Promoting democracy through non-governmental organizations

The government of the United States has vast administrative resources for conducting global policy. Still, these official agents of the government are sometimes ill-equipped to handle certain activities. In those cases, the U.S. often turns to non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, to help it achieve its policy objectives. One in particular, created in 1983, is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is located on the internet at http://www.ned.org/. Go to the NED web site and follow the "About" link to see a brief description of the Endowment, which includes a message from its president. After reading this, click over to a collection of Frequently Asked Questions, and pay particular attention to the three that describe the NED's relationship to the U.S. government. How is the NED intimately linked to the U.S. government, even though it is an independent organization? How might the NED's independent status make it better able to address certain issues or situations in which official government involvement might be ineffective or even harmful?




Disease as a national security issue

In the Spring of 2000, President Clinton declared that the United States considered the global AIDS crisis to be a threat to its national security. One organization that has tracked the development of the disease around the world is the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, also known as UNAIDS. This affiliate of the UN maintains a web site at http://www.unaids.org/. Go to the UNAIDS site and use the search function to locate its December 2000 report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Click on the Report and review the bulleted Global Overview that runs from pp. 4-5. Then backtrack to the page where you accessed the Report and click on the Graphics - December 2000 feature for a short slide show on the global spread of the epidemic. Based on this information, identify at least two reasons for President Clinton's identification of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a possible threat to the national security of the United States.