Halifax Forum Had Plenty of Bad News to Ponder.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Editor's Notes

* HALIFAX, Nova Scotia--A lot has happened since the last Halifax International Security Forum took place in Canada in 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, looms large and forced the 2020 confab to be held mostly online. Russia has amassed troops on the Ukraine border. Then, there is the ever-present challenge of an ascending China.

For those who aren't familiar with the forum, it is an annual gathering of pro-democracy and pro-defense minded intellectuals, who are very much aligned with the philosophies of the late President Ronald Reagan and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The invitation-only event attracts a bipartisan group of lawmakers, ambassadors, nonprofit leaders, senior military officers, prominent journalists and think tank analysts and is limited to 300 participants.

Many of these attendees believe America is strongest when it forms alliances such as NATO, the best offense is a good defense, and that the world is a better, safer place when the United States puts the world "first" instead of itself.

They believe in the ideal that America can still be the "city on a hill" that Massachusetts Bay colony founder John Winthrop described in 1630, a phrase later so deftly co-opted by Reagan in his presidential campaign speeches, where it became the "shining city on a hill"--a place where other nations can look to as inspiration.

The 2021 Halifax meeting took place only a few months after the world marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11, an event that had huge repercussions, as Peter Van Praagh, founding president and the driving force behind the forum, said in his opening remarks.

"This weekend, we will reflect on how we got here. It is too important not to. And at the same time, there are too many challenges before us to let reflection become unending naval gazing. We will look ahead to the threats to our democracies, both external and homegrown," he said.

Along with COVID-19, the world witnessed Hong Kong lose its liberties virtually overnight as China asserted its will on its citizens. A military junta took control of Myanmar--again. And a 20-year effort to create stability and install a representative-based government in Afghanistan came to nothing.

But perhaps the most disconcerting event of all for the prodemocracy crowd came on Jan. 6 when the "shining city on the hill"--the U.S. Capitol--was overrun by violent political extremists.

No, things are not trending in a positive direction for the freedom-loving, pro-democracy crowd.

While...