ORIGINAL ARTICLE Containing revolution: democracy promotion, the Cold War and US national security Robert Pee 1 Published online: 23 October 2017 Ó Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2017 Abstract This article examines the rise of democracy promotion as a US national security priority and the origins of the US’ first democracy promotion organization: the National Endowment for Democracy. During the 1970s, non-state actors called for the foundation of a private democracy promotion organization to overcome strategic and organizational dilemmas which had resulted in the US state limiting its export of democracy in favour of short-term national security objectives and restraining state–private network organizations during the Cold War. Blueprints for a private democracy foundation resolved these dilemmas by removing the US state as the key actor in democracy promotion. However, the fact that private democracy promoters required state funding to be effective led to a reconciliation with the state, and the foundation of the NED as a privately managed but state-funded organization during the Reagan administration. This reconciliation has led to a recurrence of previous dilemmas, which impact US democracy promotion today. Keywords Democracy promotion Á National Endowment for Democracy Á Reagan administration Á State–private network Á Cold War The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy, the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities, which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means. Ronald Reagan’s speech to the British Parliament of June 8th 1982 (Reagan 1982), quoted above, marked a key turning point in US efforts to export democracy & Robert Pee R.E.Pee@bham.ac.uk; robert.pee@city.ac.uk 1 Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2 TT, UK Int Polit (2018) 55:693–711 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-017-0094-0