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The Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy formally adopted this strategy document in January 1992 as a means of setting forth broad program objectives for the next three to five years. The strategy outlined herein is based upon the Endowment's operating Statement of Principles and Objectives and is intended to serve as a framework for annual priorities documents that target specific areas of work intended to advance the Endowment's longer-term strategic objectives.
I. A New Era
In the short span of years since the founding of the National Endowment for Democracy, the international political landscape has been utterly transformed. When the Endowment began its work in 1984, the Cold War was still at its height and only a few lonely outposts of freedom were to be found outside the Western democracies. In Latin America, however, a series of democratic transitions had already begun that has since accelerated and swept virtually the entire region. This democratic tide also extended to Asia, reaching the Philippines, Korea. Pakistan and Taiwan, and by the beginning of the 1990s its ripples were being felt in sub-Saharan Africa and even in the Middle East. Most dramatic of all was the success of democratic forces in bringing down seemingly impregnable Communist regimes, first in Eastern Europe in 1989 and then in the Soviet Union itself in August of 1991.
The victories of these democratic movements, most of which received vital assistance from the National Endowment for Democracy, have brought hundreds of millions of people new hope for a freer and more prosperous future. They have also achieved extraordinary gains for the United States, not only by advancing the democratic values that Americans hold dear, but also by bringing an enormous increase in American national security. The dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and the diminution of the Soviet threat to the U.S. and our allies are the direct result of the spread of democracy in the formerly Communist world, the historical record shows that liberal democracies rarely, if ever, go to war one another. Open societies, in which governments are accountable to the freely expressed will of their citizens, offer the best possibility for the peaceful settlement of international conflicts.
The end of the Cold War and the prospect of a more peaceful world are due, above all, to the sacrifices and the triumphs of indigenous democratic movements around the world. But international encouragement and assistance also played an important role, as the courageous leaders of these movements have themselves attested.
Yet in many of the countries that have recently emerged from dictatorship, the situation remains fragile; few of them can be considered strong and stable democracies. Democracy is not an easy form of government to maintain, especially in countries that lack an educated populace, a substantial middle class, an established market economy or a democratic culture. Although the threat to democracy from left-wing insurgencies or military coups has in most countries receded, new threats have arisen from ethnic conflict and religious intolerance. In addition, most of the new democracies confront severe economic problems. If they fail to meet the rising expectations of their, citizens for improved material wellbeing, there is real danger that democracy could be discredited.
Moreover, a substantial portion of the world's population continues to live under dictatorial governments, including more than a billion people who suffer under the yoke of Communist regimes still clinging to power. In many of the areas that have so far resisted the advance of freedom, powerful cultural factors pose significant obstacles to democratic progress. Yet virtually everywhere in the world there are individuals who aspire to democracy and are dedicated to attaining it in their own countries.
The remarkable events of 1989-91 should not blind us to the fact that achieving and maintaining democracy take time and effort. Today's remaining dictatorships will not easily give way, and there will inevitably be some backsliding into authoritarianism among countries that are now on the democratic path. Such critical countries as the former Soviet Union and South Africa are still in the midst of complex and difficult transitions whose democratic outcomes are by no means assured.
Thus, the challenges and the opportunities facing the National Endowment for Democracy are in some ways even greater and more complex to- day than they were in 1984. The momentous changes that have taken place in the world make it imperative that the Endowment reassess the overall strategy that guides its programs.
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