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The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a CIA cut-out[1][2][3] soft-power[4] organization which finances protests and color revolutions to destabilize targets of US foreign policy.[5] It provided $1.2 billion of grants between 2011 and 2020 and issues over 2,000 grants every year.[6] Despite calling itself a non-governmental organization, it receives funding from the U.S. Congress.[7]
Ronald Reagan founded the NED in 1983.[7] In 1986, NED's President Carl Gershman said that the NED was created because "It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the 60's, and that's why it has been discontinued."[8]
In 1991, Allen Weinstein, founder of the NED, said "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."[9]
The NED is an organization based in the United States that was established in 1983 and is funded through an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress. Its creation was authorized by the National Endowment for Democracy Act, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. The NED’s primary purpose is to promote and spread the United State’s values and version of democracy around the world and advancing its foreign policy objectives.[10]
Its creation was a reaction to the covert CIA efforts to undermine national sovereignty in many countries.[11] The U.S. took a turn toward more overt, less clandestine, actions to undermine governments.[12]
The NED operates by providing grants to a wide range of organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civic groups, labor unions, media outlets, political parties, etc.[13][14] These organizations, in turn, implement programs that align with U.S. foreign policy interests, often under the guise of protecting human rights, promoting free and fair elections, etc.[15][10] The NED coordinates a global network of think tanks of approximately 80 member organizations in 50 countries, known as the Network of Democracy Research Institutes (NDRI).[16]
Operations[edit | edit source]
During the summer of 2024, the NED quietly took down its grant database. Previously, visitors could search for records of Washington-funded NGOs, civil society groups, and media projects in the countries the NED was operating in. They could also view the institutions involved in funding these initiatives and the amount they were giving.[17]
This recent step is part of a trend of the NED to increasingly hide more of its operations since its early days when mainstream media would talk more openly about it.[17]
Domestic activities[edit | edit source]
The NED gave grants to the AFL-CIO, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Democratic and Republican National Institutes.[7]
Latin America[edit | edit source]
Cuba[edit | edit source]
The NED gave over $100,000 a year to the Cuban-American National Foundation from Miami, which was involved in terrorist attacks and funded Nazi collaborators in Hungary.[7]
Grenada[edit | edit source]
The NED funded the right-wing New National Party in Grenada that took power following the U.S. invasion in 1983 that overthrew the People's Revolutionary Government.[7]
Nicaragua[edit | edit source]
The NED funded pro-Contra groups in Nicaragua.[6] Critics have compared the NED's funding of Nicaraguan groups (pro-U.S. and conservative unions, political parties, student groups, business groups, and women's associations) in the 1980s and 1990s in Nicaragua to the previous CIA effort "to challenge and undermine" the socialist government of Chile.[18]
Eastern Europe[edit | edit source]
Belarus[edit | edit source]
The NED gave $2.5 million to anti-Lukashenko groups in Belarus during the 2020–21 color revolution attempt.[19]
Bulgaria[edit | edit source]
The NED gave more than $1.5 million to groups in the 1990 Bulgarian election. The Union of Democratic Forces received $750,000, including $233,000 for its newspaper. The Bulgarian Socialist Party still won the elections, so the NED funded violent opposition groups that committed arson and sieged Parliament until the president resigned. The NED also funded the new elections in 1991, which its candidates won.[20]
Poland[edit | edit source]
The NED funded the anti-communist Solidarity group in Poland during the 1980s.[7]
Soviet Union[edit | edit source]
In the 1980s, the NED provided $140 million to anti-communist groups in the Soviet Union.[3]
Ukraine[edit | edit source]
Since 1989, the NED has funded over 100 organizations in Ukraine to bring Ukraine under Western influence and pull it away from Russia.[3]
Central Asia[edit | edit source]
Afghanistan[edit | edit source]
The NED funded the Islamic fundamentalist mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.[6]
East Asia[edit | edit source]
China[edit | edit source]
The NED funds and sponsors the World Uyghur Congress,[21] a separatist organization agitating for the independence of Xinjiang region, though the organization is based in Germany.
Further reading[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy
- ↑ NED, the Legal Window of the CIA
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-06-24). "Is there really a U.S. government agency that gives out awards for deceiving the public?" Monthly Review. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ↑ NED on InfluenceWatch
- ↑ Mnar Alley (2022-02-05). "Mnar Adley exposes the National Endowment for Democracy" Mintpress News.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ajit Singh, Roscoe Palm (2022-08-08). "Manufacturing consent: How the United States has penetrated South African media" Monthly Review. Archived from the original on 2022-08-08. Retrieved 2022-08-09.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-03-04). "If the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Is Subverting Democracy—Why Aren’t Some of the Left Media Calling It Out?" CovertAction Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-11-09. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
- ↑ David K. Shipler (1986-06-01). "Missionaries for Democracy: U.S. Aid for Global Pluralism" New York Times.
- ↑ David Ignatius (1991-09-22). "Innocence Abroad: The New World of Spyless Coups" Washington Post.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 “The brief freeze and rapid partial reinstatement of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding in early 2025 helped expose it as a U.S. regime-change tool. Created to rebrand CIA covert operations as “democracy promotion,” the NED channels government funds to opposition groups, meddling in their internal affairs.
Regime change on the U.S. agenda
In 2018, Kenneth Wollack bragged to the U.S. Congress that the NED had given political training to 8,000 young Nicaraguans, many of whom were engaged in a failed attempt to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. Wollack was praising the “democracy-promotion” work carried out by NED, of which he is now vice-chair. Carl Gershman, then president of the NED and giving evidence, was asked about Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, who had been re-elected with an increased majority two years prior. He responded:
Time for him to go.
Seven years later, Trump took office and it looked as if the NED’s future was endangered. On February 12, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Elon Musk froze disbursement of its congressionally approved funds. Its activities stopped and its website went blank. On February 24, Richard Grenell, special envoy to Venezuela, declared that “Donald Trump is someone who does not want to make regime changes.”
Washington’s global regime-change operations were immediately impacted and over 2,000 paid U.S. collaborating organizations temporarily defunded. A Biden-appointed judge warned of “potentially catastrophic harm” to (not in her words) U.S. efforts to overturn foreign governments. The howl from the corporate press was deafening. The Associated Press cried:
‘Beacon of freedom’ dims as U.S. initiatives that promote democracy abroad wither.
However, the pause lasted barely a month. On March 10, funding was largely reinstated. The NED, which “deeply appreciated” the State Department’s volte face, then made public its current program which, in Latin America and the Caribbean alone, includes over 260 projects costing more than $40 million.
U.S. “soft power”
Created in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan following scandals involving the CIA’s covert funding of foreign interventions, the NED was to shift such operations into a more publicly palatable form under the guise of “democracy promotion.” As Allen Weinstein, NED’s first acting president, infamously admitted in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” In short, NED functions as a “soft power arm” of U.S. foreign policy.
The NED disingenuously operates as a 501(c)(3) private nonprofit foundation. However, it is nearly 100% funded by annual appropriations from the U.S. Congress and governed mainly by Washington officials or ex-officials.”
Roger Harris, John Perry (2025-05-24). "U.S. reinstates funding to propaganda outlet NED" Monthly Review. Archived from the original on 2025 June 19. - ↑ “In a nutshell, the idea of what was to become NED arose as a response to revelations about covert CIA efforts to promote democracy, and was debated periodically in Congress between 1967 and 1983. NED was funded initially entirely by Congress, chaired initially by the chairman of the relevant congressional committee, and formally incorporated on the day a congressional conference committee finally decided to authorize spending for it.
…NED acknowledges its ongoing relationship with lawmakers, saying that its “continued funding is dependent on the continued support of the White House and Congress.” Those who spearheaded creation of NED have long acknowledged it was part of an effort to move from covert to overt efforts to foster democracy. President Reagan said in 1983 that “this program will not be hidden in the shadows. It will stand proudly in the spotlight, and that’s where it belongs.” Allen Weinstein, a former acting president of NED and one of the authors of the study that led to its creation, told David Ignatius in a 1991 interview that: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA. The biggest difference is that when such activities are done overtly, the flap potential is close to zero. Openness is its own protection.””
"The National Endowment for Democracy Responds to Our Burma Nuclear Story – And Our Response" (2010). ProPublica. Archived from the original. - ↑ “They have been doing in public what the CIA used to do in private -- providing money and moral support for pro-democracy groups, training resistance fighters, working to subvert communist rule. And, in contrast to many of the CIA's superannuated Cold Warriors, who tended to get tangled in their webs of secrecy, these overt operatives have been immensely successful.”
David Ignatius (1991-09-21). "INNOCENCE ABROAD: THE NEW WORLD OF SPYLESS COUPS" Washington Post. Archived from the original. - ↑ “Each year, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) makes more than 2,000 grants to support the projects of nongovernmental groups abroad who are working to advance democratic goals and strengthen democratic institutions in more than 100 countries.
NED funds only nongovernmental organizations, which may include civic organizations, associations, independent media, and other similar organizations.
NED encourages applications from organizations working in diverse political environments, including nascent democracies, countries undergoing democratic transitions, semi-authoritarian countries, and highly repressive societies.
NED does not fund democracy-related projects proposing a program implemented in the U.S. or other established democracies but does support organizations based in those countries that work on eligible countries and regions.
NED does not make grants to individuals, governmental bodies, or state-supported institutions such as public universities.
NED is interested in proposals from local, independent organizations for nonpartisan programs that seek to:
Promote and defend human rights and the rule of law
Support freedom of information and independent media
Strengthen democratic ideas and values
Promote accountability and transparency
Strengthen civil society organizations
Strengthen democratic political processes and institutions
Promote civic education
Support democratic conflict resolution
Promote freedom of association
Strengthen a broad-based market economy
All proposed projects must be consistent with NED’s general purposes as outlined in the NED Statement of Principles and Objectives.
For more information on the types of programs NED supports in each region, please see Where We Work.”
National Endowment for Democracy. ned.org. Archived from the original on 2025 May 8. - ↑ “NED’s Global programs and initiatives support the key tenets of democracy, empowering local activists to work in common cause to protect democratic gains where they are at risk and expand democratic freedoms where new opportunities arise. Working with democratic stakeholders, including political parties, labor unions, the private sector and civil society, NED grantees work to protect rights, encourage innovation, and make democracy deliver.”
National Endowment for Democracy. ned.org. Archived from the original on 2025 Jan 13. - ↑ “NED prioritizes work in the most authoritarian countries, including China, Russia, North Korea, Burma, Iran, Belarus, Sudan, Cuba, and Venezuela. The Endowment’s work takes a long-term perspective, working to lay the foundation for democracy and freedom when the opportunity presents itself. By supporting courageous dissidents in closed societies, if and when change comes, democratic actors often emerge as critical leaders of transitions.”
National Endowment for Democracy (2025-02-02). "Investing in Freedom: An Introduction to the National Endowment for Democracy" ned.org. Archived from the original on 2025 Feb 10. - ↑ “The Network of Democracy Research Institutes (NDRI) is a global think tank network with approximately 80 member organizations from 50 countries representing every region in the world. Member institutes include: International think tanks; Independent research institutions; University-based study centers; Research programs affiliated with democracy advocacy groups, human rights organizations, and other NGOs.”
"NDRI Member Institutes". National Endowment for Democracy. Archived from the original on 2025-09-14. - ↑ 17.0 17.1 Kit Klarengberg (2025-01-05). "Collapsing Empire: RIP CIA Front's 'Overt Operations'" Global Delinquents. Archived from the original on 2025-01-06.
- ↑ U.S.-Latin American Policymaking: A Reference Handbook (1995) (p. 467). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-27951-5
- ↑ Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-12-21). "Nobel Peace Prize Winners Have Deep CIA Ties" CovertAction Magazine. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
- ↑ William Blum (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower: 'A Concise History of United States Global Interventions, 1945 to the Present' (pp. 132–133). [PDF] Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 9781842772201 [LG]
- ↑ "2019 Democracy Award Recipient: World Uyghur Congress". National Endowment for Democracy.