Last December, President Biden hosted a virtual Summit for Democracy which placed democracy and human rights at the heart of U.S. foreign policy. He posed a challenge to the representatives of some 100 countries: “Will we allow the backward slide of rights and democracy to continue unchecked?”
This is a Year of Action, a year in which commitments are being turned into real change. The issues that Germany and the United States committed to pursuing at the Summit for Democracy are complementary. Central among those issues is the question: how can the G7 partners—with Germany as the G7 Presidency this year—strengthen our democracies against rising authoritarian trend? We will no doubt want to consult with strong institutions like the American Academy and Freedom House in answering this critical question of our time.
