The end of the twentieth century offers an opportunity to review the evolution of the National Endowment for Democracy since its founding 16 years ago, and to assess its present and future role in a world that has drastically changed during this brief period.

When the NED began its operations in 1984, the Cold War showed no signs of winding down. While the Endowment's creation signified a new determination by the United States to advance its democratic values openly and with increased self-confidence, the work of promoting democracy internationally was still considered controversial by many people. In these early years, the NED's role was limited to making grants. We viewed our investment in our earliest grantees (as we do today's grantees) as a long-term proposition. Political change would not come overnight, but we were optimistic that providing modest and consistent support to those who were bold enough to insist on personal, political, and economic freedom would pay off in the long run. Sixteen years later, we are proud to look back and know that some of our earliest grants provided critical assistance to democrats in countries like Poland, Chile, and South Africa whose democratic struggle then seemed so intractable.

Today, the Cold War is almost a distant memory, and democracy promotion has become an established field of international activity, and a pillar of American foreign policy. These changes have produced a profoundly different international and institutional environment to which the NED has had to adjust. The grants program remains the foundation for all of our work, and it has adapted to the needs and priorities of the new era. The NED still assists democrats who face the longest odds in countries like Burma, Cuba, Sudan, Congo, and China, as well as those working to consolidate democracy in countries that have made more progress. But the success of the grants program has also propelled the Endowment to develop new areas of work to advance our mission. In the process, the NED has evolved into a more mature and complex institution - one that seeks to aid the work of democracy activists, to deepen the level of analysis and understanding of democratic development, and to foster a sense of common purpose within the worldwide movement for democratic change.

This web site tries to convey as full a sense of the scope and complexity of NED's work as possible. The page entitled How We Work is a brief primer on the many distinct but interrelated areas of work in which the NED is engaged.

The unifying purpose of this work, as stated in the NED's most recent strategic plan, is "to create a community of democrats, drawn from the most developed democracies and the most repressive autocracies as well as everything in between, and united by the belief that the common interest is served by the gradual expansion of systems based on freedom, self government, and the rule of law."

Like everything we have done in the past, this work is a long-term endeavor. The NED, however, enters the 21st century a unique institution in a unique position to build on our own experience, and to draw upon the experience and resources of democrats we have worked with for years in every corner of the world, to move together toward a more democratic world.

Carl Gershman
President