In 2022, the Biden administration called upon the world’s democracies to unite against a rising tide of autocracy. Through its messaging, conferences, and op-eds, the US and its allies presented the public with a binary choice: democracy or autocracy.
But in today’s world, and in the practice of international relations, the choice is rarely this simple.
Joel Rosenthal, president of Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, joins Chatham House to discuss how democracies and multilateral institutions can leverage ethics as a tool to assess concerns and trade-offs when engaging with illiberal actors.
Can democracies afford to be adversarial or selective in cooperation with certain countries when facing global challenges such as climate change and AI?
How can democracies simultaneously defend human rights and promote open societies while still engaging with leaders from non-democratic states?
