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{{Short description|US quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization}} | |||
The '''National Endowment for Democracy''', or '''NED''', is non-profit organization which claims to help train people in democracy and manages money grants to that effect, which was founded in ]. Although administered by a private organization, its funding comes mostly from a governmental appropriation by the ]. The NED is sometimes referred to as "Project Democracy," an appellation favored by Lt. Colonel ]. | |||
{{Distinguish|text=the "]" National Endowments for ] and ] programs}} | |||
{{Use American English|date=December 2022}} | |||
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}} | |||
{{Infobox organization | |||
| name = National Endowment for Democracy | |||
| image = ] | |||
| caption = | |||
| founder = ]<br/>]<ref>{{cite news|last=Ignatius|first=David|date=September 22, 1991|title=Innocence Abroad: The New World of Spyless Coups|language=en-US|newspaper=]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/09/22/innocence-abroad-the-new-world-of-spyless-coups/92bb989a-de6e-4bb8-99b9-462c76b59a16/|access-date=August 28, 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> | |||
| type = ] ]<br />] | |||
| tax_id = 52-1344831 | |||
| registration_id = | |||
| founded_date = {{Start date|1983|11|18}} | |||
| location = ], U.S. | |||
| coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LON|display=inline,title}} --> | |||
| origins = ] resolution H.R. 2915 | |||
| key_people = ] (''President'') | |||
| area_served = Worldwide (outside United States) | |||
| subsid = | |||
| owner = | |||
| motto = | |||
| website = {{Official URL}} | |||
| footnotes = | |||
}} | |||
] (second from the left), presents an award to a Tunisian leader of the ] in November 2011.]] | |||
The '''National Endowment for Democracy''' ('''NED''') is a ] in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide,<ref name=":0" /><ref name="yalerichmond">{{Cite book|last=Richmond|first=Yale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OL8ujZrl89YC&pg=PA161|title=Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey|publisher=Berghahn Books|year=2008|isbn=978-0-85745-013-5|pages=161|language=en|quote=NED was founded at the initiative of a small group of Washington insiders, who believed that the United States needed a 'quango' (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization) to promote liberal democracy and counter communist influence abroad ... .}}</ref><ref name="kitigawa">{{Cite journal|last=Otsuru-Kitagawa|first=Chieko|date=1998|title=The Role of QUANGO in American Democratic Assistance|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/kokusaiseiji1957/1998/119/1998_119_127/_article|journal=International Relations|volume=1998|issue=119|pages=127–141|doi=10.11375/kokusaiseiji1957.119_127|eissn=1883-9916}}</ref> by promoting political and economic institutions, such as ], ]s, ]s, and ]s.<ref name=NEDAbout>{{Cite web|title=About the National Endowment for Democracy|url=https://www.ned.org/about/|access-date=August 27, 2021|publisher=National Endowment for Democracy|language=en-US|quote=NED is dedicated to fostering the growth of a wide range of democratic institutions abroad, including political parties, trade unions, free markets and business organizations}}</ref> | |||
The NED was created as a ], private, non-profit corporation, but acts as a grant-making foundation.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last=Lowe|first=David|title=History - Idea to Reality: NED at 30|url=http://www.ned.org/about/history|website=National Endowment for Democracy}}</ref> It is funded primarily by an annual allocation from the ].<ref name="kitigawa" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Dominguez|first=Jorge I.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVOzAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT429|title=The Future of Inter-American Relations|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-1-136-68424-1|pages=429|language=en|quote="13: On NED and other QUANGO programs..."}}</ref><ref name=NEDAbout/> In addition to its grants program, the NED also supports and houses the '']'', the ], the ], the ], the ], and the ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-15 |title=Center for International Media Assistance |url=https://www.cima.ned.org/ |access-date=2023-06-27 |website=Center for International Media Assistance |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=NDRI Member Institutes |url=https://www.ned.org/ideas/network-of-democracy-research-institutes-ndri/ndri-member-institutes/ |access-date=2023-06-27 |website=NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
==Founding of the NED== | |||
The NED was first funded by ] ] in ] and was shaped by an initial study undertaken by the American Political Foundation. | |||
Upon its founding, the NED assumed several former activities of the ]. Political groups, activists, academics, and some governments have accused the NED of being an instrument of U.S. foreign policy helping to foster ].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shih |first1=Gerry |title=China announces sanctions against U.S.-based nonprofit groups in response to Congress's Hong Kong legislation |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/china-announces-sanctions-against-us-based-nonprofits-in-response-to-congresss-hong-kong-legislation/2019/12/02/9f414616-14e0-11ea-80d6-d0ca7007273f_story.html |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=4 February 2024 |date=2 December 2019|quote=China, echoing such governments as Venezuela and Egypt, has previously taken aim at the NED, established in 1983 and funded by Congress to promote democracy worldwide. The Foreign Ministry in August distributed a lengthy report that named the NED as a U.S. intelligence front and listed its 20-year history of funding political groups in Hong Kong}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Kinzer |first1=Stephen |last2=Bednarz |first2=Christine |title=What Is the N.E.D.'s Mission? {{!}} Christine Bednarz |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/10/21/what-is-national-endowment-democracy-mission/ |website=New York Review of Books |access-date=4 February 2024 |language=en|quote=The National Endowment for Democracy, which receives nearly all its funds from Congress, is a conduit through which the US government has given millions of dollars to political and other protest groups in countries from Albania to Haiti}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Geoghegan |first1=Kate |title=A Policy in Tension: The National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Response to the Collapse of the Soviet Union |journal=Diplomatic History |date=1 November 2018 |volume=42 |issue=5 |pages=772–801 |doi=10.1093/dh/dhx088 |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/42/5/772/4991815?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false |access-date=4 February 2024|quote=Ignatius’s analysis illuminates an important but understudied development in the final years of the Cold War: the rise of private democracy organizations as tools of U.S. foreign policy}}</ref> | |||
NED was created with the aim of subverting left wing governments continuing the work of the ] in that area because, due to widespread criticism of the CIA's role in subverting sovereign nations by using criminal and underhand methods, the CIA's position had become untentable. NED was created with a view to creating a broad base of political support for the organization. NED received funds from the US government and distributes funds to four other organizations – one each created by the ] and ] parties, one created by the business community and one by the labor movement. | |||
==History== | |||
The four affiliated organizations are Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the ] (NDI), the ] (IRI) and the Free Trade Union Institute (parent organization for ] (AIFLD)). | |||
] | |||
===Founding=== | |||
The ] was instrumental for the creation of Project Democracy and its offspring NED.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snow |first=Nancy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/649914030 |title=Propaganda, Inc. : selling America's culture to the world |date=2010 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |isbn=978-1-60980-082-6 |edition=3rd |location=New York |pages=60 |oclc=649914030}}</ref> | |||
In a 1982 speech at the ], ] ] proposed an initiative, before the British Parliament, "to foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities."<ref name="HuffPost 2012">{{cite web |author=Philip Seib|title=The Reagan Legacy and Democracy |website=HuffPost |date=June 6, 2012 |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reagan-westminster-speech_b_1573652 |access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Bush 2012">{{cite web |last=Bush |first=Sarah |title=Are we repeating democracy promotion mistakes in Tunisia? |website=Foreign Policy |date=July 9, 2012 |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/07/09/are-we-repeating-democracy-promotion-mistakes-in-tunisia/ |access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref> This intersected with previously formulated plans by the American Political Foundation, an NGO supported by some members of the ] and ] parties, together with scholars based at ], to create a government-funded but privately run democracy promotion foundation to support democratic civil society groups and parties. The idea was strongly championed by the State Department, which argued that a non-governmental foundation would be able to support dissident groups and organizations in the Soviet Bloc, and also foster the emergence of democratic movements in US-allied dictatorships that were becoming unstable and in danger of experiencing leftist or radical revolutions, without provoking a diplomatic backlash against the US government. After some initial uncertainty over the idea from Reagan Administration hard-liners, the U.S. government, through ] (United States Agency for International Development), contracted ''The American Political Foundation'' to study democracy promotion, which became known as "The Democracy Program".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pee |first1=Robert |title=Democracy Promotion, National Security and Strategy: Foreign Policy under the Reagan Administration |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, UK |isbn=978-1-138-82865-0 |pages=20–32, 56–60, 78–82, 86–7, 137–9 |url=https://www.routledge.com/Democracy-Promotion-National-Security-and-Strategy-Foreign-Policy-under/Pee/p/book/9781032098456 |access-date=June 24, 2021}}</ref> The Program recommended the creation of a bipartisan, private, non-profit corporation to be known as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). NED, though non-governmental, would be funded primarily through annual appropriations from the U.S. government and subject to congressional oversight.<ref name="ned1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ned.org/about/nedhistory.html |title=History |publisher=National Endowment for Democracy |access-date=November 3, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080426072447/http://www.ned.org/about/nedhistory.html |archive-date=April 26, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=November 2024}} | |||
==Funding of foreign political parties== | |||
According to ] critics, the NED regularly provides funding to opposition candidates in elections in countries other than the USA. The does not directly fund any political party, as this is forbidden by law. | |||
In 1983, the House Foreign Affairs Committee proposed legislation to provide initial funding of $31.3 million for NED as part of the ''State Department Authorization Act'' (H.R. 2915), because NED was in its beginning stages of development the appropriation was set at $18 million. Included in the legislation was $13.8 million for the ], an affiliate of the ], $2.5 million for an affiliate of the ], and $5 million each for two party institutes, which was later eliminated by a vote of 267–136. The conference report on H.R. 2915 was adopted by the House on November 17, 1983, and the Senate the following day. On November 18, 1983, articles of incorporation were filed in the District of Columbia to establish the National Endowment for Democracy as a nonprofit organization.<ref name="ned1" />{{Secondary source needed|date=November 2024}} | |||
It was also alleged that the NED only supports candidates with strong ties to the military and who support the rights of U.S. corporations to invest in those countries, and that the NED does not support candidates who oppose investments by US corporations or who promise restrictions on investment rights of US corporations. For example, Bill Berkowitz of ''Working for Change'' claims that, "The NED functions as a full-service infrastructure building clearinghouse. It provides money, technical support, supplies, training programs, media know-how, public relations assistance and state-of-the-art equipment to select political groups, civic organizations, labor unions, dissident movements, student groups, book publishers, newspapers, and other media. Its aim is to destabilize progressive movements, particularly those with a socialist or democratic socialist bent." | |||
===1980s to present=== | |||
Supporters of the NED claim that the NED in fact supports a myriad of groups of social-democratic and liberal orientation everywhere in the world. NED also supports, provides training, and consults openly anti-American groups as far as they are committed to the norms and principles of democracy in countries like ] or ]. The NED contends it focuses funding on democracy-minded organizations rather than opposition groups; however it does not support groups that openly advocate communism, fundamentalism, or any other dictatorships. Michael McFaul, in an article for the '']'', argues that the NED is hardly an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. As an example of this he states that the NED was willing to fund pro-democratic organizations even as the U.S. government was reluctant and has been supportive of non-democratic governments in the region. | |||
An analysis by political scientist Sarah Bush found that while NED activity in the 1980s focused on direct challenges to autocrats by funding dissidents, opposition parties, and unions, the majority of 21st-century NED funding goes to technical programs that are less likely to challenge the status quo, with the proportion of NED funding for "relatively tame programs" increasing from roughly 20% of NED grants in 1986 to roughly 60% in 2009.<ref name="O'Rourke22930">{{Cite book|last=O'Rourke|first=Lindsey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEZQDwAAQBAJ|title=Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War|date=2018|series=Cornell Studies in Security Affairs|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-5017-3069-6|pages=229–230|language=en}}</ref> Political scientist Lindsey A. O'Rourke writes that, "Today, NED programs run in more than ninety countries. Although the number of US-backed democracy promotion programs have grown, most of today's programs pursue less aggressive objectives than their Cold War counterparts."<ref name="O'Rourke22930"/> | |||
In a 1991 interview with the '']'', NED founder Allen Weinstein said: "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." | |||
During the ] the ] and the NED provided around $20,000 in support of activists involved with ]'s campaign.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Franklin|first1=Ben A.|title=Project Democracy Takes Wing|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/29/us/project-democracy-takes-wing.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007061737/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/29/us/project-democracy-takes-wing.html|date=29 May 1984|archive-date=7 October 2022|access-date=7 June 2023|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Kempster|first1=Norman|title=Troubled Foundation: Democracy-Export Stirs Controversy|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-06-mn-4670-story.html|date=6 February 1986|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814005810/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-06-mn-4670-story.html|archive-date=14 August 2022|access-date=7 June 2023|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> | |||
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote that before the ] elections in ], "President ] sent $9 million in NED, including a $4 million contribution to the campaign of opposition presidential candidate ]". Chamorro's party won 55 percent of the vote. | |||
The NED was active in Yugoslavia before ]. It arranged meetings between Yugoslav dissidents and members of the US Congress, US government officials, and members of the media.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=David L. |title=Liberating Kosovo Coercive Diplomacy and U. S. Intervention |date=2012 |publisher=MIT Press |page=79}}</ref> It also gave funds to ] which were used to fund the Yugoslav opposition.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sunn Bush |first1=Sarah |title=The Taming of Democracy Assistance Why Democracy Promotion Does Not Confront Dictators |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=143}}</ref> | |||
NED also funded political groups in the democracies of ] in the ]. The French newspaper '']'' published a report which claimed that the U.S. funded the ]. The United States government disassociated itself from these actions. | |||
Since 2004, NED has granted US$8,758,300 to ] groups including the ], the ], the ] and ''The Uyghur Transitional Justice Database Project''.<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 29, 2020|title=Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act Builds on Work of NED Grantees|url=https://www.ned.org/uyghur-human-rights-policy-act-builds-on-work-of-ned-grantees/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621093204/https://www.ned.org/uyghur-human-rights-policy-act-builds-on-work-of-ned-grantees/|archive-date=June 21, 2020|access-date=December 11, 2020|website=National Endowment for Democracy|language=en-US}}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=November 2024}} It has also provided extensive grants for programs pertaining to Tibet.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tibet (China) 2021 |url=https://www.ned.org/region/asia/tibet-china-2021/ |website=National Endowment for Democracy|date=February 15, 2022 }}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=November 2024}} | |||
In the ] elections in ] the NED supported Marc Bazin, providing a big fraction of his total $36 million in campaign funds. Despite this funding, he only obtained 12% of the vote. Marc Bazin had earlier been a ] official. | |||
Between 2005 and 2012 it gave grants to the ''China Free Press'' NGO<ref name="Coda Story 2020">{{cite web | title=Driven to 'near extinction': Beijing's high-pressure campaign against the foreign Chinese-language press | website=Coda Story | date=May 6, 2020 | url=https://www.codastory.com/disinformation/china-censorship-abroad/ | access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref> and in 2019 it gave about $643,000 to civil society programmes in ].<ref name="Time 2020">{{cite magazine | title=Trump Administration Freezes Funding Intended to Benefit Hong Kong Protesters | magazine=Time | date=June 26, 2020 | url=https://time.com/5860163/trump-hong-kong-funding-freeze/ | access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref> In response, in 2020 China imposed sanctions on NED president ] and Michael Abramowitz, the president of ].<ref name="BBC News 2020">{{cite web | title=China sanctions US senators over Hong Kong | website=BBC News | date=August 10, 2020 | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53722811 | access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref> | |||
The NED played a role in supporting the ] of 2011. For example, the ] in ], the ] and individual Yemeni activist Entsar Qadhi received training and finances from the NED.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Nixon |first=Ron |author-link=Ron Nixon |date=2011-04-14 |title=U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/15aid.html |url-status=live |access-date=2023-02-11 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190715223113/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/15aid.html |archive-date=2019-07-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="UPI 2011"/> In Egypt, between 2008 and 2012, it also supported Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman, an exiled police officer who opposed both ]'s and ]'s presidencies, as well as secularist activist ]'s ''Egyptian Democratic Academy'' in 2011.<ref name="Mekay 2018">{{cite web | last=Mekay | first=Emad | title=Exclusive: US bankrolled anti-Morsi activists | website=Al Jazeera | date=January 25, 2018 | url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/07/2013710113522489801.html | access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref> | |||
According to the critics, during the ], NED invested millions of dollars in ] to support its vision of ] and the ] program. The NED itself does not fund economic reform programs; the Center for International Private Enterprise indeed supports programs aimed at development of private enterprise but this does not account for monetary stabilization programs. | |||
==Funding and structure== | |||
In ], ] president ] publicized documents which purported to show that the NED funded opposition groups in the country, including a tripling of funding from about $250,000 to nearly $900,000 between ] and ] in the lead up to an attempted coup in ]. NED also sponsored ]s for the ]; the exit poll predicted that Chávez would lose by 20%, whereas the election results showed him to have won by 20%. This was used by the opposition party as the basis of a claim of election fraud, but the election results were endorsed by ] and were later audited successfully. | |||
NED is a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to private non-governmental organizations for promoting democracy abroad in around 90 countries. Half of NED's funding is allocated annually to four main U.S. organizations: the ] (associated with the ]), the ''Center for International Private Enterprise'' (affiliated with the ]), the ] (associated with the ]), and the ] (formerly known as the National Republican Institute for International Affairs and affiliated with the ]).<ref name="The Politic 2017">{{cite web |date=November 20, 2017 |title=An Interview With Carl Gershman '65, President of the National Endowment for Democracy |url=https://thepolitic.org/an-interview-with-carl-gershman-65-president-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/ |access-date=August 24, 2020 |website=The Politic}}</ref> The other half of NED's funding is awarded annually to hundreds of non-governmental organizations based abroad which apply for support.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ned.org/apply-for-grant/en/|title=Grants|publisher=National Endowment for Democracy|access-date=November 3, 2008}}</ref> In 2011, the Democratic and Republican Institutes channeled around $100 million through the NED.<ref name="UPI 2011">{{cite web |date=April 15, 2011 |title=U.S. groups nurtured Arab uprisings |url=https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/04/15/US-groups-nurtured-Arab-uprisings/48381302909782/ |access-date=August 24, 2020 |website=]}}</ref> | |||
===Source of funding=== | |||
===Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Slovakia=== | |||
The NED receives an annual appropriation from the U.S. budget (it is included in the chapter of the Department of State budget destined for the U.S. Agency for International Development-USAID) and is subject to congressional oversight even as a non-governmental organization.<ref name="NED 2008 report">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ned.org/docs/08annual/PDFs/AR_Financials08.pdf |title=2008 Independent Auditors' Report |year=2008 |publisher=National Endowment for Democracy |access-date=April 2, 2010}}</ref> | |||
The NED played a significant role in the ] in ]. In an article in the '']'', NED director Nadia Diuk acknowledged that there was a controversy surrounding the involvement of the NED: "Some have sought to portray the events in Ukraine as orchestrated in the West, a model executed with the support of Western pro-democracy foundations.' Comparing this to similar recent interventions in ], ] and ], she writes, "Some commentators believe that the similarity of their actions proves they are part of a U.S.-sponsored plot, an effort to extend American influence throughout the world." Diuk states that critics are overlooking a genuinely "home-grown" aspect to the "election revolts" in these Eastern European countries. She also stated that, "...there was a massive effort by ] to monitor the vote, whether through parallel vote tabulations, exit polls or reports from domestic observers. These strategies were supported by the reports of Western election observers," and that "all these breakthrough elections have been accomplished with the vigorous participation of civic groups that support free and fair elections by monitoring the media, carrying out voter education, publicizing the platforms of candidates in the absence of a free press, training election observers, conducting polls and so on." | |||
From 1984 to 1990 the NED received $15–18 million of congressional funding annually, and $25–30 million from 1991 to 1993. At the time the funding came via the ]. In 1993 the NED nearly lost its congressional funding, after the House of Representatives initially voted to abolish its funding. The funding (of $35 million, a rise from $30 million the year before) was only retained after a vigorous campaign by NED supporters.<ref name="Carothers">{{Cite journal|last=Carothers|first=Thomas|date=1994|title=The NED at 10|journal=Foreign Policy|issue=95|pages=123–138|doi=10.2307/1149427|issn=0015-7228|jstor=1149427}}</ref> | |||
==Source of Funding== | |||
The NED receives an annual appropriation from the U.S. budget and is subject to congressional oversight even as a non-governmental organization. In the financial year to the end of ] ] NED had a budget of $48.5 million. | |||
In the financial year to the end of September 2009 NED had an income of $135.5 million, nearly all of which came from U.S. Government agencies.<ref name="NED 2008 report" /> In addition to government funding, the NED has received funding from foundations, such as the ], the ], and others. The ] supported the '']'' with $1.5 million during 1990–2008.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?recipientID=251 |title=Recipient Grants: National Endowment for Democracy |publisher=] |access-date=November 3, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804085509/http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?recipientID=251 |archive-date=August 4, 2008 }}</ref> | |||
The NED also receives funding from various foundations. The ] has provided the most to date, nearly $1.5 million in the past 18 years to support the ''''. | |||
In 2018, President ] proposed to slash the NED's funding and cut its links to the Democratic and Republican Institutes.<ref name="The New Republic 2018">{{cite magazine |title=Trump's Disdain for Democracy Promotion |magazine=The New Republic |date=March 6, 2018 |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/147290/trumps-disdain-democracy-promotion |access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Rogin 2018">{{cite news |last=Rogin |first=Josh |title=The Trump administration wants to dismantle Ronald Reagan's 'infrastructure of democracy' |newspaper=Washington Post |date=March 5, 2018 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-trump-administration-wants-to-dismantle-ronald-reagans-infrastructure-of-democracy/2018/03/04/8b94d7f6-1e54-11e8-ae5a-16e60e4605f3_story.html |access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref> | |||
==Links with other ]s== | |||
Current directors of the endowment's Board include ] of the ], General ], ] of the ] for Public Policy Research, Dr. ] of ], and U.S. Senator ] of Indiana, former chairman of the ]. | |||
==Democracy Award== | |||
{{Primary sources section | |||
| date = November 2024 | |||
}} | |||
The NED's Board of Directors gives an annual "Democracy Award" to recognize "individuals and organizations that have advanced the cause of human rights and democracy around the world":<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-13 |title=The 2024 NED Democracy Awards |url=https://www.ned.org/events/the-2024-ned-democracy-awards/ |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
===Recipients=== | |||
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" | |||
|- | |||
! scope="col" width=50 style="background:gold;"|Year | |||
! scope="col" width=150 style="background:gold;"|Theme | |||
! scope="col" width=150 style="background:gold;"|Recipient | |||
! scope="col" width=150 style="background:gold;"|Nationality | |||
! scope="col" class=unsortable width=250 style="background:gold;"| Notes | |||
|- | |||
|2022 | |||
|Pays tribute to Ukrainian civil society | |||
|], ], ], Ukrainian Volunteer Service | |||
|Ukraine | |||
|"Ukraine's democratic development, led by its people and civil society, is key to the country's success—not only to Ukraine's defeat of Russian forces, but also to ensure Ukraine's democracy emerges stronger from this horrific war. These four organizations exemplify the heroic struggle, courage, and determination of millions of Ukrainians who risk everything to defend democracy and freedom."—NED President Damon Wilson<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |date=2022-05-18 |title=2022 NED Democracy Award Pays Tribute to Ukrainian Civil Society |url=https://www.ned.org/2022-ned-democracy-award-pays-tribute-to-ukrainian-civil-society/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
|2021 | |||
|Pays tribute to Central American civil society | |||
|Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Nunca Más (Nicaragua), Contracorriente (Honduras), The Myrna Mack Foundation (Guatemala), Transparency, Social Oversight, and Open Data Association (El Salvador) | |||
|Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador | |||
|"The 2021 Democracy Award pays tribute to four civil society groups whose outstanding efforts to bolster the rule of law, fight corruption, protect independent media, and advocate for human rights are essential to building a democratic future in Central America."—NED President Damon Wilson<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-10-05 |title=2021 NED Democracy Award Pays Tribute to Central American Civil Society |url=https://www.ned.org/2021-ned-democracy-award-pays-tribute-to-central-american-civil-society/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=3|2020 | |||
| rowspan=3|Working to strengthen civil society in Sudan | |||
| Regional Centre for Development and Training | |||
| rowspan="3" | {{flag|Sudan}} | |||
| Group, trained hundreds of youth across of the country on democracy, activism, and local engagement<ref name="democracy2020">{{cite web|url=https://www.ned.org/sudans-civil-society-will-be-honored-with-2020-ned-democracy-award/|title=Sudan's Civil Society Will Be Honored With 2020 Ned Democracy Award|date=March 5, 2020|access-date=May 6, 2020|website=National Endowment for Democracy}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Nuba Women for Education and Development Association | |||
| Group, trained local women activists to engage in peace processes and activism on local issues and respect for women's rights<ref name="democracy2020"/> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| Group, supported marginalized people to advocate for their rights and provided legal assistance to vulnerable activists before and during the protests<ref name="democracy2020"/> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=3|2019 | |||
| rowspan=3|Defenders of human and religious rights in China | |||
| ] | |||
| rowspan="3"|{{flag|China}} | |||
| Group, represented by ], international non-profit Christian human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China<ref name="democracy2019"/> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| Group, represented by ], advocating for democracy, human rights, and freedom for the Uyghur people and the use of peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to help Uyghurs achieve self-determination<ref name="democracy2019">{{cite web|url=https://www.ned.org/defenders-of-human-and-religious-rights-in-china-to-receive-2019-democracy-award-on-30th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-massacre/|title=Defenders of Human and Religious Rights in China to Receive 2019 Democracy Award on 30th Anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre|date=May 21, 2019|access-date=May 6, 2020|website=National Endowment for Democracy}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| Group, represented by ], uses digital communication tools with strategic nonviolent action to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of the Tibet movement in a digital era<ref name="democracy2019"/> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=4|2018 | |||
| rowspan=4|Movement for human rights and democracy in North Korea | |||
| Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights | |||
| rowspan="4" | {{flag|South Korea}} | |||
| ]-based group advocating for ].<ref>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Now Action & Unity for Human Rights | |||
| Group, led by ], advocating for ] and ].<ref>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) | |||
| Seoul-based non-profit that documents evidence of ] in North Korea.<ref>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Unification Media Group (UMG) | |||
| Seoul-based multimedia consortium that includes '']'', Radio Free Chosun, and Open North Korea Radio.<ref>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=5|2017 | |||
| rowspan=5|Anti-corruption activists | |||
| Cynthia Gabriel | |||
| {{flag|Malaysia}} | |||
| Human rights advocate and anti-corruption leader in Malaysia.<ref>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Khalil Parsa | |||
| {{flag|Afghanistan|2013}} | |||
| Founder and executive director of Supporting Organization for Afghanistan Civil Society (SOACS); survivor of assassination attempt in 2016.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702141034/https://www.ned.org/2017-democracy-award/khalil-parsa/ |date=July 2, 2020 }}, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Claudia Escobar | |||
| {{flag|Guatemala}} | |||
| Legal scholar, former magistrate of the Court of Appeals of Guatemala, and ] advocate; fled the country in 2015 after becoming a ] in a corruption cases involving illegal political interference in the Guatemalan judiciary.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ned.org/2017-democracy-award/claudia-escobar/|title=2017 Democracy Award: Five Anti-Corruption Activists Honored|website=National Endowment for Democracy}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| {{flag|Angola}} | |||
| Angolan journalist and human rights activist focused on investigating government corruption, ], and abuses in the diamond industry.<ref>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Denys Bihus | |||
| {{flag|Ukraine}} | |||
| Investigative journalist focused on ] and ].<ref>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2015 | |||
| Political prisoners of ] | |||
| | |||
| {{flag|Venezuela}} | |||
| Mitzy Capriles de Ledezma, ] and ] accepted the award on behalf of "imprisoned political leaders, human rights defenders, labor unionists, and student activists."<ref name=2015Democracy>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=2|2014 | |||
| rowspan=2|] | |||
| ] | |||
| rowspan="2" | {{flag|China}} | |||
| 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, human rights and political reform activist known for role in launching of ].<ref name=2014Democracy>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| Legal scholar, co-founder of ] in China.<ref name=2014Democracy/> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=4|2013 | |||
| rowspan=4|Youth pro-democracy activists | |||
| ] | |||
| {{flag|Pakistan}} | |||
| Human rights activist that established ] at the age of 16.<ref name=2013Democracy>, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Harold Cepero | |||
| {{flag|Cuba}} | |||
| One of the authors of ] in Cuba. Award given posthumously.<ref name=2013Democracy/> | |||
|- | |||
| Vera Kichanova | |||
| {{flag|Russia}} | |||
| Reporter for the independent newspaper '']'', civic activist, municipal deputy in ], Moscow.<ref name=2013Democracy/> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| {{flag|Zimbabwe}} | |||
| Founder of Institute for Young Women's Development.<ref name=2013Democracy/> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan="5" |2012 | |||
| rowspan="5" |Burmese democracy movement | |||
| ] | |||
| rowspan="5" | {{flag|Myanmar}} | |||
| Founding member of the ].<ref name="2012Award">, National Endowment for Democracy.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| Politician and chairman of the ].<ref name="2012Award" /> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| Actor and founder of the ].<ref name="2012Award" /> | |||
|- | |||
| Aung Din | |||
| Former political prisoner and leader in the ].<ref name="2012Award" /> | |||
|- | |||
| ] | |||
| Ethnic ] physician and medical clinic worker.<ref name="2012Award" /> | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=4|2002 | |||
| rowspan=4|Women activists in the ] | |||
| ] | |||
| {{flag|Iran}} | |||
| Human rights lawyer and activist.<ref name=2002Award>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ned.org/publications/newsletters/summer02.html#muslimWomen |title=Publications |publisher=National Endowment for Democracy |access-date=November 3, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509025442/http://www.ned.org/publications/newsletters/summer02.html#muslimWomen |archive-date=May 9, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| Muborak Tashpulatova | |||
| {{flag|Uzbekistan}} | |||
| Civics education activist, ] Public Education Center director.<ref name=2002Award/> | |||
|- | |||
| Nadjet Bouda | |||
| {{flag|Algeria}} | |||
| Human rights activist focusing on the "]" of the ].<ref name=2002Award/> | |||
|- | |||
| Mariam Hussein Mohamed | |||
| {{flag|Somalia}} | |||
| ]-based human rights activist, founder and director of the Dr. Ismail Jumale Human Rights Organization.<ref name=2002Award/> | |||
|} | |||
==Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA)== | |||
In 2006, CIMA was founded as an initiative of the National Endowment for Democracy with encouragement from Congress and a grant from the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.<ref name="National Endowment for Democracy">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ned.org/docs/07annual/PDFs/AR_CIMA07.pdf/ |title=National Endowment for Democracy |access-date=August 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312165233/http://ned.org/docs/07annual/PDFs/AR_CIMA07.pdf |archive-date=March 12, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> CIMA promotes the work of independent media and journalists abroad, with a focus on the developing world, ], ], and ].<ref name=Herbert>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Marion Jeanette Herbert|title=Center for International Media Assistance|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics|volume=2|pages=249–50|publisher=SAGE|date=2013|isbn=9781452290263 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qS91AwAAQBAJ}}</ref> It issued its first report, ''Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster Free and Independent Media Around the World'', in 2008, and subsequently issued other reports, including a report on digital media in conflict-prone societies and a report on mobile phone use in Africa.<ref name=Herbert/> | |||
== Reception == | |||
Writing in '']'' in 2004, ] wrote that, "Depending on whom you ask, the NED is either a nonprofit champion of liberty or an ideologically driven meddler in world affairs."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Koerner |first=Brendan |date=2004-01-22 |title=Bush Aims To Raise Whose Budget? |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/01/what-s-the-national-endowment-for-democracy.html |access-date=2024-11-23 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> | |||
NED has been criticized by both the right and the left.<ref name="O'Toole2014">{{Cite book|last=O'Toole|first=Gavin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLWOAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA311|title=Politics Latin America|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-86195-9|language=en}}</ref><ref name=cato-19931108>{{cite report |url=https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/fpb027.pdf |title=Cato Institute Foreign Policy Briefing No. 27: Loose Cannon: The National Endowment for Democracy |last=Conry |first=Barbara |publisher=Cato Institute |date=November 8, 1993 |access-date=August 12, 2019}}</ref> Some on the right accuse the NED of having a pro-social democracy agenda, promoted through its labor affiliate; conversely, some on the left accuse the NED of being "a rightwing initiative" oriented toward Reagan's Cold War politics.<ref name="O'Toole2014" /> Within Latin America, critics accuse the NED of manifesting U.S. paternalism or imperialism,<ref name="O'Toole2014" /> conversely, "supporters say that it helps many groups with a social-democratic and liberal orientation across the world," providing training and support for pro-democracy groups that criticize the U.S.<ref name="O'Toole2014" /> In a 2004 article for the ''Washington Post'', ] argues that the NED is not an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. He said he experienced the difference between the actions of US policymakers and the actions of the ] (NDI) while representing the NDI in Moscow during the last days of the Soviet Union: U.S. policymakers supported Mikhail Gorbachev while the NDI worked with ], Gorbachev's opponents.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=16292&prog=zru |title='Meddling' In Ukraine: Democracy is not an American plot|publisher=] |first=Michael |last=McFaul |access-date=November 3, 2008}}</ref> NED has said in public statements that democracy evolves "according to the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures" and does not necessitate an American-style model.<ref name="O'Toole2014" /> | |||
In 1986, NED's President Carl Gershman said that the NED was created because "It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the 1960s and that's why it has been discontinued".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shipler |first1=David K. |title=Missionaries for democracy: US aid for global pluralism|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/01/world/missionaries-for-democracy-us-aid-for-global-pluralism.html |access-date=April 2, 2021 |url-access=subscription|work=The New York Times |date=June 1, 1986|quote=It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the 1960's and that's why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that's why the endowment was created.}}</ref> Throughout the course of a 2010 investigation by ], Paul Steiger, the then editor in chief of the publication said that "those who spearheaded creation of NED have long acknowledged it was part of an effort to move from covert to overt efforts to foster democracy" and cited as evidence a 1991 interview in which then-NED president ] said, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."<ref name="ProPublica2010">, ProPublica (November 24, 2010).</ref> | |||
Critics have compared the NED's funding of Nicaraguan groups (pro-U.S. and conservative unions, political parties, student groups, business groups, and women's associations) in the 1980s and 1990s in Nicaragua to the previous CIA effort "to challenge and undermine" a left-wing government in Chile.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dent|first=David W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vCqJPsfomCcC&pg=PA467|title=U.S.-Latin American Policymaking: A Reference Handbook|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1995|isbn=978-0-313-27951-5|pages=467|language=en}}</ref> (Latin Americanist scholar ] writes that the NED's roughly $2 million funding into Nicaragua between 1984 and 1988 was the "main source of overt assistance to the civic opposition," of which about half went to the anti-] newspaper '']''.<ref>{{Cite book|author=William M. LeoGrande|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYYuYxZD2DMC|date=2009|title=Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992|pages=543|publisher = Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn = 9780807898802}}</ref>) According to sociologist William Robinson, NED funds during the Reagan years were "ultimately used for five overlapping pseudo-covert activities: leadership training for ] elites, promotion of pro-American educational systems and mass media, strengthening the 'institutions of democracy' by funding pro-American organizations in the target state, propaganda, and the development of transnational elite networks."<ref name="O'Rourke6768">{{Cite book|last=O'Rourke|first=Lindsey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEZQDwAAQBAJ|title=Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War|date=2018|series=Cornell Studies in Security Affairs|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-5017-3069-6|pages=6768|language=en}}</ref> Criticizing these activities, Robinson wrote that "U.S. policymakers claim that they are interested in process (]s) and not outcome (the results of these elections); in reality, the principal concern is outcome."<ref name="O'Rourke6768" /> | |||
Political scientist Lindsey A. O'Rourke writes that the Reagan-era NED played a key role in U.S. efforts "to promote democratic transitions in Chile, Haiti, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, and Suriname," but did so to promote the success of pro-U.S. parties, not just to promote democracy, and did not support communist or socialist opposition parties.<ref name="O'Rourke6768" /> The ] says that the NED engages in a "a very particular form of low-intensity democracy chained to pro-market economics--in countries from Nicaragua to the Philippines, Ukraine to Haiti, overturning unfriendly 'authoritarian' governments (many of which the United States had previously supported) and replacing them with handpicked pro-market allies."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ginden |first1=Jonah |last2=Weld |first2=Kristen |title=Benevolence or intervention? Spotlighting U.S. soft power |journal=] |date=2007 |volume=40 |issue=1|pages=19–21 |doi=10.1080/10714839.2007.11722321 |s2cid=157461987 }}</ref> | |||
=== Thailand and Malaysia === | |||
In the ], pro-government groups cited NED support for protester-sympathizing groups to assert that the US government was masterminding the protests. The ] formally denied allegations of funding or supporting protesters.<ref>{{Cite news|date=August 31, 2020|title=U.S. Embassy Denies Funding Anti-Govt Protests|url=https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/08/31/u-s-embassy-denies-funding-anti-govt-protests/|access-date=August 31, 2020|website=Khaosod English|language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
In August 2021, Malaysian human rights activist and ] adviser ] criticized the opposition coalition ] for accepting funding from the National Endowment of Democracy, which he described as a "CIA soft power front". Citing the US track record of supporting regime change abroad and racial discrimination against ] and ]s, Kua urged Malaysian civil society organizations to stop accepting funding from the NED since it undermined their legitimacy, independence, and effectiveness. Kua's statement came after Daniel Twining, the president of the NED affiliate ], had made remarks in 2018 acknowledging that the NED had financially supported Malaysian opposition parties since 2002. Following the ] Twining had also praised the newly elected Pakatan Harapan government for freezing Chinese infrastructural investments.<ref>{{cite news |title=Up to PH to reveal funding by US-based NED, says activist |url=https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/08/30/reveal-funding-by-us-based-ned-suaram-tells-ph/ |access-date=August 8, 2022 |work=] |date=August 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902030007/https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/08/30/reveal-funding-by-us-based-ned-suaram-tells-ph/ |archive-date=September 2, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Suaram adviser questions Pakatan Harapan's funding from the National Endowment for Democracy |url=https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/08/30/suaram-adviser-questions-pakatan-harapan039s-funding-from-the-national-endowment-for-democracy |access-date=August 8, 2022 |work=] |date=August 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210830114623/https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/08/30/suaram-adviser-questions-pakatan-harapan039s-funding-from-the-national-endowment-for-democracy |archive-date=August 30, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Reaction from foreign governments=== | |||
====Russia==== | |||
Russian government officials and ] have frequently regarded the NED as hostile to their country.<ref name=Luhn>{{cite news|author=Alec Luhn|title=National Endowment for Democracy is first 'undesirable' NGO banned in Russia|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/28/national-endowment-for-democracy-banned-russia|date=July 28, 2019|newspaper=]}}</ref> In 2015, the Russian state news agency ] blamed NED grants for the ] mass protests that forced Ukrainian President ] from power.<ref name=Luhn/> In July 2015, the Russian government declared NED to be an "undesirable" NGO, making the NED the first organization banned under the ] signed two months earlier by Russian President ].<ref name=Luhn/> | |||
====China==== | |||
During the ], a Chinese newspaper accused the US of using the NED to fund pro-democracy protesters. ], a ] foreign policy analyst and former ] official, stated that the accusation was "not totally false".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pillsbury |first1=Michael |title=China Tries to Blame US for Hong Kong Protests|url=https://www.hudson.org/research/10714-china-tries-to-blame-us-for-hong-kong-protests|publisher=Hudson Institute |date=October 13, 2014}}</ref><ref name="Fox News"/> In 2019, the ] sanctioned the NED in response to the passage by the ] of the ].<ref name=Shih>{{cite news |last1=Shih |first1=Gerry |title=China announces sanctions against U.S.-based nonprofit groups in response to Congress's Hong Kong legislation |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/china-announces-sanctions-against-us-based-nonprofits-in-response-to-congresss-hong-kong-legislation/2019/12/02/9f414616-14e0-11ea-80d6-d0ca7007273f_story.html |access-date=December 12, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=December 3, 2019}}</ref> The Chinese government stated that the NED and CIA worked in tandem to covertly foment the ],<ref name=Myers>Steven Lee Myers, , ''New York Times'' (September 9, 2019; updated October 15, 2019).</ref><ref name=Shih/> and that NED acted as a U.S. intelligence front.<ref name=Shih/><ref name="hongkongfp.com">{{cite web |title=China suspends US warship visits and sanctions NGOs over Hong Kong unrest |url=https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/12/02/china-suspends-us-warship-visits-sanctions-ngos-hong-kong-unrest/ |website=Hong Kong Free Press |date=December 2, 2019}}</ref> NED was one of several U.S.-based ] sanctioned by the Chinese government; others included the ], ], the ], and the ].<ref name=AmyQin>Amy Qin, , ''New York Times'' (December 2, 2019).</ref><ref name=ReutersBars>, Reuters (December 2, 2019).</ref> China also already tightly restricted the activities of foreign NGOs in China, particularly since 2016, and the NGOs sanctioned by China typically do not have offices on the mainland; as a result, the sanctions were regarded as mostly symbolic.<ref name=AmyQin/> NED grant recipients in Hong Kong included labor advocacy and human rights groups such as the ] and ].<ref name=Myers/> The Chinese government said that the sanctioned organizations were "anti-China" forces that "incite separatist activities for Hong Kong independence";<ref name="hongkongfp.com"/> a U.S. State Department official said that "false accusations of foreign interference" against U.S.-based NGOs were "intended to distract from the legitimate concerns of Hongkongers."<ref name=ReutersBars/><ref name="Fox News">{{cite web |last1=Snyder |first1=Christopher |title=China tries to blame US for Hong Kong protests |url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-tries-to-blame-us-for-hong-kong-protests |work=Fox News |date=March 24, 2015}}</ref> NED has denied it provided aid to protestors in 2019.<ref name="Time 2020"/> | |||
In August 2020, the Chinese government sanctioned NED chairman Carl Gershman, together with the heads of four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations and six U.S. Republican lawmakers for supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The unspecified sanctions were a tit-for-tat measure responding to the earlier sanctioning by the U.S. of 11 Hong Kong officials in response to the enactment of the ] in June 2020.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-democracy-and-human-rights-leaders-sanctioned-by-china-vow-not-to-be-cowed-into-silence/2020/08/10/0878f65a-db48-11ea-b4af-72895e22941d_story.html|title=U.S. democracy and human rights leaders sanctioned by China vow not to be cowed into silence|newspaper=]|first=Carol|last=Morello|date=August 11, 2020|access-date=January 11, 2021}}</ref> | |||
In December 2020 China sanctioned the senior director of the NED, John Knaus, saying he "blatantly interferes in Hong Kong affairs and grossly interferes in China's domestic affairs".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-hongkong-sanctions-idUSKBN28A0RH|title=China sanctions four with U.S. democracy promotion ties over Hong Kong|author=<!--Not stated-->|work=Reuters|date=November 30, 2020}}</ref> | |||
In May 2022, the Chinese ] accused NED of funding separatists to undermine the stability of target countries, instigating ] to subvert state power, and meddling in other countries' politics.<ref name=pt-20220509>{{cite news |url=https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2022/05/09/china-accuses-us-for-using-ned-as-tool-to-undermine-democracy-in-sovereign-countries/ |title=China accuses US for using NED as 'tool to undermine democracy' in sovereign countries |website=Pakistan Today |date=May 9, 2022 |access-date=May 13, 2022}}</ref> | |||
====Other reactions==== | |||
Other governments that have objected to NED activity include ],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Esfandiari |first=Golnaz |date=January 5, 2010 |title=Iran Bans Contacts With 'Seditious' Foreign Groups |language=en |work=] |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1921443.html |access-date=February 11, 2023}}</ref> ],<ref name=":1" /> ],<ref name="Singh 2020">{{cite web | last=Singh | first=Vijaita Singh/Soibam Rocky | title=George Soros' Open Society Foundations moves Delhi High Court against Union Home Ministry | website=The Hindu | date=January 29, 2020 | url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/george-soros-open-society-foundations-moves-hc-against-mha/article30686579.ece | access-date=August 24, 2020}}</ref> and ].<ref name=Shih/> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
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==References== | |||
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} | |||
==Further reading== | |||
{{Library resources box}} | |||
*Søndergaard, R.S. 2020. "]" International Politics. | |||
* | |||
*{{cite book |last1=Pee |first1=Robert |title=Democracy Promotion, National Security and Strategy: Foreign Policy under the Reagan Administration |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, UK |isbn=978-1-138-82865-0 |url=https://www.routledge.com/Democracy-Promotion-National-Security-and-Strategy-Foreign-Policy-under/Pee/p/book/9781032098456}} | |||
*{{cite book |first=Committee on Evaluation of USAID Democracy Assistance Programs |last=National Research Council |author-link=United States National Research Council |title=Improving democracy assistance: Building knowledge through evaluations and research |editor-first=Jack A |editor-last=Goldstone |editor-link=Jack A. Goldstone |pages=xvi+336 |type=6×9 inches, 15×23 cm |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-309-11736-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/improvingdemocra0000unse |id= |doi=10.17226/12164}} | |||
* {{cite journal|last1=Bollen|first1=Kenneth|author-link1=Kenneth Bollen|last2=Paxton|first2=Pamela|last3=Morishima|first3=Rumi|date=June 2005|title=Assessing international evaluations: An example from USAID's Democracy & Governance Programs|journal=]|volume=26|number=2|pages=189–203|url=|doi=10.1177/1098214005275640|s2cid=146522432|id=}} | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{Commons category|NED}} | |||
*http://www.ned.org - NED website | |||
*{{Official website}} | |||
*{{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|521344831}} | |||
*, Media Transparency | |||
*, a critical report from the ] | |||
{{Election Organizations}} | |||
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* - Article by NED director Nadia Diuk | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Endowment For Democracy}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 11:56, 10 December 2024
US quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization Not to be confused with the "Great Society" National Endowments for Arts and Humanities programs.
Founded | November 18, 1983 (1983-11-18) |
---|---|
Founder | Carl Gershman Allen Weinstein |
Type | 501(c)(3) non-profit NGO |
Tax ID no. | 52-1344831 |
Location |
|
Origins | U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915 |
Area served | Worldwide (outside United States) |
Key people | Damon Wilson (President) |
Website | www |
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide, by promoting political and economic institutions, such as political groups, business groups, trade unions, and free markets.
The NED was created as a bipartisan, private, non-profit corporation, but acts as a grant-making foundation. It is funded primarily by an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress. In addition to its grants program, the NED also supports and houses the Journal of Democracy, the World Movement for Democracy, the International Forum for Democratic Studies, the Reagan–Fascell Fellowship Program, the Network of Democracy Research Institutes, and the Center for International Media Assistance.
Upon its founding, the NED assumed several former activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. Political groups, activists, academics, and some governments have accused the NED of being an instrument of U.S. foreign policy helping to foster regime change.
History
Founding
The National Security Decision Directive 77 was instrumental for the creation of Project Democracy and its offspring NED.
In a 1982 speech at the Palace of Westminster, President Ronald Reagan proposed an initiative, before the British Parliament, "to foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities." This intersected with previously formulated plans by the American Political Foundation, an NGO supported by some members of the Republican and Democratic parties, together with scholars based at CSIS, to create a government-funded but privately run democracy promotion foundation to support democratic civil society groups and parties. The idea was strongly championed by the State Department, which argued that a non-governmental foundation would be able to support dissident groups and organizations in the Soviet Bloc, and also foster the emergence of democratic movements in US-allied dictatorships that were becoming unstable and in danger of experiencing leftist or radical revolutions, without provoking a diplomatic backlash against the US government. After some initial uncertainty over the idea from Reagan Administration hard-liners, the U.S. government, through USAID (United States Agency for International Development), contracted The American Political Foundation to study democracy promotion, which became known as "The Democracy Program". The Program recommended the creation of a bipartisan, private, non-profit corporation to be known as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). NED, though non-governmental, would be funded primarily through annual appropriations from the U.S. government and subject to congressional oversight.
In 1983, the House Foreign Affairs Committee proposed legislation to provide initial funding of $31.3 million for NED as part of the State Department Authorization Act (H.R. 2915), because NED was in its beginning stages of development the appropriation was set at $18 million. Included in the legislation was $13.8 million for the Free Trade Union Institute, an affiliate of the AFL–CIO, $2.5 million for an affiliate of the National Chamber Foundation, and $5 million each for two party institutes, which was later eliminated by a vote of 267–136. The conference report on H.R. 2915 was adopted by the House on November 17, 1983, and the Senate the following day. On November 18, 1983, articles of incorporation were filed in the District of Columbia to establish the National Endowment for Democracy as a nonprofit organization.
1980s to present
An analysis by political scientist Sarah Bush found that while NED activity in the 1980s focused on direct challenges to autocrats by funding dissidents, opposition parties, and unions, the majority of 21st-century NED funding goes to technical programs that are less likely to challenge the status quo, with the proportion of NED funding for "relatively tame programs" increasing from roughly 20% of NED grants in 1986 to roughly 60% in 2009. Political scientist Lindsey A. O'Rourke writes that, "Today, NED programs run in more than ninety countries. Although the number of US-backed democracy promotion programs have grown, most of today's programs pursue less aggressive objectives than their Cold War counterparts." In a 1991 interview with the Washington Post, NED founder Allen Weinstein said: "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
During the 1984 Panamanian general election the American Institute for Free Labor Development and the NED provided around $20,000 in support of activists involved with Ardito Barletta's campaign.
The NED was active in Yugoslavia before it's disintegration. It arranged meetings between Yugoslav dissidents and members of the US Congress, US government officials, and members of the media. It also gave funds to Freedom House which were used to fund the Yugoslav opposition.
Since 2004, NED has granted US$8,758,300 to Uyghur groups including the World Uyghur Congress, the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Campaign for Uyghurs and The Uyghur Transitional Justice Database Project. It has also provided extensive grants for programs pertaining to Tibet. Between 2005 and 2012 it gave grants to the China Free Press NGO and in 2019 it gave about $643,000 to civil society programmes in Hong Kong. In response, in 2020 China imposed sanctions on NED president Carl Gershman and Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House.
The NED played a role in supporting the Arab Spring of 2011. For example, the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and individual Yemeni activist Entsar Qadhi received training and finances from the NED. In Egypt, between 2008 and 2012, it also supported Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman, an exiled police officer who opposed both Hosni Mubarak's and Mohamed Morsi's presidencies, as well as secularist activist Esraa Abdel-Fatah's Egyptian Democratic Academy in 2011.
Funding and structure
NED is a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to private non-governmental organizations for promoting democracy abroad in around 90 countries. Half of NED's funding is allocated annually to four main U.S. organizations: the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (associated with the AFL–CIO), the Center for International Private Enterprise (affiliated with the USCC), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (associated with the Democratic Party), and the International Republican Institute (formerly known as the National Republican Institute for International Affairs and affiliated with the Republican Party). The other half of NED's funding is awarded annually to hundreds of non-governmental organizations based abroad which apply for support. In 2011, the Democratic and Republican Institutes channeled around $100 million through the NED.
Source of funding
The NED receives an annual appropriation from the U.S. budget (it is included in the chapter of the Department of State budget destined for the U.S. Agency for International Development-USAID) and is subject to congressional oversight even as a non-governmental organization.
From 1984 to 1990 the NED received $15–18 million of congressional funding annually, and $25–30 million from 1991 to 1993. At the time the funding came via the United States Information Agency. In 1993 the NED nearly lost its congressional funding, after the House of Representatives initially voted to abolish its funding. The funding (of $35 million, a rise from $30 million the year before) was only retained after a vigorous campaign by NED supporters.
In the financial year to the end of September 2009 NED had an income of $135.5 million, nearly all of which came from U.S. Government agencies. In addition to government funding, the NED has received funding from foundations, such as the Smith Richardson Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and others. The Bradley Foundation supported the Journal of Democracy with $1.5 million during 1990–2008.
In 2018, President Donald Trump proposed to slash the NED's funding and cut its links to the Democratic and Republican Institutes.
Democracy Award
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The NED's Board of Directors gives an annual "Democracy Award" to recognize "individuals and organizations that have advanced the cause of human rights and democracy around the world":
Recipients
Year | Theme | Recipient | Nationality | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | Pays tribute to Ukrainian civil society | Anti-Corruption Action Center, Center for Civil Liberties, Public Interest Journalism Lab, Ukrainian Volunteer Service | Ukraine | "Ukraine's democratic development, led by its people and civil society, is key to the country's success—not only to Ukraine's defeat of Russian forces, but also to ensure Ukraine's democracy emerges stronger from this horrific war. These four organizations exemplify the heroic struggle, courage, and determination of millions of Ukrainians who risk everything to defend democracy and freedom."—NED President Damon Wilson |
2021 | Pays tribute to Central American civil society | Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Nunca Más (Nicaragua), Contracorriente (Honduras), The Myrna Mack Foundation (Guatemala), Transparency, Social Oversight, and Open Data Association (El Salvador) | Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador | "The 2021 Democracy Award pays tribute to four civil society groups whose outstanding efforts to bolster the rule of law, fight corruption, protect independent media, and advocate for human rights are essential to building a democratic future in Central America."—NED President Damon Wilson |
2020 | Working to strengthen civil society in Sudan | Regional Centre for Development and Training | Sudan | Group, trained hundreds of youth across of the country on democracy, activism, and local engagement |
Nuba Women for Education and Development Association | Group, trained local women activists to engage in peace processes and activism on local issues and respect for women's rights | |||
Darfur Bar Association | Group, supported marginalized people to advocate for their rights and provided legal assistance to vulnerable activists before and during the protests | |||
2019 | Defenders of human and religious rights in China | ChinaAid | China | Group, represented by Bob Fu, international non-profit Christian human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China |
World Uyghur Congress | Group, represented by Dolkun Isa, advocating for democracy, human rights, and freedom for the Uyghur people and the use of peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to help Uyghurs achieve self-determination | |||
Tibet Action Institute | Group, represented by Lhadon Tethong, uses digital communication tools with strategic nonviolent action to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of the Tibet movement in a digital era | |||
2018 | Movement for human rights and democracy in North Korea | Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights | South Korea | Seoul-based group advocating for human rights in North Korea. |
Now Action & Unity for Human Rights | Group, led by Ji Seong-ho, advocating for human rights in North Korea and Korean reunification. | |||
Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) | Seoul-based non-profit that documents evidence of crimes against humanity in North Korea. | |||
Unification Media Group (UMG) | Seoul-based multimedia consortium that includes Daily NK, Radio Free Chosun, and Open North Korea Radio. | |||
2017 | Anti-corruption activists | Cynthia Gabriel | Malaysia | Human rights advocate and anti-corruption leader in Malaysia. |
Khalil Parsa | Afghanistan | Founder and executive director of Supporting Organization for Afghanistan Civil Society (SOACS); survivor of assassination attempt in 2016. | ||
Claudia Escobar | Guatemala | Legal scholar, former magistrate of the Court of Appeals of Guatemala, and rule of law advocate; fled the country in 2015 after becoming a whistleblower in a corruption cases involving illegal political interference in the Guatemalan judiciary. | ||
Rafael Marques de Morais | Angola | Angolan journalist and human rights activist focused on investigating government corruption, impunity, and abuses in the diamond industry. | ||
Denys Bihus | Ukraine | Investigative journalist focused on corruption and anti-corruption. | ||
2015 | Political prisoners of Venezuela | Venezuela | Mitzy Capriles de Ledezma, Lilian Tintori and Tamara Sujú accepted the award on behalf of "imprisoned political leaders, human rights defenders, labor unionists, and student activists." | |
2014 | Chinese dissidents | Liu Xiaobo | China | 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, human rights and political reform activist known for role in launching of Charter 08. |
Xu Zhiyong | Legal scholar, co-founder of Open Constitution Initiative in China. | |||
2013 | Youth pro-democracy activists | Gulalai Ismail | Pakistan | Human rights activist that established Aware Girls at the age of 16. |
Harold Cepero | Cuba | One of the authors of Varela Project in Cuba. Award given posthumously. | ||
Vera Kichanova | Russia | Reporter for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, civic activist, municipal deputy in Yuzhnoye Tushino District, Moscow. | ||
Glanis Changachirere | Zimbabwe | Founder of Institute for Young Women's Development. | ||
2012 | Burmese democracy movement | Min Ko Naing | Myanmar | Founding member of the 88 Generation Students Group. |
Hkun Htun Oo | Politician and chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy. | |||
Kyaw Thu | Actor and founder of the Free Funeral Service Society. | |||
Aung Din | Former political prisoner and leader in the 1988 pro-democracy movement. | |||
Cynthia Maung | Ethnic Karen physician and medical clinic worker. | |||
2002 | Women activists in the Muslim world | Mehrangiz Kar | Iran | Human rights lawyer and activist. |
Muborak Tashpulatova | Uzbekistan | Civics education activist, Tashkent Public Education Center director. | ||
Nadjet Bouda | Algeria | Human rights activist focusing on the "disappeared" of the Algerian Civil War. | ||
Mariam Hussein Mohamed | Somalia | Mogadishu-based human rights activist, founder and director of the Dr. Ismail Jumale Human Rights Organization. |
Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA)
In 2006, CIMA was founded as an initiative of the National Endowment for Democracy with encouragement from Congress and a grant from the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. CIMA promotes the work of independent media and journalists abroad, with a focus on the developing world, social media, digital media, and citizen journalism. It issued its first report, Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster Free and Independent Media Around the World, in 2008, and subsequently issued other reports, including a report on digital media in conflict-prone societies and a report on mobile phone use in Africa.
Reception
Writing in Slate in 2004, Brendan I. Koerner wrote that, "Depending on whom you ask, the NED is either a nonprofit champion of liberty or an ideologically driven meddler in world affairs."
NED has been criticized by both the right and the left. Some on the right accuse the NED of having a pro-social democracy agenda, promoted through its labor affiliate; conversely, some on the left accuse the NED of being "a rightwing initiative" oriented toward Reagan's Cold War politics. Within Latin America, critics accuse the NED of manifesting U.S. paternalism or imperialism, conversely, "supporters say that it helps many groups with a social-democratic and liberal orientation across the world," providing training and support for pro-democracy groups that criticize the U.S. In a 2004 article for the Washington Post, Michael McFaul argues that the NED is not an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. He said he experienced the difference between the actions of US policymakers and the actions of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) while representing the NDI in Moscow during the last days of the Soviet Union: U.S. policymakers supported Mikhail Gorbachev while the NDI worked with Democratic Russia, Gorbachev's opponents. NED has said in public statements that democracy evolves "according to the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures" and does not necessitate an American-style model.
In 1986, NED's President Carl Gershman said that the NED was created because "It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the 1960s and that's why it has been discontinued". Throughout the course of a 2010 investigation by ProPublica, Paul Steiger, the then editor in chief of the publication said that "those who spearheaded creation of NED have long acknowledged it was part of an effort to move from covert to overt efforts to foster democracy" and cited as evidence a 1991 interview in which then-NED president Allen Weinstein said, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
Critics have compared the NED's funding of Nicaraguan groups (pro-U.S. and conservative unions, political parties, student groups, business groups, and women's associations) in the 1980s and 1990s in Nicaragua to the previous CIA effort "to challenge and undermine" a left-wing government in Chile. (Latin Americanist scholar William M. LeoGrande writes that the NED's roughly $2 million funding into Nicaragua between 1984 and 1988 was the "main source of overt assistance to the civic opposition," of which about half went to the anti-Sandinista newspaper La Prensa.) According to sociologist William Robinson, NED funds during the Reagan years were "ultimately used for five overlapping pseudo-covert activities: leadership training for pro-American elites, promotion of pro-American educational systems and mass media, strengthening the 'institutions of democracy' by funding pro-American organizations in the target state, propaganda, and the development of transnational elite networks." Criticizing these activities, Robinson wrote that "U.S. policymakers claim that they are interested in process (free and fair elections) and not outcome (the results of these elections); in reality, the principal concern is outcome."
Political scientist Lindsey A. O'Rourke writes that the Reagan-era NED played a key role in U.S. efforts "to promote democratic transitions in Chile, Haiti, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, and Suriname," but did so to promote the success of pro-U.S. parties, not just to promote democracy, and did not support communist or socialist opposition parties. The North American Congress on Latin America says that the NED engages in a "a very particular form of low-intensity democracy chained to pro-market economics--in countries from Nicaragua to the Philippines, Ukraine to Haiti, overturning unfriendly 'authoritarian' governments (many of which the United States had previously supported) and replacing them with handpicked pro-market allies."
Thailand and Malaysia
In the 2020 Thai protests, pro-government groups cited NED support for protester-sympathizing groups to assert that the US government was masterminding the protests. The United States Embassy in Bangkok formally denied allegations of funding or supporting protesters.
In August 2021, Malaysian human rights activist and Suaram adviser Kua Kia Soong criticized the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan for accepting funding from the National Endowment of Democracy, which he described as a "CIA soft power front". Citing the US track record of supporting regime change abroad and racial discrimination against Black and Asian Americans, Kua urged Malaysian civil society organizations to stop accepting funding from the NED since it undermined their legitimacy, independence, and effectiveness. Kua's statement came after Daniel Twining, the president of the NED affiliate International Republican Institute, had made remarks in 2018 acknowledging that the NED had financially supported Malaysian opposition parties since 2002. Following the 2018 Malaysian general election Twining had also praised the newly elected Pakatan Harapan government for freezing Chinese infrastructural investments.
Reaction from foreign governments
Russia
Russian government officials and state media have frequently regarded the NED as hostile to their country. In 2015, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti blamed NED grants for the Euromaidan mass protests that forced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power. In July 2015, the Russian government declared NED to be an "undesirable" NGO, making the NED the first organization banned under the Russian undesirable organizations law signed two months earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
China
During the 2014 Hong Kong protests, a Chinese newspaper accused the US of using the NED to fund pro-democracy protesters. Michael Pillsbury, a Hudson Institute foreign policy analyst and former Reagan administration official, stated that the accusation was "not totally false". In 2019, the government of the People's Republic of China sanctioned the NED in response to the passage by the U.S. Congress of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. The Chinese government stated that the NED and CIA worked in tandem to covertly foment the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, and that NED acted as a U.S. intelligence front. NED was one of several U.S.-based NGOs sanctioned by the Chinese government; others included the Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute, and the International Republican Institute. China also already tightly restricted the activities of foreign NGOs in China, particularly since 2016, and the NGOs sanctioned by China typically do not have offices on the mainland; as a result, the sanctions were regarded as mostly symbolic. NED grant recipients in Hong Kong included labor advocacy and human rights groups such as the Solidarity Center and Justice Centre Hong Kong. The Chinese government said that the sanctioned organizations were "anti-China" forces that "incite separatist activities for Hong Kong independence"; a U.S. State Department official said that "false accusations of foreign interference" against U.S.-based NGOs were "intended to distract from the legitimate concerns of Hongkongers." NED has denied it provided aid to protestors in 2019.
In August 2020, the Chinese government sanctioned NED chairman Carl Gershman, together with the heads of four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations and six U.S. Republican lawmakers for supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The unspecified sanctions were a tit-for-tat measure responding to the earlier sanctioning by the U.S. of 11 Hong Kong officials in response to the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law in June 2020.
In December 2020 China sanctioned the senior director of the NED, John Knaus, saying he "blatantly interferes in Hong Kong affairs and grossly interferes in China's domestic affairs".
In May 2022, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused NED of funding separatists to undermine the stability of target countries, instigating color revolutions to subvert state power, and meddling in other countries' politics.
Other reactions
Other governments that have objected to NED activity include Iran, Egypt, India, and Venezuela.
See also
- List of recipients of the Democracy Service Medal
- National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
- Transnational repression
- United Nations Democracy Fund
- Westminster Foundation for Democracy
References
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- ^ Lowe, David. "History - Idea to Reality: NED at 30". National Endowment for Democracy.
- Richmond, Yale (2008). Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey. Berghahn Books. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-85745-013-5.
NED was founded at the initiative of a small group of Washington insiders, who believed that the United States needed a 'quango' (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization) to promote liberal democracy and counter communist influence abroad ... .
- ^ Otsuru-Kitagawa, Chieko (1998). "The Role of QUANGO in American Democratic Assistance". International Relations. 1998 (119): 127–141. doi:10.11375/kokusaiseiji1957.119_127. eISSN 1883-9916.
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NED is dedicated to fostering the growth of a wide range of democratic institutions abroad, including political parties, trade unions, free markets and business organizations
- Dominguez, Jorge I. (2013). The Future of Inter-American Relations. Routledge. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-136-68424-1.
13: On NED and other QUANGO programs...
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China, echoing such governments as Venezuela and Egypt, has previously taken aim at the NED, established in 1983 and funded by Congress to promote democracy worldwide. The Foreign Ministry in August distributed a lengthy report that named the NED as a U.S. intelligence front and listed its 20-year history of funding political groups in Hong Kong
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{{cite book}}
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- 2015 Democracy Award, National Endowment for Democracy.
- ^ 2014 Democracy Award, National Endowment for Democracy.
- ^ 2013 Democracy Award, National Endowment for Democracy.
- ^ 2012 Democracy Award, National Endowment for Democracy.
- ^ "Publications". National Endowment for Democracy. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved November 3, 2008.
- "National Endowment for Democracy" (PDF). Archived from the original on March 12, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
- ^ Marion Jeanette Herbert (2013). "Center for International Media Assistance". Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Vol. 2. SAGE. pp. 249–50. ISBN 9781452290263.
- Koerner, Brendan (January 22, 2004). "Bush Aims To Raise Whose Budget?". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ O'Toole, Gavin (2014). Politics Latin America. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-86195-9.
- Conry, Barbara (November 8, 1993). Cato Institute Foreign Policy Briefing No. 27: Loose Cannon: The National Endowment for Democracy (PDF) (Report). Cato Institute. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
- McFaul, Michael. "'Meddling' In Ukraine: Democracy is not an American plot". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved November 3, 2008.
- Shipler, David K. (June 1, 1986). "Missionaries for democracy: US aid for global pluralism". The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the 1960's and that's why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that's why the endowment was created.
- The National Endowment for Democracy Responds to Our Burma Nuclear Story -- And Our Response, ProPublica (November 24, 2010).
- Dent, David W. (1995). U.S.-Latin American Policymaking: A Reference Handbook. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 467. ISBN 978-0-313-27951-5.
- William M. LeoGrande (2009). Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 543. ISBN 9780807898802.
- ^ O'Rourke, Lindsey (2018). Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War. Cornell Studies in Security Affairs. Cornell University Press. p. 6768. ISBN 978-1-5017-3069-6.
- Ginden, Jonah; Weld, Kristen (2007). "Benevolence or intervention? Spotlighting U.S. soft power". NACLA Report on the Americas. 40 (1): 19–21. doi:10.1080/10714839.2007.11722321. S2CID 157461987.
- "U.S. Embassy Denies Funding Anti-Govt Protests". Khaosod English. August 31, 2020. Retrieved August 31, 2020.
- "Up to PH to reveal funding by US-based NED, says activist". Free Malaysia Today. August 30, 2021. Archived from the original on September 2, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- "Suaram adviser questions Pakatan Harapan's funding from the National Endowment for Democracy". The Star. August 30, 2022. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Alec Luhn (July 28, 2019). "National Endowment for Democracy is first 'undesirable' NGO banned in Russia". The Guardian.
- Pillsbury, Michael (October 13, 2014). "China Tries to Blame US for Hong Kong Protests". Hudson Institute.
- ^ Snyder, Christopher (March 24, 2015). "China tries to blame US for Hong Kong protests". Fox News.
- ^ Shih, Gerry (December 3, 2019). "China announces sanctions against U.S.-based nonprofit groups in response to Congress's Hong Kong legislation". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
- ^ Steven Lee Myers, In Hong Kong Protests, China Angrily Connects Dots Back to U.S., New York Times (September 9, 2019; updated October 15, 2019).
- ^ "China suspends US warship visits and sanctions NGOs over Hong Kong unrest". Hong Kong Free Press. December 2, 2019.
- ^ Amy Qin, China Hits Back at U.S. Over Hong Kong Bill in a Mostly Symbolic Move, New York Times (December 2, 2019).
- ^ China bars U.S. military ships, aircraft from Hong Kong, sanctions U.S.-based NGOs, Reuters (December 2, 2019).
- Morello, Carol (August 11, 2020). "U.S. democracy and human rights leaders sanctioned by China vow not to be cowed into silence". Washington Post. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- "China sanctions four with U.S. democracy promotion ties over Hong Kong". Reuters. November 30, 2020.
- "China accuses US for using NED as 'tool to undermine democracy' in sovereign countries". Pakistan Today. May 9, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
- Esfandiari, Golnaz (January 5, 2010). "Iran Bans Contacts With 'Seditious' Foreign Groups". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
- Singh, Vijaita Singh/Soibam Rocky (January 29, 2020). "George Soros' Open Society Foundations moves Delhi High Court against Union Home Ministry". The Hindu. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
Further reading
Library resources aboutNational Endowment for Democracy
- Søndergaard, R.S. 2020. "The contested origins of US democracy promotion: the national endowment for democracy and its congressional critics." International Politics.
- Kate Geoghegan, "A Policy in Tension: The National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Response to the Collapse of the Soviet Union," Diplomatic History, Volume 42, Issue 5, November 2018, Pages 772–801
- Pee, Robert (2015). Democracy Promotion, National Security and Strategy: Foreign Policy under the Reagan Administration. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-82865-0.
- National Research Council, Committee on Evaluation of USAID Democracy Assistance Programs (2008). Goldstone, Jack A (ed.). Improving democracy assistance: Building knowledge through evaluations and research (6×9 inches, 15×23 cm). pp. xvi+336. doi:10.17226/12164. ISBN 978-0-309-11736-4. Individuals can download the complete report (pdf format) for private use.
- Bollen, Kenneth; Paxton, Pamela; Morishima, Rumi (June 2005). "Assessing international evaluations: An example from USAID's Democracy & Governance Programs". American Journal of Evaluation. 26 (2): 189–203. doi:10.1177/1098214005275640. S2CID 146522432.
External links
- Official website
- "National Endowment for Democracy Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.