American foreign policy is again being tested by regimes that censor, jail, and kill to stay in power. President Ronald Reagan had a bold vision to anticipate a response to these atrocities. He believed that strong citizens, not just strong states, would shape the future.
One hundred and fifteen years since his birth, that idea is still playing out in the most dangerous corners of the world, where people risk everything to speak, assemble, worship, and build accountable institutions — and where U.S. strategic interests are often on the line.
In 1982, from the floor of the British Parliament, Reagan issued a warning that still resonates: the survival of free institutions would depend not only on the strength of arms, but on the habits and institutions that allow people to speak freely, organize peacefully, worship without fear, and hold power to account.
As members of the Board of the National Endowment for Democracy, an institution born from that vision, we see every day how right Reagan was. His Westminster Address laid out both a moral argument and a winning strategy.
One year after Reagan’s speech, Congress helped launch NED to strengthen democratic resilience abroad — because free societies make America safer. The aim was never to provide charity, but to help people secure the political freedoms that allow them to govern themselves, open markets, and maintain their country’s sovereignty against authoritarianism. By equipping citizens with the tools to resist authoritarian pressure and expose corruption, they are better positioned to shape their own futures.
Four decades after the speech, the ways in which China, Iran, Russia, and Cuba repress their people have evolved, but the underlying logic has not.
Reagan understood that freedom is a strategic asset, as much as it is America’s guiding principle. He believed that the best way to defend the United States was to help build a world where tyranny would find fewer places to hide.
“We must be staunch in our conviction,” Reagan said, “that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few, but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings.”
This is where NED comes in by deploying modest, targeted grants that consistently generate outsize returns: stronger institutions, more informed citizens, and greater resistance to authoritarian pressure.
NED supports partners in more than 90 countries, often in places where traditional U.S. assistance cannot operate safely or effectively. And it does so with efficiency: roughly $0.84 of every dollar goes directly to partners. Most importantly, in line with Reagan’s vision, we are accountable stewards. NED submits annual plans and reports to Congress and the executive branch, undergoes independent audits, and operates under bipartisan oversight.
You can see the value of this model in places confronting the sharp edge of authoritarian influence. NED supports local partners who counter China’s growing footprint by documenting Chinese Communist Party influence operations, revealing elite capture, and protecting the civic spaces that Beijing strives to suppress. For example, a NED-supported group in North Macedonia, Estima, mapped China’s hidden influence networks and helped drive the country’s first strategy to counter authoritarian interference. They then helped Serbians replicate this model by building a public database tracking China-linked donations, giving citizens more visibility and international companies greater predictability.
Venezuela shows the same logic in a more repressive environment. NED’s partners have sustained the infrastructure of democracy by informing voters, monitoring the 2024 election, and documenting abuses even as Nicolas Maduro’s regime tried to close every avenue for dissent. When repression surged, NED partners helped safeguard the journalists and activists most at risk. This helps lay the groundwork for a democratic future in Venezuela.
Iran illustrates the need to support civic actors when a regime tries to isolate its people from the world. NED helps its Iranian partners maintain secure operations, strengthen reporting on human rights violations, and withstand pressure. When Iran’s ayatollah recently imposed a near-total internet blackout, NED supported partners in accessing Starlink internet services. Their reporting, videos, and testimony reached the world and prevented the regime from controlling the narrative.
IN FOCUS FORUM: STATE OF THE UNION EDITION
This is Reagan’s “infrastructure of democracy” in action, adapted to modern threats: modest investments in local initiatives that produce durable tools, networks, and norms of accountability that strengthen democratic resilience where it begins and stop authoritarian influence before it reaches America’s shores.
The tools of repression have changed. But the human drive for dignity and self-rule has not. Reagan bet on freedom, backed by civic infrastructure, as the most reliable force in history. At NED, we carry that belief forward every day.
Peter Roskam is the chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy and a former six-term U.S. representative from Illinois.
Mel Martinez is a member of NED’s Board of Directors, a former U.S. senator from Florida, and the former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.