The panel seeks to answer this question in part by reflecting on America’s role in protecting and promoting open societies, democracy and human rights in the period since September 11.
In the intervening 20 years, there have been multiple challenges to America’s moral authority, both in its international engagements and its domestic policy, from Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition, to Charlottesville.
Today, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan calls into question once again the limits of America’s role in protecting democracy and human rights. The Biden administration plans to lead an Alliance of Democracies and has adopted a strategic frame for its foreign policy which emphasizes the competition between democracies and autocracies.
