Was the democracy summit in Seoul useful? Are open values ‘on the offensive’?

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Speaking at the opening of the three-day conference, Blinken said as “authoritarian and repressive regimes deploy technologies to undermine democracy and human rights”, there was a need to ensure technology sustained and supported democratic values and norms.

Andrew Yeo, a politics professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, said as populations grow and societies transform in Asia, countries in the region would have to grapple with issues confronting democracies in general such as labour, gender, development, the rule of law, and anti-corruption.

The focus of the summit’s participants was more on processes than outcomes, Yeo said. While other multilateral forums might cover many of the same issues, the democracy summit was one of the few vehicles with the stated goals of advancing democracy, he added.

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“The summit provided countries with a platform to take stock of a range of issues confronting countries, including non-democracies, at present and in the future,” Yeo said.

Attended by representatives from more than 30 countries, this year’s summit focused on tech issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cyberattacks, particularly with key elections to be held this year. Countries such as Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Poland, and South Korea have committed to work together to counter proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware.

The summit also involved civil society organisations, which discussed issues such as labour, gender equality, anti-corruption, disability rights, and media freedom.

Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, DC, said the summit showed democracies are ready to unite and take firm steps against illiberal threats.

“The summit ensures that democracies and key stakeholders are on the offensive, making sustainable commitments to address malign actors, corruption, and challenges posed by disinformation and generative AI,” Eisen said.

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Eisen, who is also chair at the States United Democracy Center, a non-partisan organisation advocating free and fair elections, said the summits since 2021 have laid the foundation for democracy to counter corruption and authoritarianism, and advance human rights.

“However, we must do more globally to bolster democracy in a time when leading democracies and citizens are under autocratic threat, including in the US”, Eisen added.

Danielle Piatkiewicz, deputy chief operating officer at the Alliance of Democracies headquartered in Denmark, said the decision to focus this year’s summit on technology and democracy underscored the need to address shared challenges arising from disinformation, AI, and deepfakes.

“The reason this summit was crucial lies in the recognition that overcoming these transnational challenges requires a collaborative approach” involving tech firms, civil society, and governments, Piatkiewicz said.

James Gomez, regional director at research institute Asia Centre, said the term “information integrity” emerged as a key concept at the summit to counter governments that are citing “disinformation” to justify restrictive laws on expression.

Gomez also called for the freedom of content producers to disseminate accurate information “without interference, especially from freedom-repressing governments”.

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Mainland China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian meanwhile criticised summit host South Korea for inviting Taiwan, saying the event was using democracy as an “instrument and weapon” to draw a line based on ideology.

Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province that should be reintegrated into mainland control, by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge the island as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.

A Xinhua news agency report last week said the summit did not focus on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and had divided the world “in the name of democracy”. State-run tabloid The Global Times called the summit “a clown show” with “plummeting standards”.

The three democracy summits to date have included participants from countries that are liberal democracies and weaker democracies but excluded illiberal countries such as Russia and China, Eisen said.

“Countries like Russia and China that reject universal human rights, embrace illiberalism, and seek to weaken democracy globally should have no place at the summit table.”

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Was the democracy summit in Seoul useful? Are open values ‘on the offensive’?

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