The sick man of democracy hosts a democracy summit

I would not blame the US, but otherwise confirm the first antithesis. The EU has severe democratic deficits (which fervent proponents now deny, that is also a good reason not to join political union with them.) and that did not change in the last decade. Some very small concessions here and there, but the fundamental problem remains. Reminder: The EU has been advertised to be a defense against non-democratic nations. Today it is an exploitative institution that will need a lot of money to be kept artificially alive.

> And those few cases of undoubted success, such as post-war Japan, Germany and South Korea may have more to do with their own domestic developments than US influence

I think the cold war played a role here. There was a common enemy. In Iraq or Afghanistan or previously Vietnam there only was the occupier.

The Washington summit next week is the very symptom of what is so terribly wrong with American democracy, rather than what is wrong with democracy generally around the world that needs a course correction by American politicians

Troubled democracy is better than communist autocracy.