Sussman and Krader, Template revolutions…
8
The IRI focused their efforts on Otpor, while NDI concentrated on opposition parties in
Serbia (Dobbs 2000). $31 million may not seem like much, but Serbia has less than 10
million people. That would be the equivalent of a nearly $1 billion (in year 2000 dollars)
foreign contribution to an American national election. And that does not include other
government and non-government sources of foreign spending.
9
CeSid’s funding base read like a who’s who of the “democracy promotion” community:
USAID, NED, NDI, IRI, Westminster Foundation, German Marshall Fund, Freedom
House, Open Society Institute, and other Western public and private organizations (CeSid
2007). The United States Institute for Peace provided some of the training for CeSID in the
2000 Serbian election, and IRI prepared 400 election monitors, who then trained another
15,000 monitors. The United States footed the entire bill (Dobbs 2000).
10
Other grants on the NED website include a 2000 grant to the Student Union of Serbia to
encourage "greater student involvement…for democratic reform" and a grant to the NDI
to help the Alliance for Change publish a newspaper called "Changes."
11
A distinction has to be made between the casually employed term “revolution” and
regime change. A revolution is understood to involve a radical transformation of power
constituents and of society as a whole, as in a class-based upheaval.
12
Sharp is closely affiliated, through AEI, with two other non-violent regime change
activists in Eastern Europe, Peter Ackerman and Robert Helvey. Ackerman, a former
associate of Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham, founded the International Center for
Nonviolent Conflict in 2002, became the chair of Freedom House in 2005, and served on
the board of AEI. Helvey, a former Army colonel, was president of AEI from 2003-2005
and was active as an advisor in Myanmar (as military attaché), Serbia (Otpor leadership
training Otpor), and Iraq (working with political opposition to overthrow Saddam).
13
Peter Ackerman, for example, while on the AEI board lauded the symbolic actions of
Otpor in his made-for-television documentary, “Bringing Down a Dictator.” He later
became more actively involved in the region through his strategic non-violent action
training organization, the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
References
Ackerman, P. et al. (2000). ‘A force more powerful’ website:
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/bdd/story/index.php.
Accessed October 1, 2007
Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) (2004). ‘Report on activities, 2000-2004’. Retrieved
October 1, 2007 from http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/2000-
04rpt.pdf
America's Development Foundation (2007). ‘Highlights: Project summary for
Romanians for Serbian democracy’. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from
http://www.adfusa.org/content/highlight/detail/650/
Anable, D. (2006, December) ‘Role of Georgia's media -- and Western aid -- in
the Rose Revolution’. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 11 (3),
7-43.
Anjaparidze, Z. (2005) ‘Georgian advisors stepping forward in Bishkek’. Eurasia
Daily Monitor, March 25. Retrieved October 11, 2007 from