Nicole Bibbins Sedaca serves as the chair for the Global Politics and Security Concentration at Georgetown University's Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program and is a Professor in the Practice of International Affairs in MSFS. She is a fellow in the Human Freedom Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute and a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author. Read more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) As 2019 came to a close, a large number of Polish protesters gathered to push back against their government's brazen move to gain the right to fire judges; Albanian lawmakers passed legislation that threatens freedom of speech; and democracy activists in Hong Kong once again took to the streets to speak out against the repression of liberty.

These were hardly the only stories last year about challenges to democracy around the world. Almost daily, the news was replete with accounts of democracy in decline. In 2019, Freedom House even reported that the world witnessed the 13th straight year of democratic regression in 2018.

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca

The headlines tell the story: Long-established democracies in North America and Western Europe are struggling under the weight of populism partisanship and polarization . Emerging democracies in places like Central Europe and Africa are burdened with weak economies and corrupt leadership. And Russia and China are advancing non-democratic models through military adventurism, economic influence campaigns and cyber interventions.

This trend should remind Americans about the fragility of democracy and should prompt us to take action to preserve it. We cannot consider what is happening now a deterministic death knell for the values that have underpinned the United States for centuries and the global system -- largely constructed through institutions, documents and agreement on shared values -- for more than seven decades.

Yes, some may wonder whether working to strengthen democracy at home and abroad is worth American time, talent and treasure. They will question whether the decline in democracy globally is something that Americans should care about. And they may ask why we should support democratic institutions and human rights around the world when we have our own problems at home.

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