InAsia Podcast: The Pursuit of Democratic Resilience

With anticipation building for U.S. President Biden’s “Democracy Summit,” which he has committed to holding within the first year of his presidency, there is already significant discussion about what the United States’ return to promoting democracy will mean for its engagement with the world, and how this may affect aid programming priorities. In Southeast Asia, certainly, President Biden and his new USAID administrator, Samantha Power, will find a region much changed from a decade ago, when both were engaged in the Obama Administration’s “Pivot to Asia” and the shining light of the democratic world was found at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River with the dramatic transition that was underway in Myanmar.

Myanmar’s recent relapse into the military rule is perhaps the most depressing chapter of the democratic story in Southeast Asia, but the news has been downbeat across the region, as governments and leaders with authoritarian tendencies have presided over democratic backsliding, the hollowing-out of key institutions such as courts and the media, and a squeeze on civil society more broadly. There is little apparent interest today in burnishing democratic credentials on the world stage when traditional champions such as the United States and Britain have been preoccupied with their own political reckonings at home. So, what is the state of democracy that President Biden will find in Southeast Asia, and what efforts are under way to bolster democratic practices and institutions across the region?

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