Toward a community of democracies

American diplomats and intellectuals have for decades formulated visions to create a community of democracies. Towards the end of the Cold War, a group under the name "the Committee for a Community of Democracies" tried to establish a series of institutions aimed at strengthening solidarity and cooperation among democracies. This article examines the group's inception and its activities, including an attempt to shape President Ronald Reagan's foreign policy in relation to the spread of democracy. The article demonstrates how the group's ideas constitute an intellectual precursor for subsequent American initiatives to unite the world's democracies, most recently highlighted by Joe Biden's summits for democracy in 2021 and 2023.