Since 2022, Washington has been funding nations it judges to be democratic “bright spots”. Switzerland, with its new focus on democracy support in foreign policy, is also getting involved. Democracy, the United Nations writes, is a “core value” of the organisation. Whether this statement would be endorsed so quickly by its member states is less certain. Of the 193 countries gathered in New York last week for the UN General Assembly, only around half – depending on the criteria you use – could be classified as democratic, and the trend is not favourable. As such, a US-organised event during the General Assembly week took place not in the thick of things but, as diplomats say, “on the sidelines”. Chaired by Samantha Power, the head of the US Aid Administration (USAID), the panel took stock of the Democracy Delivers initiative: a public-private venture launched in 2022 to support nations at a stage of “promising democratic opening”. Over the past two years, the scheme has pumped ...
