🗳️ Time to unite the democratic countries of the world
To accelerate the positive progress that democracy brings and to reduce the influence and harmful effects of dictatorships, the democratic countries of the world should cooperate in a new organization, an Alliance of Democracies.
Today I'm CEO of Warp News and chairman of Warp Institute, but before that, I was a Member of Parliament. In 2012 I wrote the first proposal in Parliament for an Alliance of Democracies. I've written a think-tank report on an Alliance of Democracies (in Swedish.)
Usually when you see something really bad on the news you feel horror, sadness or anger. I felt all of that when Putin ordered the troops to invade Ukraine.
But I also felt something more.
That this was so unmodern.
Here we are in the year 2022 and a dictator is invading a peaceful democratic neighbor. We should have come further by now.
There are many things we need to do to make the world modern. One is to reshape the international community.
The old international community
The world community as we know it today was formed after the Second World War. The United Nations was formed with the aim of avoiding World War III, and therefore it was important that all countries were involved, regardless of whether they were democracies or dictatorships.
That all countries are represented in the UN is the organization's greatest strength – and weakness. The UN is completely toothless regarding the Ukraine invasion, because of Russia's veto.
The new international community
At the time of the UN's formation, about 7 percent of countries were some sort of democracy. Today almost 50 percent are.
The democratic countries of the world are now by far the planet's most powerful. Democracies are the most economically developed countries, they possess a military force that many times exceed those of the dictatorships. They also have a common set of values, based on democracy and with respect for human rights. Democracies also never go to war with each other.
If the world's democratic countries would unite they would be more powerful than any other organization on the planet.
An Alliance of Democracies
To accelerate the positive progress that democracy brings and to reduce the influence and harmful effects of dictatorships, the democratic countries of the world should cooperate in a new organization, an Alliance of Democracies.
The Alliance of Democracies would have three main purposes:
- Increase human progress.
- Meet common security challenges.
- Secure and develop democracy in their own countries and spread democracy to countries that do not yet have it.
One task for the Alliance of Democracies would be to reform the UN and get the organization to act more according to the human rights that all member states have agreed to. But the purpose of an Alliance of Democracies is not to replace the UN.
The world's most powerful organization for good
If the Alliance of Democracies were formed today, the organization would have about 50 to 60 members, but probably be able to increase quite quickly and become around 80-90 countries and about three billion people.
Such an alliance would have a greater impact on the planet's future than any other organization in world history.
The fight against poverty, oppression and famine would be stronger than ever before and the power to promote prosperity, economic growth and human rights second to none.
Check out the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, founded by former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
