A Democracy Summit Is Not What the Doctor Ordered

President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he intends to hold a “Summit for Democracy” in his first year in office. His emphasis on the United States’ democratic allies and partners is a welcome change from President Donald Trump’s bromances with autocrats. On its face, the summit’s agenda—to “strengthen our democratic institutions, honestly confront the challenge of nations that are backsliding, and forge a common agenda to address threats to our common values”—seems straightforward enough. Former National Security Council staffer Alexander Vindman even wrote in these pages, “The idea of a democracy summit is not new, but