Events
Please find below a record of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation's previous events and activities.
For further information, please contact [email protected].
2021
Event
Foreign & Domestic Meddling in the German Election 2021 - Lessons learned and the way ahead for Europe -
Political parties and their candidates are at the forefront of defending the integrity of elections and democracy. But they were not the only ones in the crosshairs of malicious interference attempts in the recent Bundestag election. The credibility of the election itself was also called into question by the huge amount of disinformation campaigns and cyber attacks.
Against this backdrop, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation and its Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity (TCEI) have now released a condensed summary of the most important foreign and domestic interference activities in the context of the recent Bundestag's election: the “Election Risk Monitor – Germany 2021”.
On this occasion, the Alliance of Democracies in cooperation with Microsoft would like to invite you to the virtual presentation and discussion of the Election Risk Monitor – Germany 2021 on Thursday, 16th December 2021 at 10:00-11:30 am CET
Based on the key findings from the German election, we want to look ahead and discuss how the EU and its member states can further shape our digital societies in the coming years while at the same time protecting them against attacks from the outside as well from the inside. With a heavy European digital agenda in place for the upcoming year, ranging from the DSA, the recent draft on transparency for political advertising, and the strengthened EU Code of Practice on Disinformation, we want to put our findings in the larger context of how the EU and its Member States can improve the protection of election integrity in the digital age.
Welcoming Remarks: Līga Rozentāle, Senior Director, European Governmental Affairs, Microsoft
- Viola von Cramon, INGE Committee, Member of the European Parliament
- Lutz Güllner, Head of Division, Strategic Communication, European External Action Service
- Felix Kartte, Senior Advisor, Reset.Tech
- Moderator: Olaf Böhnke, Berlin Director & Senior Advisor of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity (TCEI), Alliance of Democracies Foundation
For further questions please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
Register here.
Event
On December 9–10, President Joe Biden will host a Summit for Democracy, a virtual event to which the leaders of more than one hundred democracies worldwide have been invited. The Summit convenes as the world enters what Biden has framed as a broad global struggle between democracy and autocracy.
Autocratic powers, particularly China and Russia, have become more assertive in challenging rules-based international order. Democracies are on the defensive as they seek to contend with these threats, with many facing their own internal challenges. To succeed in this new era, the United States and its democratic allies and partners must find new ways to strengthen cooperation.
Is it time for a new Alliance of Democracies? What would be the purpose and mission of such an alliance? Which nations should be included? In light of the upcoming summit, is there a feasible way to bring this alliance to life?
On December 7, the Atlantic Council, in partnership with the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, will release a report, An Alliance of Democracies: From Concept to Reality in an Era of Strategic Competition, by Ash Jain, Matthew Kroenig, and Jonas Parello-Plesner.
Please join us for an engaging discussion on the upcoming Summit for Democracy and the potential to establish an Alliance of Democracies. This virtual public event will take place from 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, December 7. Make your voice heard on Twitter using the hashtag #AllianceofDemocracies.
Featuring:
- Hon. Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Founder, Alliance of Democracies Foundation; Former Prime Minister of Denmark; Former NATO Secretary General - Hon. Johannes Vogel
Deputy Chair, Free Democratic Party, German Bundestag, Germany - Mr. Ash Jain
Director for Democratic Order, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council - Mr. Jonas Parello-Plesner
Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation - Dr. Emma Ashford
Senior Fellow, New American Engagement Initiative, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council
Register here.
Happy International Democracy Day!
The Alliance of Democracies Foundation and our founder, Anders Fogh Rasmussen wishes you all a happy International Democracy Day!
Check out a message from our founder - “Democracy means freedom, peace and prosperity. In short, the best system of governance in the world”.
That’s why our Copenhagen Charter proposes three specific areas for supporting and defending democracy:
- Collectively pushing back on authoritarianism
- Making tech work for democracy
- Standing up for democracy’s champions
We were happy to have NDI's Derek Mitchell & IRI's Daniel Twining co-sign it with us.
This is our contribution to Democracy Day, what is yours?
If the charter resonates with you as well, sign up here.
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
How to Unite the World’s Democratic Forces
President Biden has promised to convene a Summit for Democracy and to renew the spirit and shared purpose of the nations of the free world. The hope is that this Summit will not be merely a one-off event, but set an agenda for democratic renewal.
UK Prime Minister Johnson has during his chairmanship of the Group of Seven (G7) included democratic allies such as Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea. This could lead to the formation of a Democracies 10/11, which would strengthen cooperation among the world’s major democracies.
The Alliance of Democracies Foundation was founded to unite the world’s democratic forces to counter rising authoritarianism and at the 2021 Copenhagen Democracy Summit, launched the Copenhagen Charterwhich proposes three specific areas for returning democratic multilateralism to its ascendancy.
And the Coalition for a World Security Community of Democracies (CWSC)
proposes a permanent forum open to leaders of all countries committed to democracy, human rights and international law. The OECD could be its implementing arm on economic issues, and NATO, which should become a global military alliance, on security issues. It could evolve into a global community on the European model and become an island of freedom, peace and prosperity in a turbulent world, attracting an ever growing membership.
Join the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in partnership with the Coalition for a World Security Community (CWSC) for an exciting discussion about making these approaches to an alliance of democracies work in practice from the G7 Summit to the Summit for Democracy. Join us on Wednesday, June 9th from 2:00 - 3:00 pm CET/1:00-2:00pm BST/ 8:00 – 9:00am ET.
- Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Chairman, Alliance of Democracies Foundation and former NATO Secretary General and Prime Minister of Denmark
- Lord Mark Sedwill, G7 Envoy for Economic Resilience and former Cabinet Secretary and National Security Advisor to Boris Johnson
- Ash Jain, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
- Didier Jacobs, Vice-President of the Coalition for a World Security Community of democratic nations
- Vivian Salama, National Security Reporter, Wall Street Journal
Welcome to Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2021
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2021
The fourth Copenhagen Democracy Summit (CDS) will convene May 10th/11th in hybrid format with contributions from political, business and media leaders around the world.
The summit, an initiative of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, comes as President Biden – who himself opened the first Copenhagen Democracy Summit in 2018 – prepares a global Summit for Democracy later this year.
Convened by the 12th NATO Secretary General (2009-2014) and 24th Danish Prime Minister (2001-2009) Anders Fogh Rasmussen, CDS2021 will be moderated by Politico's Ryan Heath and former ABC and CNN correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
The first day of the Summit, will cover authoritarianism, rule of law, tech and democracy, freedom of expression and US leadership. Guests will hear from prominent individuals on the frontlines of defending democracy. We dedicate Tuesday, May 11th to discussing election integrity, disinformation and social media regulation in partnership with the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and Data Privacy (IGCD) and featuring a range of policymakers, experts, and members from our Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity.
Find the latest agenda and speaker information here.
Update
Next stop, Germany: TCEI to engage with policymakers and civil society ahead of September’s election
Germans take to the polls in September 2021, and given that the nation will elect a new head of government some 16 years after Chancellor Angela Merkel first entered office, the election poses an opportunity for foreign and domestic election meddling.
In early March 2021, media reports revealed that hackers, operating mostly from abroad, orchestrated a series of attacks during her party’s leadership convention. Meanwhile, the European External Action Service recently published a comprehensive report detailing over 700 recorded cases of disinformation targeting Germany since 2015, providing solid evidence of systematic Russian disinformation campaigns against Germany at the hands of pro-Kremlin media outlets, as well as formal and political actors. Russian-backed media outlets are pouring money into their German-language offerings, and new studies indicate that the average German voter has difficulties differentiating between journalism, commentary, political advertisements and misinformation online.
German society is resilient, and the country’s authorities are well prepared for such challenges, but there is still much that can be done to increase awareness among political parties, their candidates and the general public about these multifaceted threats to election integrity. That's why the Alliance of Democracies Foundation and its Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity will be launching a slate of localized initiatives and tools in the coming weeks and months to engage with Germany’s citizens and its policy community. We aim to draw attention to these issues, amplify trustworthy research and analysis, increase media literacy, and provide concrete support and recommendations for preserving election integrity and defending democracy.
Follow us on social media, or sign up for our newsletter, to stay up to date on our activities in Germany ahead of September's election, which will include localized German versions of our flagship "Pledge for Election Integrity” and our online political game "The Disinformation Diaries." You can also learn more from our founder Anders Fogh Rasmussen's interview in this week's edition of German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Invitation
Denver Democracy Summit, February 25-26
Recent events in the U.S. and around the world have demonstrated the promise and fragility of democracy in stark terms. On February 25-26, 2021 the Josef Korbel School of International Studies and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation will bring together diverse individuals from across the political spectrum who are dedicated to protecting and promoting democratic ideals. We invite you to join us virtually for timely conversations at the inaugural Denver Democracy Summit.
The Denver Democracy Summit is a complement to the annual Copenhagen Democracy Summit organized by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation and to be held May 10-11, 2021 in Copenhagen, Denmark. For more information, please visit the Alliance of Democracies website.
2020
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
New challenges for media freedom and democracy: how to protect the open information ecosystem in the age of “alternative” facts and truths?
On Friday, November 13th, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in partnership with the Canadian Embassy, Copenhagen hosted a discussion on the new challenges for media freedom and democracy.
With information traveling faster than ever and new actors – like social media platforms - responsible for the distribution of news, the old model for gatekeeping of news content carried out by journalists and publishers has been disrupted. In order to cope with this new challenge and the threat of disinformation to traditional media, especially in the run-up to elections, news organizations need to prepare for how to efficiently and responsibly cover and counter false, misleading, and hacked information. Often, the information will be newsworthy. Expecting reporters to refrain from covering news goes against core principles of professional journalism and the practical business drivers that shape the intensely competitive media marketplace.
This webinar invited online and offline journalists to share their experiences and elaborate on their ideas and principles of how to maintain professional reporting standards in times of ubiquitous disinformation. Though the threats to media freedom are real, in this webinar we will discuss how to protect the concept of free media as the backbone of democracies worldwide in the age of “alternative” facts and truths.
- Lisbeth Knudsen, Editor-in-chief, Mandag Morgen
- Chine Labbe, Managing Editor, Europe, NewsGuard
- Craig Silverman, Media Editor, Buzzfeed News, Toronto
- Janine Zacharia, Carlos Kelly McClatchy Lecturer, Stanford University, former correspondent for the Washington Post, Bloomberg News and the Jerusalem Post
- Moderation: Allan Rock, Member of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, President Emeritus at the University of Ottawa (2008-2016), Canadian Ambassador to the UN (2004-2006) and Canadian Health Minister (1997-2002)
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
Resilience against Election Interference- Parliamentary Elections in Georgia 2020
On October 28th, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation and Microsoft's Defending Democracy Program hosted an event discussing the resilience against election interference ahead of the Parliamentary elections in Georgia. Over recent years, foreign interference – including from Russian state and non-state actors - in democratic elections and political processes of other countries has become a concern for democracies worldwide. In Russia’s immediate neighborhood, however, this phenomenon is not new. In Georgia, in addition to military action, the Kremlin has been waging information warfare, targeting democratic processes and the citizens that participate in them.
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
China’s Pressure on Democracies and How to Respond – Transatlantic Perspectives
The Chinese regime has shown increasing capacity not just to trample on its own citizens’ rights but also to intervene in established democracies. The pandemic has underlined how China airbrushes facts and tries to yield the world to its distorted narratives. In the US, the Trump-administration has hardened its policy on China with Secretary Pompeo in the lead on calling out the Chinese Communist Party and on both sides of the aisle in Congress and in the general public, perceptions of China have dimmed. In Canada, attitudes are changing too. Canada’s Foreign Minister top priority is the immediate release of two Canadian citizens who were arbitrarily detained by China. This is seen as an affront not only to the rights of the individuals but to all liberal democracies and the values they represent. In Denmark, the Chinese embassy put pressure unsuccessfully for a statue outside Parliament supporting Hong Kong’s demonstrators to be removed and putting pressure on Danish' students academic freedom of expression. There is an urgent need for joined transatlantic responses to such value challenges from China. Recently, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international cross-party group of legislators working towards reform on how democratic countries approach China announced two Danish co-chairs, Katarina Ammitzbøll and Uffe Elbæk and two members, Karsten Hønge and Naser Khader from across the Danish political spectrum. This virtual discussion was an opportunity to bring together representatives from US, Canada and Europe for a transatlantic discussion to discuss strategies in different countries on how to defend democracy and liberal values against authoritarian encroachment.
The event hosted experts including:
• Michael J. Abramowitz, President, Freedom House
• Katarina Ammitzbøll, Member of the Folketing for the Conservative Party
• Uffe Elbæk, Member of the Folketing and former Minister of Culture and a Member of the Independent Greens
• Garnett Genuis, Member of the Canadian Parliament, Canada’s Shadow Minister for Multiculturalism and Canada-China relations
Moderator:
• Jonas Parello-Plesner, Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
Launch Event
One month prior to the parliamentary elections in Georgia, The Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity (TCEI) initiates the Pledge for Election Integrity to encourage political parties and candidates to commit to their voters that they will not aid and abet those who seek to undermine democracy. See the pledge at electionpledge.org
The chairman of the Commission, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, joined by other members of the TCEI together with the chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Archil Talakvadze, officially launched the initiative and invited all political candidates presenting themselves for the parliamentary elections to take the Pledge.
The virtual event featured the following high-level speakers:
- Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Chairman of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, Chair of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014), Prime Minister of Denmark (2001-2009)
- Mr. Archil Talakvadze, Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia
- Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Member of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, President of Estonia (2006-2016)
- Ms. Natalie Jaresko, Member of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, Executive Director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto, Minister of Finance of Ukraine (2014-2016)
Watch the full event here
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020
Check out our highlights from this year’s inspiring speakers all in support of defending democracy at our virtual edition of Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020.
We discussed how we need to come together in defense of democracy and freedom in order to face challenges related to the authoritarian resurgence by both China and Russia, the escalating tensions in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the US’s role as a global leader and how tech can support democracy.
Watch the recap here.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020
Day 2: Defending Democracy during COVID-19
On Friday, June 19th we hosted global leaders and democracy supporters including President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) 蔡英文 Dr. Tsai Ing-wen, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana, Former US Secretary of States John Kerry and Madeleine Albright, Australian Prime Minister (2015-2018) Malcolm Turnbull, Chairman of Novo Nordisk Lars Rebien Sørensen, Microsoft President Brad Smith and many more!
The Summit was convened by the 12th NATO Secretary General (2009-2014) and 24th Danish Prime Minister (2001-2009) Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and moderated by Politico's Ryan Heath, former ABC and CNN correspondent Jeanne Meserve and Lisbeth Knudsen, Editor-in-chief, Mandag Morgen.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020
Day 1: Democracy in Action
On Thursday, June 18th the Copenhagen Democracy Summit dedicated several sessions to bolstering the work of democracy activists including Hong Kong freedom activist Joshua Wong and others from around the globe in collaboration with our democracy partner organisations: International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), George W. Bush Institute, and the European Endowment for Democracy (EED). In addition, we had three breakout sessions taking place at the same time featuring democracy defenders from our partner organizations.
-Breakout 1: Keeping Democracy Activism Alive during COVID-19. Sharing your Story
-Breakout 2: Elections and Disinformation Keeping on the Democratic Track during COVID-19
-Breakout 3: Ensuring Women’s Rights during a Pandemic
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020
The Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020 will take place virtually on June 18-19, 2020. The summit will still gather guests from around the world to discuss the state of democracy. Guests include leaders and thinkers from business and politics, civil society, media, academics and students. General topics this year will focus on US global leadership and 2020 elections, democracy and tech, responsible business, and defending democracy during pandemic times. To find more information on the Summit here.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
"What you see is what you trust? - The threat of disinformation and synthetic media to democracy"
On June 4th the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in cooperation with Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program discussed what threat disinformation and synthetic media – so-called deepfakes - pose to our democracies today and in the future.
The digitalization of society has brought plenty of new opportunities, but also poses a number of challenges to our democracies. Citizens of today are constantly connected, and the introduction of social media platforms has changed the way in which information and news are produced, spread and consumed. While these developments have enabled more people to participate in the political debate, democratized the supply of information and led to positive grassroots engagement, it also created substantial loopholes, which have allowed foreign actors to manipulate and exploit these new communication ecosystem until today.
Speakers:
- Laura Rosenberger, Director of The Alliance for Securing Democracy and Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
- Lutz Güllner, Head of StratCom Unit, European External Action Service
- Meredith Berger, Senior Manager, Defending Democracy, Microsoft
Moderator:
-Marietje Schaake, Member of the Transatlantic Commission Election Integrity (TCEI), International Policy Director of the Cyber Policy Center and International Policy Fellow at the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University, President of the CyberPeace Institute, Member of the European Parliament (2009-2019)
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
How Can Democracies Deal with China?- US and European perspectives
On May 28th, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in cooperation with the US Embassy Copenhagen, hosted distinguished China-expert, Michael Pillsbury from the Hudson Institute. President Trump has named him a ‘leading authority on China’ and is a regular commentator on Fox News. Pillsbury has authored the book 'The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower'. Pillsbury was in conversation with key Danish policy-makers and China-experts on the direction of US and European-China policy during the time of a global pandemic.
China and the US have entered a period of great power competition already impacting military and technology affairs. The pandemic reinforces that. Could COVID-19 lead to the US decoupling medical supplies and supply chains from China? Meanwhile, China is propagating an authoritarian response to the pandemic as efficient and superior while remaining opaque on the beginning of the virus. How to deal with China for democracies around the world has become an increasingly urgent question.
Speakers:
- Michael Pillsbury, Senior Fellow & Director for Chinese Strategy, Hudson Institute
- Kristian Jensen, Member of the Folketing, The Liberal Party and Former Danish Minister or Foreign Affairs and Finance
-Camilla Tenna Nørup Sørensen, Researcher, Danish Defense Academy
Moderator:
-Jonas Parello-Plesner, Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
"What you see is what you trust? - How educational initiatives can boost media literacy and fight disinformation"
On May 20th, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in cooperation with Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program launched it's second webinar part of a 3-part webinar series on "What you see is what you trust?" - How educational initiatives can boost media literacy and fight disinformation.
There is no doubt that the spread of disinformation and digitally manipulated content poses challenging questions for our democracies, and the use of education to raise awareness among citizens is an important way to mitigate the negative effects. Social media and informal education could be used as an effective method in increasing media literacy or media competence about election interference and the most recent type of synthetic media – deepfakes. Such educational initiatives might not alone solve the challenge of disinformation and deepfakes, but can potentially help in reaching a broader audience of key players who will learn and share knowledge in their networks.
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
"What you see is what you trust? - Counter approaches of tech companies to curb deepfakes"
On May 13th, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in cooperation with Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program launched it's first webinar part of a 3-part webinar series on "What you see is what you trust?" to discuss what threat disinformation and synthetic media – so-called deepfakes - pose to our democracies today and in the future.
The debate on regulating social media platforms to mitigate the efforts of coordinated disinformation campaigns is more relevant than ever in light of the upcoming US presidential election. With many governments being slow in their initial response to digital election interference, the perhaps most comprehensive efforts to stop the spreading of disinformation to date has been taken by social media platforms themselves. Although self-defined restrictions differ by design and target, there is no doubt these voluntary restrictions on content imposed by social media platforms play an important role in mitigating the spread of disinformation.
Speakers:
-Hany Farid, Professor for Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley
-Erica Greene, Non-resident Election Integrity Fellow, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
-Ashish Jaiman,Director Of Technology Operations, Microsoft
Moderator:
-Eileen Donahoe, TCEI and Executive Director, Global Digital Policy Incubator
Announcement
#DefendDemocracy – with Microsoft
The current coronavirus crisis has exposed important cleavages in our society. Ubiquitous reports about the „Corona infodemic“ and broader public calls for citizens to be aware of disinformation have alerted people about a threat that goes beyond the current pandemic: How resilient are todays’ democracies against disinformation campaigns and foreign interference in democratic processes? A question even more relevant in the digital age of today where (dis-)information travels faster than ever before.
To address these topics, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in cooperation with Microsoft's Defending Democracy Program presents a 3-part webinar series "What you see is what you trust?" to discuss disinformation, deepfakes and the threats they pose to our democracies. The webinars will be part of AoD’s #DefendDemocracy series and continues the efforts of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity to raise public awareness about the risks of foreign election meddling.
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
Sharing Taiwan’s Experience with Handling Coronavirus: A keynote talk with Digital Minister Audrey Tang
The Alliance of Democracies held the second edition of the #DefendDemocracy virtual series and called upon fellow democracies to learn from Taiwan’s experiences with handling coronavirus. For this, we were joined by Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang, who has a background with Taiwan’s vibrant civic tech community and spoke about Taiwan’s use of tech and an engaged citizenry (#RepublicOfCitizens) to curb the spread of the disease as an inspiration for other countries. The discussion was moderated by Jonas Parello-Plesner, Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation.
#DefendDemocracy Virtual Series
How democracies versus autocracies are handling COVID-19
The Alliance of Democracies in partnership with The Synergia Foundation kicked off the first edition of the #DefendDemocracy virtual series that gathered an expert panel from the US, India and Europe. The group discussed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on democracies especially with the authoritarian temptation on display internally and externally from China as they tout their approach as the most efficient during this unprecedented crisis. Experts included: Jonas Parello-Plesner, Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation, Tobby Simon, Founder and President, Synergia Foundation, and Julie Smith, Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the Asia Program, The German Marshall Fund of the United States.
2019
Conference about foreign election interference
How can democracies protect their elections from external interference?
On December 2nd, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation hosted an event in the Danish Parliament about election interference. We welcomed the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeppe Kofod, and many other Danish and international speakers for speeches and interesting roundtable discussions. Watch and read our live coverage on facebook, youtube and twitter.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2019
"Democracy may be broken, but we have no doubt we can fix it"
Anders Fogh Rasmussen opens the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2019 with a call to end the phenomenon of Western self-doubt.
Building an Alliance of Democracies
The first panel discussion at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit was hosted by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution and featured prominent politicians from some of the world’s leading democracies, who discussed how we can build friendships that realize our ambition of bringing together an international alliance of democracies:
José María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain
Felipe Calderón, former President of Mexico
Nick Clegg, former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK
Stephen Harper, former Prime Minister of Canada
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former President of Estonia
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2019
Congressman Schiff on US leadership
The Chair of the US Congress Intel Committee tells CDS that Congress, in a bipartisan approach, is asserting itself and reinforcing around the world that the US remains committed to democracy, human rights and free expression.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2019
Democracy couch sessions
Throughout the Summit, we held couch sessions with democracy activists from around the world. In this video, we hear from Mariam Jalabi, representative of the Syrian Opposition Coalition to the UN, and Yan Htaik Seng, Digital Manager, BBC Media Action, Myanmar. We also heard from activists and representatives of civil society from Lebanon, Albania, Tunisia, Iraq, Indonesia and Nigeria. All of the Democracy Couch Sessions can be viewed on the Facebook live stream here.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2019
Bi-partisan Congressional discussion
Congressmen Steny Hoyer (D) and Tom Cole (R) discussed the US role in promoting democracy and freedom.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2019
Taiwanese Foreign Minister
"Even though our democracy is under threat, we will not give up our democracy and democratic way of life. In fact, we are determined to make Taiwan's democracy a beacon for those who long for freedom, democracy and the protection of human rights" stressed Joseph Wu
2018
Event
The Past, present, and future of election interference
The Hudson Institute hosted Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity's Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Michael Chertoff, and Allan Rock to discuss how different regions of the world are handling foreign election meddling and how we can cooperate to build solutions moving forward.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit
Recap of the 2018 Copenhagen Democracy Summit
The inaugural Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2018 took place at the scenic Royal Danish Playhouse, situated beautifully on the harbor front in central Copenhagen. The Summit highlighted important current issues facing the world’s democracies, and successfully brought together more than 300 participants from over 40 different countries having a range of backgrounds from politics, business, academia and journalism.
Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2018
Did you miss the Summit?
Do not worry. We have gathered speeches and panel debates from the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2018 on the Alliance of Democracies Facebook page for everyone to watch. Here you will also find interviews with the members of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity.
The Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2018
Opening Remarks by Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Anders Fogh Rasmussen commenced the first Copenhagen Democracy Summit with a strong address stating: “Today gives us an opportunity to recommit to principles that we often take for granted; freedom, democracy, open markets and open societies.”. The opening statement by the Chairman and Founder of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation displayed great determination and conviction emphasizing the need to continuously promote democracy: “We are here to make democracies great again”. In light of this, Anders Fogh Rasmussen emphasized that the project of building an alliance of democracies is more important than ever.
