*Topicality/Definitions Democracy Promotion Includes Military Intervention


NED Provides Democracy Assistance



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NED Provides Democracy Assistance


NED FUNDS ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORT DEMOCRACY EFFORTS

Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 30



The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was created in 1983, reflecting this decision. NED is a private, non-profit organization, governed by a bipartisan board. Its mission is “to strengthen democratic institutions throughout the world through private, non-governmental efforts.” NED makes grants to other organizations, particularly four organizations that reflect NED’s public/private, Democrat/Republican character: the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (affiliated with the AFL/CIO), the Center for International Private Enterprise (affiliated with the US Chamber of Commerce), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (affiliated with the Democratic Party) and the International Republican Institute (affiliated with the Republican Party).

NED also maintains an internal research center (the International Forum for Democratic Studies), a fellowship program, and a Center for International Media Assistance. NED funding supports elections and parliamentary training, participation in the political process, skills training, election support, policy institute support, legal education, production of written and visual materials, research grants, and meetings and conferences.
NED RECEIVES FUNDING FROM MANY DIFFERENT US GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 30



NED receives its funding from a line item in the State Operations budget. In addition, in the 1990s, as US support for democracy overseas expanded, other US assistance programs were created for this purpose. These included the Freedom Support Act (Russia and the former Soviet Union), Support for East European Democracy (central and southeastern Europe), USAID (governance support and the Office of Transition Initiatives), and the State Department (Economic Support Funds and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor). (These programs are discussed in Chapter 4). These other programs sometimes supply funding to NED, which, in turn, grants the funds to non-government groups and organizations overseas. NED makes approximately 900 grants a year, with a total budget of roughly $80 million.


MCC Distributes Foreign Assistance


MCC IS AN INDEPENDENT CORPORATION FOR DISPERSING AID

Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 46



The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is the most recent addition to the government’s dispersed foreign assistance architecture. MCC was designed to respond to the frequent criticism that US foreign assistance programs failed to reduce poverty or lead to economic growth because of corruption and weakness in the governance of recipient countries. Rather than reorient UASID with governance objectives in mind, an interagency team of NSC, USAID, State, Treasury, and OMB designed a new organization that would link foreign assistance commitments to the performance of the foreign governments receiving support.

The result was the MCC, an independent government corporation created in 2003. The MCC is managed by a CEO appointed by the President and is overseen by a Board of Directors, chaired by the Secretary of State, with the Secretary of Treasury, the Director of OMB, the Administrator of USAID, the US Trade Representative (USTR), and four Senate-confirmed non-government directors as members. The organization was intended to be small, with a staff of fewer than 100, but once operational in 2004, the ceiling was raised to 300, reflecting a more realistic assessment of the likely workloads.

DOD Major Distributor of Foreign Assistance


DOD FOREIGN ASSISTANCE FAR OUSTRIPS ALL STATE DEPARTMENT ASSISTANCE

Elisa Massimino, President Human Rights First, 2010, House Hearing: Human Rights and Democracy Assistance: Increasing the Effectiveness of U.S. Foreign Aid, June 10, [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg56888/html/CHRG-111hhrg56888.htm]



The Defense Department has become, as you know, a huge donor of foreign aid. One estimate has the DoD at $8.9 billion in military aid worldwide in Fiscal Year 2009, outstripping all the programs administered by the State Department. It is essential that we bring transparency and oversight to that process as well as bring DoD aid squarely under human rights policy. To do that right, there has to be a good process for gathering evidence of human rights violations and including adequate funding to do that oversight. So we recommend that this be supported by a fee on security assistance to help shore up the infrastructure designed to do that.

IMET Provides Democracy Training to Military Officials


IMET INCLUDES TRAINING MILITARY OFFICERS IN DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND CIVILIAN CONTROL

Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 82-3

The traditional security assistance portfolio also includes a small (roughly $90 million) program which has funded professional training and military education to foreign military officers from more than 100 countries since 1947. The initial goals of International Military Education and Training (IMET) were to further regional stability through military-to-military relationships, transfer critical skills to foreign militaries, and train militaries for combined operations with the United States. These goals were expanded in 1991 to include educating foreign military and civilian defense personnel in democratic values and civilian control, assist cooperation with law enforcement personnel in counternarcotics operations, and reform military justice systems. The program has been controversial over the years, given the role of the military has played in political developments in other countries.




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