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.