This book investigates the relationship between democracy promotion and US national security strategy through an examination of the Reagan administration's attempt to launch a global campaign for democracy in the early 1980s, which culminated in the foundation of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983. Through a case study of the formation and early operations of the National Endowment for Democracy under the Reagan administration, based on primary documents from both the national security bureaucracy and the private sector, this book shows that while democracy promotion provided a new tactical approach to the conduct of US political warfare operations, these operations remained tied to the achievement of traditional national security goals such as destabilising enemy regimes and building stable and legitimate friendly governments, rather than being guided by a strategy based on the universal promotion of democracy. Analysing the relationships between state agencies and non-state actors in the field of democracy promotion, and the strategic and organizational tensions which act to limit the promotion of democracy by the US, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of US Foreign Policy, Democracy Promotion and the Reagan Administration.

This book investigates the relationship between democracy promotion and US national security strategy through an examination of the Reagan administration's attempt to launch a global campaign for democracy in the early 1980s, which culminated in the foundation of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983. Through a case study of the formation and early operations of the National Endowment for Democracy under the Reagan administration, based on primary documents from both the national security bureaucracy and the private sector, this book shows that while democracy promotion provided a new tactical approach to the conduct of US political warfare operations, these operations remained tied to the achievement of traditional national security goals such as destabilising enemy regimes and building stable and legitimate friendly governments, rather than being guided by a strategy based on the universal promotion of democracy. Analysing the relationships between state agencies and non-state actors in the field of democracy promotion, and the strategic and organizational tensions which act to limit the promotion of democracy by the US, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of US Foreign Policy, Democracy Promotion and the Reagan Administration.

This book posits that democracy promotion played a key role in the Reagan administration's Cold War foreign policy. It analyzes the democracy initiatives launched under Reagan and the role of administration officials, neoconservatives and non-state actors, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in shaping a new model of democracy promotion, characterized by aid to foreign political movements and the spread of neoliberal economics. The book discusses the ideological, strategic and organizational aspects of U.S. democracy promotion in the 1980s, then analyzes case studies of democracy promotion in the Soviet bloc and in U.S.-allied dictatorships in Latin America and East Asia, and, finally, reflects on the legacy of Reagan's democracy promotion and its influence on Clinton, Bush and Obama. Based on new research and archival documents, this book shows that the development of democracy promotion under Reagan laid the foundations for US post-Cold War foreign policy.