Roundtable: can democracies go it alone?(Editorial)

Whether one calls it a "League of Democracies" (John McCain) or a "Concert of Democracies" (John Ikenberry and Anne-Marie Slaughter), the idea that democratic states should establish their own exclusive venues for international cooperation provides an opportunity for fresh reflection on the global role of the United States and other liberal democracies, and on the future of multilateralism and the United Nations system.

On one level, the idea that democracies can and should pursue common interests responds to a practical challenge: the difficulty of achieving consensus in large intergovernmental settings. Related concepts, such as "coalitions of the willing," "core Europe," and "competitive multilateralism," propose that the capacity to act, especially in morally urgent situations, may be unduly constrained by current international arrangements. Institutionalized cooperation among democratic states, it is argued, offers the best hope of coping with pressing dilemmas of collective action, such as humanitarian intervention.

While such a proposed new organization might offer new answers, there is no doubt that it also raises important new questions. Would the actions of such an organization be ...