US President Joe Biden recently hosted the “Democracy Summit,” a virtual gathering of 110 world leaders. The meeting’s stated goals included promoting democracy and fighting tyranny and injustice. Many observers and analysts saw the conference as Biden’s attempt to divert world attention away from the United States’ divisive and unusual visage under Donald Trump’s administration. Biden’s Democracy Summit may be interpreted as an extension of his election slogan, “America is Back,” suggesting that the United States will abandon Trump’s divisive policies and return to what seems to be international norms. Even within the United States, the summit was heavily criticised from the outset, and many observers deemed the US leadership unfit to profess any commitment to democratic values. The United States, which has completed a 20-year military occupation in Afghanistan, has now inked a $650 million arms contract with Saudi Arabia’s dictatorial regime. By organizing a two-day meeting, Biden sought to make a hypocritical pro-democracy gesture while covering up his crimes of supporting authoritarian regimes throughout the world. Surprisingly, more than a third of the countries represented at the summit had undemocratic states, even by US standards. The participation of notorious leaders from authoritarian states such as the Philippines, Turkey, Brazil, and others has prompted doubts about the credibility of Biden’s Democratic Summit. Many Americans saw this conference as the pinnacle of the White House’s duplicity. “How can the United States claim to be the leader of the democratic world when the Biden administration has failed to uphold democratic values and the freedom of American citizens?” the New York Times asked. Aside from that, the presence of infamous politicians has raised the question of what democracy means to the US government or, more specifically, who defines democracy. According to USA Today, President Biden hosted a democracy conference with some of the world’s most cruel tyrants at a time when the US is grappling with a plethora of socio-economic challenges. In recent years, the United States, in particular, has shown no signs of democratic reform. Following the murder of George Floyd, an African-American citizen by US police, and the subsequent rise of anti-racist protests in the United States, as well as the sharp social divisions in American society, a critical point was reached when Trump supporters attacked Capitol Hill in an attempt to prevent a peaceful transfer of power, particularly during the Trump administration. Despite this, the US today claims to be the world’s greatest pro-democracy force. Furthermore, despite the favorable views of the European signatories to the agreement, the US unilaterally withdrew from several international accords in 2018, including the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran has also been exposed to a slew of unjust sanctions. This was a flagrant breach of democratic norms at their core. The then-US government, on the other hand, welcomed that aggressive strategy and the Iranian people’s livelihood was severely harmed as a result of the sweeping economic sanctions placed on Iran. Rather than making amends for the harm done to the Iranian people, the US administration is using force in the Vienna discussions to achieve its objectives, with the goal of resurrecting the JCPOA in accordance with its cupidity. Of course, these blatantly anti-democratic activities do not reflect the American democracy that Biden is striving to promote.
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