Article
Thomas Carothers
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Source: Getty
Other
A Quarter-Century of Promoting Democracy
I salute the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and congratulate it on this important occasion, taking note of the significant contribution that NED has made to democracy worldwide. I would like to highlight what I believe are some of the main advances and achievements of democracy assistance over the past quarter-century and also to examine the challenging road ahead.
Published on Oct 1, 2007
Source: Journal of Democracy
The progress of democracy assistance in the past 25 years can be described as democracy aid finding its place. First, it has found its place within U.S. foreign policy. In the 1980s, democracy aid had to struggle to become something more than just a side element of anticommunist security policies, to become rooted in broader prodemocratic principles. Over time it did that. In the 1990s, democracy assistance had to find its place in a U.S. foreign policy that was no longer anchored in a framework of geopolitical strategic competition. Again, democracy aid did that and in that decade increased rapidly, both in dollar amounts and geographical reach.
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About the Author
Thomas Carothers
Harvey V. Fineberg Chair for Democracy Studies; Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program
Thomas Carothers, a senior fellow in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, is a leading expert on comparative democratization and international support for democracy.
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- America Walks Away from Global DemocracyPaper
Thomas Carothers
Recent Work
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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