Democracy in the 21st Century: Fragility and Resilience.

June 05 - 06, 2025

Geneva, Switzerland

Democracy in the 21st Century: Fragility and Resilience

The Toda Peace Institute's Global Challenges to Democracy Working Group, comprised of democracy researchers, activists, and peacebuilders from around the world, will hold its annual meeting 5-6 June 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The meeting is titled “Democracy in the 21st Century: Fragility and Resilience.” The Working Group’s newly formed research cluster will be presenting papers on the impacts of Trump 2.0 on their regions of focus as well as examples of democratic resilience. A critical session will explore what it might mean to re-imagine democracy to better meet 21st century challenges.

There will also be a presentation on changes to our web platform, the Democracy Lighthouse, on which over 300 democracy institutes from around the globe are currently listed. Beginning in June, the platform will be able to host variety of content and become a forum of exchange for those working to preserve democracy in the face of the world’s growing trend towards authoritarianism. We will also be launching an interactive systems map that has been developed in partnership with the Lowy Institute and explores the core dynamics that contribute to the to the erosion of democracy.

The meeting will be co-sponsored by the Centre on Conflict at the Geneva Graduate Institute, which is led by Dr. Keith Krause, Toda’s Senior Research Fellow for Cooperative Security, Arms Control and Disarmament.