Exporting Devalued Values:

In his latest incisive critique of US foreign intervention, Texas Rep. Ron Paul takes aim at a pseudo-governmental organization, one that's sinister insofar as it appears benign – the National Endowment for Democracy. Charges Rep. Paul,

"…the NED is nothing more than a costly program that takes US taxpayer funds to promote favored politicians and political parties abroad. What the NED does in foreign countries, through its recipient organizations the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), would be rightly illegal in the United States. The NED injects 'soft money' into the domestic elections of foreign countries in favor of one party or the other. Imagine what a couple of hundred thousand dollars will do to assist a politician or political party in a relatively poor country abroad. It is particularly Orwellian to call US manipulation of foreign elections 'promoting democracy.' How would Americans feel if the Chinese arrived with millions of dollars to support certain candidates deemed friendly to China? Would this be viewed as a democratic development?"

Who Oversees These Interventionist Institutions?

The NED, of course, sees things otherwise. On its website, the NED publishes a long-winded, self-congratulatory history, and describes itself as being essentially

"…guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values. Governed by an independent, nonpartisan board of directors, the NED makes hundreds of grants each year to support pro-democracy groups in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East."

This alleged "independence" of the board is quite extraordinary, considering that it consists of powerful establishment figures like Republican "super-lobbyist" Vin Weber, Bush fave Sen. Bill Frist, neocon ideologues such as Francis Fukuyama and bellicose religioso Michael Novak, not to mention neophyte presidential candidate Wesley Clark and that perennial Balkan bore, Richard Holbrooke.

NED offshoots like the NDI and IRI are similarly manned. The IRI directors' board is headed by Sen. John McCain, and includes notables such as Brent Scowcroft, Lawrence Eagleburger and Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Representatives of heavy corporate lobbyists are also represented, for example, the head of Lockheed Martin's missile defense program, Alison Fortier. Another one is Robert Kimmit, executive VP of AOL Time Warner – which has, incidentally enough, given over $32,000 since 1999 to that champion of "campaign finance reform," Sen. John McCain.

The NDI's leadership is numerically greater but appears somewhat less robust. Its board is a graveyard of failed presidential candidates, including the likes of Walter Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro, Michael Dukakis, Bill Bradley and (though he'd be loath to admit it) Dick Gephardt. On the other hand, the NDI does have one very formidable dark horse in its chairman – the terrifying Madeleine Albright. What more need be said?

New NED Mischief: Elections in the Caucasus

The latest challenge for this bunch is policing the upcoming elections in Azerbaijan and Georgia. For the last few weeks, the intervention-friendly Eurasianet.org has had the words "Choice 2003" plastered on its home page. But whose choice is it?

As for the Azeri election, there've been some comic moments, for example a breathy dispatch from the typically hysterical Human Rights Watch, demanding that authorities investigate a catfight between local and imported feminist groups and "voter educators." However, that election is here (October 15th), and less interesting than the one slated for two weeks later, in little Georgia.

Here, the once fervent American love affair is waning. Last month, the US cut financial aid to the government, following similar actions by the IMF and World Bank, and is now training and cheering on the opposition. Simultaneously, the crusading Transparency International has accused the government of corruption.

Last week, a US delegation sent by the NDI, which included IRI head McCain, former Joint Chiefs of Staff head John Shalikashvili and former Deputy State Secretary Strobe Talbott, cracked down on Georgia, pressuring opposition politicians, government incumbents and election officials alike. Their message was dutifully broadcast by the NDI, which promises that the upcoming election will be big fun – that is, "a critical test for the country's democratization."

The Not-So-Veiled Threat

"If the elections are held in a free and fair manner," Georgia will achieve "…greater political stability and will more easily integrate into the community of democracies." However, the NDI warns,

"…if these elections fail to meet Georgia's domestic legal requirements and its international commitments to hold genuinely democratic elections, the country's representative institutions will face a crisis of confidence, and Georgia will suffer a serious blow to its international standing."

Do the Georgians dare protest? According to Eurasianet.org, the Georgian newspaper Dilis Gazeti last week pondered:

"…Senator McCain clearly wants to teach democracy to all the (former Soviet) republics by using Georgia as a visual aid…

"...at first glance we should take pride in this… but in effect it is quite regrettable because, if we do not live up to US expectations, the full force of the only superpower's righteous wrath will fall upon us."

The Bottom Line: Hardball Tactics

Basically, the situation is this: the US has gotten tired of the Shevardnadze government. It seems too Russia-friendly, especially after the August takeover of Georgia's electric company by the Russian EES – who purchased it for $150 million from an American company (AES), which is generally fleeing the region and may sell its assets in Kazakhstan and Ukraine to EES also.

Apparently, a big chunk ($35 million) of the now-frozen aid package had been dedicated to electricity sector work, and was supposed to be funneled back into the managing American firm, PA Consulting. However, this company had arguments with regional authorities and now claims it never received its money.

By freezing aid to Georgia, and getting the IMF and World Bank to do the same, the US has interrupted economic projects, wreaked havoc with budget-planning, and in general helped the opposition to stir up unrest. Not that this hasn't happened before elsewhere.

Forcing Bipolarity in a Unipolar World

Awareness of its own indisputable hegemony has led the US and its policy makers to claim a unipolar destiny. Indeed, the belligerent neocons have been demanding this for years. Now, an unaccountable US holds other nations up to impossible standards. This is a major reason why America is hated abroad.

However, while it may be dead, history can be resurrected. Wherever possible, the US tries to impose models of bipolarity – miniature versions of the former US-USSR stalemate. This ensures that suppliant states remain stuck in their own petty rivalries. Oftentimes, it also ensures that they will need to purchase (from the US) heavy armaments to wage their own Cold Wars.

Politically, bipolarity is fostered even within the countries in question. The NED and similar outfits are keen to aid "opposition" parties, when it is judged that they can eventually take power. As a power broker, the US likes to buy influence. By helping opposition candidates against strong incumbents, groups like the NDI and IRI basically purchase them.

The Macedonia Experiment

Take, for example, Macedonia. Its 2001 civil war was started by Kosovo-trained Albanian insurrectionists allegedly fighting for ethnic equality. While the US claimed to be supporting the Macedonian government, overwhelming examples of political, diplomatic and even covert military aid to the rebels indicated otherwise. The US was playing both sides, to ensure that neither would win a satisfactory victory, as happened repeatedly during Yugoslavia's wars. America thus became the vital "third party," the dispassionate arbitrator who could, with deep feeling and magnanimity, lead the country to ethnic harmony, human rights, and even democracy by aiding specific political parties, babysitting ethnic spats, and sponsoring insipid children's television programs.

As is happening now in Georgia, the 2002 elections saw the IMF freeze donations to Macedonia. Political interference came from the NED and other groups such as Transparency International. Their efforts helped elect the opposition Social Democrats, and their multi-ethnic partners, the Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (led by former terrorist leader Ali Ahmeti) – a coalition amenable to American interests.

However, it'd been widely predicted beforehand that the SDSM-DUI ticket would win; they clearly didn't need Western help. Yet by donating to their campaign, America could ensure that the new government would be in its debt.

Now, two years after the war, relations between Albanians and Macedonians have not improved. But you wouldn't know it from the bland whitewashing of the US and other "international community" bodies in Macedonia. Claiming to desire a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic future for Macedonia, they are well aware that this country will always remain bipolar.

Macedonia hasn't had any unrest from its numerous other minorities. In fact, they aren't even included when important "arbitration" needs to be conducted; the problem is always only with the Albanians. As recent protests from high school students show, the Macedonian reality is one of a dualistic ethnic divide that appears, to delicate Western eyes, utterly barbaric, ugly and sub-human. Painting the natives as unenlightened savages is especially useful, considering that the so-called "confidence builders" can't, and frankly don't want to change things.

Example: NDI's Kosovo Whitewash

Covering up this reality is done chiefly through whitewashing. Take, for example, the testimony of former NDI Kosovo director Scott David Bates, in an October 2002 interview carried out by – imagine that! – the US Government. Bates paints a rosy picture of democracy in Kosovo, that "fairly successful" international mission to which KFOR troops have brought "order and stability."

In the interview, Bates discusses his 2001 work with Kosovo political parties and the OSCE in the run-up to Kosovo's colonial elections. While there were some headaches involving Serbs "left behind" in the province (i.e., those few who hadn't already been killed or expelled), it was, according to Bates, "a truly successful election." Says Bates,

"…three years after the war, they held free and fair elections, with Serbs and Albanians voting together. And in December of last year, they went to parliament together."

Well wouldn't you know! However, as anyone with even a remote understanding of the Kosovo situation knows, UNMIK has presided over 4 years of rampant ethnic cleansing, destruction of cultural treasures, human trafficking, mafia violence and the occasional massacre of children.

Obviously, Kosovo was the benchmark for failure in intervention. Until Afghanistan and Iraq, that is. Compared to those disasters, it's suddenly become "successful." However, the body of literature on the black hole of Europe is vast and growing by the day. As the reader will see, cheerful interventionists are deluded in the extreme if they really believe what they say. Luckily for them, they don't.

Human, All Too Human

On the sweeping scale of world geopolitics, the enforced bipolarity model holds. As an indicator of official US foreign policy, it's fairly reliable, and there may even be a few loons in the State Department who believe it has real democratic significance.

However, when we get down to the actual situation on the ground, other factors take precedence – chiefly, the tremendous mediocrity inherent to "democracy-building." This is a mutant combination of two mentalities: the bureaucratic and the high school.

Derelict, conflict-prone countries such as Macedonia have become playgrounds for the "international community." This term covers anyone working for an embassy, NGO, political-education service like the NDI, mass media, European Union – the list goes on. It doesn't matter where one's from, so long as one chooses the customs of Brussels or Washington over those of one's own country.

Indeed, card-carrying members of the "international community" stick together. The benefits are many: access to reliable modern technology; air-conditioned private transportation instead of rickety public buses; friendly relations with important politicians and businessmen; many perks, and perky colleagues too; as well as many, many social events.

For the last reason especially, members of the "international community" often exhibit the group dynamics more common to high school students. The petty jealousies, promiscuity and provincial gossip, the drinking games, idleness and boredom – a "global village" indeed!

The tasteless exuberance of the self-appointed altruists abroad is excessive, incestuous and utterly at variance with their stated mission. And it has nothing to do, let me add, with high ideals. This is why the day's workload – processing forms, fostering bipolarities and installing governments – is accomplished with so much tedium, reticence and disinterest. Nobody really cares, actually. At the end of the day, local employees of embassies, foundations and groups like the NDI are, on an individual level, only interested in avoiding controversy and upheaval. They don't want to think. Above all, they don't want all hell to break loose on their shift (this buck-passing proclivity is why Kosovo's final status remains unresolved). Naturally enough, the internationals would rather spend their time shopping, drinking, or having sexual encounters with one another, or with government ministers.

America's Policy of Foreign Interference