Europe also continues to bring a normative dimension to its foreign policy, consistently promoting human rights, democratic governance, and the rule of law in its engagement with Indo-Pacific partners.

As the United States adopts a more unilateral and transactional approach, new opportunities emerge for Europe and like-minded partners — Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand — to cooperate in support of democratic principles and multilateral governance. Building such a coalition, however, requires a pragmatic approach. Important partners, including India, have shown illiberal tendencies, and several Asian democracies remain imperfect or in transition. Making strict adherence to democratic standards a precondition for cooperation risks alienating potential partners and driving them towards alternative models perceived as less restrictive.

Democratic values should therefore remain central to Europe’s identity, but the priority should be to promote democratic forms of international cooperation rather than to require ideological alignment. In practice, this means fostering partnerships among equals, strengthening multilateralism, and countering the spread of asymmetric, transactional relationships in which stronger powers impose their preferences on weaker states. The interregional cooperation set up by the EU-ASEAN Strategic Partnership, or the connectivity initiative of the Global Gateway are illustrative of that effort.

Such cooperation must also be rooted in the national interests of participating countries and deliver tangible benefits, such as jobs, stronger purchase power, and quality infrastructures. At a time of growing populism, citizens increasingly expect international engagement to contribute directly to economic growth, security, and social well-being. Democratic cooperation cannot rely on shared values alone; its legitimacy will depend on its ability to deliver concrete and measurable results.
 

This commentary is part of 9DashLine's forum, "USA250 – The Future of Liberal Democracy in the Indo-Pacific." Read the full forum here.

Forum Introduction:

As the US turns 250, its claim to being both the “world’s oldest democracy” and guarantor of the liberal international order is faltering: V-Dem’s latest report downgraded the country from a liberal democracy to an electoral democracy. At home, democratic norms are under attack, from the denial of the 2020 election results to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. Abroad, the global credibility of liberal democracy has declined over the past decade as right-wing movements have gained ground.

The Indo-Pacific encompasses a diverse range of political systems, from authoritarian and hybrid regimes to flawed and consolidated democracies. The democratic decline of the United States — long the leading champion of liberal democracy — has left independent media, democracy activists, and human rights defenders across the region, who have relied on US support, increasingly exposed. At the same time, this shift has arguably eased pressure on regional governments to uphold the institutional checks and balances that Washington once set as the standard.

Marking this occasion, we invite several key experts to reflect on the future of liberal democracy in the Indo-Pacific. Does the decline of the United States as a champion of liberal democracy create space for other democracies to step in — or does it strengthen autocratic influence in the region? And might it open space for new approaches to democratic governance to emerge from within the region itself?