New Report on Revitalizing U.S. Democracy Promotion

Maria Figueroa Küpçü and Michael Cohen have just published a new report for the New America Foundation titled “Revitalizing U.S. Democracy Promotion: A Comprehensive Plan for Reform.” This analysis is focused on the “challenges facing America’s democratization agenda” as well as “the need to create a new division of labor in the foreign assistance bureaucracy, which will require a reconsideration of the panoply of existing foreign assistance programs.” In making their recommendations the authors outline six steps for revitalizing U.S. democracy promotion efforts:

1. 
   
   Create a cabinet-level agency for international development (the Department of International Development)
   
   
2. 
   
    Make a sharper distinction between strategic assistance, development and democratization aid, and humanitarian, public health, and disaster relief assistance
   
   
3. 
   
   Condition more development assistance along the criteria used by the Millennium Challenge Corporation and consider incorporating the MCC into the new Department of International Development
   
   
4. 
   
   Double funding for the NED and expand U.S. support for multilateral and regional organizations (i.e. the UN Democracy Fund)
   
   
5. 
   
   Create a position of “foreign assistance coordinator” in each U.S. embassy
   
   
6. 
   
   Focus diplomatic efforts more on protecting foreign civil society organizations

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