Once a flagship initiative of the Biden administration, the Summit for Democracy has in its last three iterations largely fallen victim to two unfortunate factors. First, the Biden administration has been indecisive about the strategic goals of the summit and second, the administration has been forced into constant crisis management mode by pressing international developments.

However, there is another country that has a strategic interest in reviving the Summit for Democracy and saving a legacy project of U.S. foreign policy. That country is Poland.

Poland’s Re-Democratization Experiment

Since the illiberal Law and Justice (PiS) party was ousted from power in the fall of 2023, Poland's democratic ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has struggled to extricate Poland from the semi-authoritarian state capture by PiS since 2015.

The Tusk government must maintain domestic, European and transatlantic support for its new democratic transformation process, while living up to the maxim that the restoration of democracy and the rule of law must be carried out in accordance with the rule of law — a daunting task in the case of captured institutions.

While Poland's re-democratization is fraught........

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