The Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD) has as its objective the consolidation and expansion of democracy and furthering collaboration of democratic societies to enhance global security and prosperity. CCD seeks collaboration among the democracies, regionally globally and within international institutions in pursuit of their common interests. CCD has drawn together a group of people who have made this cause a priority for more than a decade. Further, CCD has a strong and active volunteer board and a carefully prepared program as highlighted below. It has established an office in Washington, D.C. with three highly experienced staff and a basic operating budget to meet start up needs. CCD was incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1993 and recognized as a 501(c)(3) private non-profit organization in September 1996.

What makes CCD unique and worthy of support?

Democracies working together on a global basis are a vital part of the new architecture for the 21st Century. To foster this collaboration requires both public and private awareness and commitment. CCD believes it is imperative to support an international initiative launched in Warsaw in 2000 when 102 countries met to establish the Community of Democracies. In Warsaw delegates identified four major goals: greater collaboration among regional and international groups and institutions to strengthen the democratic process; active support for imperiled or fragile democracies; pressures against non-democratic states to move toward an open democratic political process and greater coordination of assistance to democratic societies, particularly in emerging countries. The Warsaw movement has been followed by a series of regional meetings and a scheduled ministerial meeting set for Seoul in 2002 that will include over a hundred nations.

The CCD is an independent, non-partisan organization focusing on issues and exerting public and private influence on governments to pursue the Warsaw goals and objectives as a policy priority. The Warsaw meeting provided a basis for advancing the worldwide democratic revolution to underpin the security and well being of the world in the broadest sense for the coming century. We define strategic realism in 21st Century terms as a policy based on an alliance among democracies designed to achieve these goals. Realistically, the only nations threatening world peace and security are non-democratic states.

The following specific initiatives are planned for 2001:

1. Direct support for the Community of Democracies. A major objective is to insure that strengthening the democratic process worldwide and to support greater synergy among regional and international institutions is a major foreign policy goal of the U.S. Administration. The CCD is in direct communication with key officials in the Department of State, the National Security Council (White House) and the Office of the Vice President. Despite the fact that the initiative benefited from bi-partisan support when created in Warsaw in June 2000, the realities are that any new administration redefines national goals and foreign policy objectives. For this reason, it is essential to insure that the new Bush Administration equally supports this initiative that had its contemporary genesis with President Reagan in 1982. The Washington Times op-ed article on March 8, 2001 by Walter Raymond and Robert Hunter is one way in which we have sought to stimulate the debate. The convening group of ten nations (United States, Czech Republic, Poland, India, South Africa, Mali, Portugal, Korea, Chile and Mexico) provides, for the first time, the equivalent of an "International Executive Committee" and allows democratic forces an opening to provide moral direction and leadership to the family of nations. CCD seeks to work directly with this group.

2. Establishment of Congressional support group for democracy. CCD is working with the Congress of the United States, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute to create a Congressional support group for democracy. Such a “Congressional Friends for Democracy” group would play a critical supportive role, working closely with other democratic parliaments and focusing on critical issues such as the need for legislative initiatives in support of democracy. Such actions include the establishment of a legal framework for the rule of law, the development of appropriate legislation to counter corruption and other illegalities which erode democracy. CCD’s program plans call for the step-by-step development of this initiative, leading to the establishment of an international parliamentary democracy network. Preliminary organizational steps are being taken, in conjunction with a NED conference in Japan, in the fall of 2001. Also under active consideration is a collaborative effort with the Canadian Parliamentary Center.

3. CCD seeks to encourage the creation of a UN Democracy Caucus. This proposal was tabled at the Warsaw Conference and has been accepted at the UN and strongly endorsed by the Secretary General. Focus will be largely on generating support to imperiled democracies or non-democratic countries. Such an initiative has the possibility of reinvigorating the UN and sharpening its focus on those countries that fail to measure up to the historical norms established for the UN at its founding conference in San Francisco in 1945.

4. CCD is establishing a major website. The website will focus on developments related to the Community of Democracies. Information provided will link subgroups supporting this initiative. At the same time, the site will serve as the basis for a "virtual organization." Initially, CCD will bring collaborators into a cybernet, thus networking leaders of democratic thought and action at home and abroad. This could be followed by an effort to develop counterpart action centers in the ten convening countries of the Community of Democracies. This net of countries could be supplemented by Democracy Centers in other countries critical to the success of a democracy network including the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Canada and Australia. The organizational form of local democracy groups would be at the discretion of each national organizer.

5. Foreign Policy Outreach. CCD Board Members actively engage in a national speakers program in support of the concept of a pro-active international democratic community. CCD speakers (Board Members and Associates) participate in roundtable discussions in major cities in the United States and with think tanks. By working with the American Committees on Foreign Relations and various U.S. World Affairs Councils, CCD gains potential access to over 100 foreign affairs discussion groups in the United States. Speaking trips also include dialogues with local media and universities. Further, CCD works with the Council of Foreign Relations and intellectual circles, such as the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington. In conjunction with an expansive speaker program, CCD intends to spread its message to individuals and groups around the US and to audiences abroad by providing documentation on the democracy movement through its website.

May 2, 2001