US NGOs: The Third Force

"The Third Force" was the title of a book published by the USA's Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which detailed how Western-backed non-governmental organisations can promote regime and policy change. This "Third power" was a key element of the overthrow of the Kygyzstan government, following Georgia in November 2003 and Ukraine in December 04. The Guardian's John Laughland says the results of such US interference make the post-Soviet space look a lot like Central America in the 1970s and '80s, with many of the same key players:

Many of the same US government operatives in Latin America have plied their trade in Eastern Europe under George Bush, most notably Michael Kozak, the former US ambassador to Belarus, who boasted he was doing in Belarus exactly what he had been doing in Nicaragua - "supporting democracy".

But for some reason, many seem not to have noticed this continuity. Perhaps this is because these events are being energetically presented as radical and left-wing even by commentators and political activists on the right, for whom revolutionary violence is now cool.

Laughland has some interesting stats on Kygyzstan:

Kyrgyzstan is the largest recipient of US aid in Central Asia: the US has spent $746 million ($975 million) since 1992 in a country with fewer than 5 million inhabitants. In 2004, $31 million alone was outlaid. As a result, the place is crawling with what Young calls "American-sponsored NGOs".

The case of Freedom House is particularly arresting. Chaired by the former CIA director James Woolsey, Freedom House was one of the main sponsors of the orange revolution in Ukraine. It set up a printing press in Bishkek in 2003 which prints 60 opposition journals. Although it is described as "independent" the body that owns it is chaired by John McCain, a Republican senator, while the former national security adviser Anthony Lake sits on the board. The US also supports opposition radio and TV...

Kyrgzstan's Akayev now joins Edward Shevardnadze of Georgia and Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine as former US favourites who have ben unceremoniously dumped by US-manufactured popular protest. Laughland concludes that this sends a powerful signal to any other regional rulers who may think twice about towing the Washington line.