The Reagan Administration, the Cold War, and the Transition to Democracy Promotion

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.

Robert Pee is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of Democracy Promotion, National Security and Strategy: Foreign Policy under the Reagan Administration. His research focuses on U.S. democracy promotion during the Cold War and the War on Terror.
William Michael Schmidli is University Lecturer at the Institute for History at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is a U.S. foreign relations historian, and his research focuses on the evolving significance of human rights, democracy promotion, and transnational advocacy networks from the Cold War to the present.

Chapter 1: Introduction: The Reagan Administration and Democracy Promotion; Robert Pee and William Michael Schmidli.- Part I: Ideology, Strategy, and Institutional Change in the Shift towards Democracy Promotion.- Chapter 2: "A Positive Track of Human Rights Policy": Elliott Abrams, the Human Rights Bureau, and the Conceptualization of Democracy Promotion, 1981-1984; Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard.- Chapter 3: The Rise of Political Aid: The National Endowment for Democracy and the Reagan Administration's Cold War strategy; Robert Pee.- Chapter 4: Recreating the Cold War Consensus: Democracy Promotion and the Crisis of American Hegemony; William Michael Schmidli.- Part II: U.S. Democracy Promotion and the Soviet Empire.- Chapter 5: The Reagan Administration's Efforts to Promote Human Rights and Democracy in the Soviet Union; Christian Peterson.- Chapter 6: The Autonomy of Solidarity; Gregory F. Domber.- Chapter 7: Neoliberalism and Democracy Promotion: Hernando de Soto and U.S. Foreign Policy; Kate Geoghegan.- Part III: Democracy Promotion and the Third World.- Chapter 8: U.S. Electoral Assistance to El Salvador and the Culture of Politics, 1982-1984; Evan D. McCormick.- Chapter 9: Reagan and the Waning Years of Uruguay's Military Rule: Democracy Promotion and the Redefinition of Human Rights; Debbie Sharnak.- Chapter 10: The Pivot: Neoconservatives, the Philippines, and the Democracy Agenda; Mattias Fibiger.- Chapter 11: Stable Imperatives, Shifting Strategies: Reagan and Democracy Promotion in the Republic of Korea; Clint Work.- Part IV: Legacy.- Chapter 12: '"The Most Deeply Honorable Form of Government Ever Devised by Man:' Reagan, Human Rights, and Democracy"; Joe Renouard.- Chapter 13: Conclusion; Robert Pee and William Michael Schmidli.