Though announced with great fanfare, the US Summit for Democracy is clouded by concerns that it undermines democracy and creates fault lines that will leave the world worse off.

US officials justify the gathering by claiming that 'democracy is under threat'. The justification sounds innocuous if it seeks to arrest the democratic 'backsliding' in the US, a problem highlighted by the Sweden-based International IDEA think tank. However, if the summit aims to dictate what democracy should look like, the US would be perceived as acting in a presumptuous and even undemocratic way.