I have joined this working group, convened by the US State Department to provide some input from civil society to the Summit for Democracy. The group is very much in its early stages, and it is anticipated that its work will continue to develop into next year, leading up to the second Summit at the end of 2022.
Chris Hamer