South Korea has a remarkable story to tell post the 1953 Armistice. Economic growth and social development accompanied by expanding civil rights and a jittery at first but now stable democracy. The strength of democracy in South Korea given its hard birth has made its transition one to study as a possible model of democratization to export. A new article by Simon Brun, a student at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco makes a well-reasoned case for democracy assistance to take a greater priority in the growing Korean development aid agency, KOICA. https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/01/18/democracy-should-feature-in-south-korean-development-assistance/#more-601984

Last June, Roland Paris, University of Ottawa, and Jennifer Walsh, Queen’s University, made the case yet again for Canada to up its game in democratic support actionshttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/article-the-worlds-democracies-including-canada-face-a-historic-choice/. Paris and Welsh make a strong case, but, as with Brun, they are not clear in what they are asking for.

Yes, they repeat as I have, the need for a Canadian democracy agency, tentatively given the name of “ Canadian Centre for Peace, Order and Good Government,” POGG being a phrase which the British diplomats stuck in all the post-colonial Acts to distinguish the Commonwealth countries from the Americans’ “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”