Global Democracy Explored in a Preview of the Seoul Conference of the Council for a Community of Democracies

The Council for a Community of Democracies and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars co-sponsored a conference on October 18th, 2002, to preview the important meeting of the Community of Democracies taking place in Seoul, Korea in November. The Community of Democracies movement was launched in June 2000 in Warsaw, Poland as the first attempt to unite democracies from around the world in order to consolidate and expand on democratic gains made since the end of the Cold War.

The conference featured three panels made up of senior U.S. and international officials, scholars, journalists, NGO experts who discussed the Seoul conference and the state of democracy in the world today. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky opened the meeting with an assessment of the international democracy movement. Deputy Foreign Minister Chang Beom Cho of Korea, host of the Seoul Korea offered a preview of the gathering, and Ambassador Carlos Portales of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile spoke of his hopes for the third Community of Democracies meeting scheduled for Santiago in 2004.

The conference was attended by over 100 participants, who examined international threats and challenges to democracy via presentations by representatives of Freedom House and the Open Society Institute, among others. In a session chaired by former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, a panel assessed recent thinking on the impact of terrorism on democracy and the relationship between democracy and economic development. The conference also featured an afternoon session that reviewed the state of democracy in Africa, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and the Americas.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer, chairman of one of the sessions said the Wilson Center Conference succeeded in generating excitement in the U.S. and abroad about the Community of Democracies, a movement that he called the “best kept secret in the realm of world affairs”. Walter Raymond Jr., President of the co-sponsoring organization, noted that for the first time in human history a majority of the countries of the world and a majority of U.N. members are democracies. He added that acting together through the community of democracies can “significantly transform the world we live in and by so doing advance international peace and security in the world.”

Transcripts from the conference are available here.

Programs

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
6th Floor Auditorium
Friday, October 18, 2002

08:30-09:00 Registration & Coffee

09:00-10:30 An Overview of the Community of Democracies
Welcome: Michael van Dusen, Deputy Director, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Chair: Ambassador Mark Palmer, President, Capital Development Company
Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs “The International Democracy Movement”
Chang-Beom Cho, Deputy Foreign Minister, Republic of Korea “The Seoul Community of Democracies Conference”
Amb. Carlos Portales, Director General for Foreign Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Chile, “Towards the Santiago Community of Democracies Conference”
Walt Raymond, President, Council for a Community of Democracies and
Robert Herman, Co-Director, Democracy Coalition Project, “The Non-Governmental Forum: Crafting an Action Plan”

10:45-12:30 Challenges and Threats to Democracy
Chair, Hon. Frank Carlucci, Chairman, The Carlyle Group
Ambassador Robert Hunter, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Council for a Community of Democracies, “Democracy and Terrorism”
Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director, Freedom House, “The Global State of Democracy”
Morton Halperin, Director, Open Society Institute, Washington Office,
“The Independent Task Force on Threats to Democracy”
Omar Noman, Deputy Director Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Program, “Democracy and Development”

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-3:30 The Future of Democracy -- Regional Views
Chair: Herman Cohen, former State Department Assistant Secretary for African Affairs
South Asia: Gautam Adhikari, Senior Consultant, National Endowment for Democracy
Africa: Chris Fumunyoh, Senior Advisor, Africa, National Democratic Institute
The Americas: Ambassador Carlos Portales
Middle East: Adel Abdellatif, United Nations Development Program
© 2009 Council for a Community of Democracies - All Rights Reserved