Dr. Daniel Twining is president of the International Republican Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that supports democracy. He formerly served as a member of the U.S. State Department's Policy Planning Staff and as the foreign policy adviser to U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends toward authoritarianism and instability, it was clear that the Asia-Pacific region would face a crisis of democracy in 2020.