Severe disruption hit the realm of international democracy support in the first half of this year. The Donald Trump administration’s radical deconstruction of U.S. aid and policies relating to democracy abroad was the major driver of disruption, but pressures and troubles in many other parts of the world also roiled the field. This disruption, which comes on top of many accumulated problems and challenges for such work, is forcing a painful but needed rethinking of democracy support. This paper offers some preliminary ideas about what such a rethinking might entail.

Part One details the current wave of disruption hitting democracy support – both the actions of the Trump administration and adverse developments among other Western democracy donors, U.S. private funders, and multilateral institutions.

Part Two examines the larger international political context in which this disruption has unfolded. It highlights two trends: first, the rising assertiveness of authoritarian powers, especially China and Russia, in bolstering other authoritarian states, undermining democracy’s appeal, and supporting antidemocratic actors and ideas within established democracies; and second, the weakening of democracies from within.

Part Three identifies and explores six major challenges central to reimagining and renovating international democracy support:

1. New leadership and enhanced coordination: With the United States stepping back from its longtime role as the largest, most powerful backer of global democracy, new forms of leadership and coordination on democracy support are critical.
2. Greater strategic differentiation and prioritization: The varied global landscape of democratic maladies necessitates more differentiated strategies for democracy work. It also points to the need for pro-democracy actors to prioritize more clearly among countries and themes.
3. Bridging the West-rest divide: It is past time to move beyond the outdated idea that democracy support is clearly divided between providers and recipients, and substantially amplify two-way, mutually supportive approaches to democratic collaboration.
4. New narratives and models: Global democratic disruption has underlined the urgency of the growing quest for more effective narratives relating both to the value of democracy and to the nature and legitimacy of democracy support. With the search for new narratives must also come greater openness to new debates and ideas about alternative models of democracy.
5. New methods: Operating in a seriously constrained funding landscape puts a premium on forging new methods of democracy support that prioritize coalition- and alliance-building, knowledge-sharing, local resourcing, and alternative forms of civic organization.
6. Debating democracy support without democracy: New debates are emerging over whether it is time to detach democracy support from the use of democracy as an organizing framework and instead concentrate on incorporating democracy topics into alternative or broader issue areas.

It is daunting to imagine how global democracy can be effectively supported as the United States retreats from the field and other major democracies step back from vital aid commitments. Yet reimagining and reinvention are possible – necessity can be turned into opportunity.“