Right Web

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About

The Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD) is one of a number of neoconish organizations that touts U.S. exceptionalism while it urges global cooperation in toppling undemocratic regimes across the globe.

According to its mission statement, "Our aim is to foster awareness of the importance of democracy both as a central organizing principle of official government foreign policy and as the basis of international alliances of non-governmental organizations devoted to the strengthening of democracy. We believe that, a prime example of cooperation among democracies was the creation of the United Nations and the Atlantic alliance and those institutions that contributed to a strong, prosperous and European Union. We are convinced the time has arrived for the democracies of the world to build upon the experience of these organizations, a new institutional framework for global cooperation among democratic nations and those who aspire to govern themselves in accordance with democratic principles."

In an article for CCD's webs site titled "The Real Axis of Evil," Mark Palmer, a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary and vice chairman of the board of Freedom House, argued, "As American Marines move gingerly into Monrovia, basic questions are raised about the level of America's interest and commitment in Liberia. In January 2002, when President Bush defined the 'axis of evil' as the dictatorships of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, he did not even mention Charles Taylor of Liberia. But this one-time warlord and escapee from an American prison is part of the real axis of evil -- the larger group of 44 dictators in an arc that runs unbroken west from North Korea and China through the Middle East and south to sub-Saharan Africa, according to Freedom in the World 2003, a Freedom House survey. Focusing just on today's chaos in a single country obscures this larger reality and the fundamental U.S. interests at stake. For collectively, these 44 men (no women) are overwhelmingly the largest threat to American and global security and prosperity, and they do work together. Until they are all ousted, we will know no permanent peace." (2)

Funding

According to its web site, "CCD is funded by grants from the Russell Family Foundation, the John Whitehead Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Bumper Foundation of Canada, Canadian Parliamentary Centre, the Center for Communications, Health and the Environment and the Foundation for Democratic Education as well as by donations from all our board members, from our associates, and other individual donors. ... In 2002, CCD received grants from the U.S. Department of State, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, German Embassy, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in support of the Non-Governmental Forum, in November, 2002, Seoul, Korea, which met in parallel with the Community of Democracies Ministerial Conference."