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A Conversation on Defending Democracy With Senator Elissa Slotkin and Anne Applebaum
Wed, September 30th, 2026
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (EDT)
Washington, DC and Live Online
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Democracy is under significant threat worldwide, with dozens of established democracies, including the United States, undergoing illiberal turns. Yet amid the global democratic recession, there are also signs of hope. Both Poland and Hungary, which previously experienced substantial democratic erosion, are forging more encouraging paths. What can the United States and other democracies learn from these shifts?
Following a recent visit to both countries, Senator Elissa Slotkin has been examining the authoritarian playbook used abroad and the lessons that can be taken to protect institutions and rights in America. Senator Slotkin, who has spent her career at the intersection of national security and public service, serving as a CIA analyst, senior Pentagon official, and now U.S. Senator for Michigan, will share her insights in conversation with Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and a leading expert on the global rise of autocracy and democratic backsliding.
Please join the Carnegie Endowment’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program for this conversation. Light refreshments will be served.
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
Event Speakers
Senator Elissa Slotkin
United States Senate
Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is the junior Senator from Michigan, serving on the Armed Services, Homeland Security, Veterans' Affairs, and Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry committees. Before Congress, she worked in national security. She served in the CIA, completing three tours in Iraq alongside the U.S. military. She also held key roles at the Pentagon and White House under Presidents Bush and Obama.
Anne Applebaum
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer prize-winning historian, a staff writer for The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her history books include Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine; Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956; and Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Her most recent books are the New York Times bestsellers Twilight of Democracy, an essay on democracy and authoritarianism, and Autocracy Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Rule the World.