Institutions of Democracy - 1983 - NDI

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1983 to support democratic institutions worldwide. As a core institute of the National Endowment for Democracy, NDI works with political parties, civil society, and electoral bodies to promote transparent governance, credible elections, and inclusive participation. Operating in more than 50 countries, it provides technical assistance, election observation, and programs that strengthen accountability and expand the role of women, youth, and marginalized groups in public life.

In this recording, Ken Wollack and Brian Atwood discuss the founding of NDI as one of the four core institutes, and their roles in NDI’s early years, from the inspiration for the organization as part of a greater global community of organizations working on democracy, to the organization’s formative years, to the challenges and successes of today at NDI.

Ken Wollack 

Kenneth Wollack is Vice Chair of the National Endowment for Democracy. He served as chairman of the Endowment from 2021 – 2025. He is a member of the George W. Bush Institute’s Advisory Council on Human Freedom and served as co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates for the presidential and vice presidential debates during the lead up to the 2020 election.

For more than 25 years, he served as president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a nongovernmental organization dedicated to advancing democracy worldwide. He retired in September 2018, after 32 years at the Institute.

Wollack joined NDI in 1986 as executive vice president. The Institute’s board of directors, then chaired by former Vice President Walter Mondale, elected him president in March,1993.  Chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from 2001 until her death in 2022, NDI works to support democratic elections, political parties, parliaments, civic engagement and women’s political empowerment. NDI was established as the result of a 1983 Act by the U.S. Congress.

Before joining NDI, Wollack co-edited the Middle East Policy Survey, a Washington- based newsletter. He also wrote regularly on foreign affairs for the Los Angeles Times. From 1973 to 1980, he served as legislative director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Wollack served on the national staff of the McGovern presidential campaign in 1972. He graduated from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, and was a senior fellow at UCLA’s School for Public Affairs.

He has served on task forces sponsored by the Brookings Institution, the United States Institute of Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for U.S. Global Engagement, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Atlantic Council. He was chairman of the U.S. Committee for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), served on the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion, and was a member of the advisory committee for the U.S. Agency for International Development and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  He also co-chaired the Ronald Reagan Institute’s bi-partisan Working Group on advancing freedom and promoting democracy in the 21st century.

For his efforts on behalf of democracy, Wollack was the recipient of NDI’s W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, the Presidential Order of Excellence as well as Honorary Citizenship from the Republic of Georgia, the National Order “Faithful Service” from the government of Romania, and the Medal of Honor “Lithuanian Millennium Star” from the government of Lithuania.

J. Brian Atwood

J. Brian Atwood is currently the Chairman of the Washington Institute for Foreign Affairs. He is the former dean of the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a Professor Emeritus of the University of Minnesota. He was a Senior Fellow for Public and International Affairs School at Brown University and a member of the Watson School Board of Governors. He has taught classes on diplomacy and international development at Harvard, Brown and the University of Minnesota and was Dean of Professional Studies at the Foreign Service Institute.

Atwood served as the leader of the State Department transition team for the Clinton-Gore transition in 1992/93. He was the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development under President Clinton from 1993 to 1999. He served briefly as Under Secretary of State for Management in 1993. In the Carter Administration he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations. He was a member of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Panel on UN Peace Operations in 2001.

Atwood’s career in foreign policy dates to 1966 when he joined the Foreign Service and served in the American Embassies in Cote d’Ivoire and Spain. He served as legislative advisor for foreign and defense policy to Senator Thomas Eagleton (D. Mo.) from 1972-1977. He was the first president of the National Democratic Institute for Foreign Affairs from 1986 to 1993. 

He received an honorary doctorate from American University for his work in promoting human rights and democratic values. He has received numerous awards for public service, including the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the University of Minnesota’s award for Global Engagement, the University of Minnesota President’s award for Outstanding Service and the American Academy for Diplomacy’s Fore Award for Contributions to International Development. He writes frequent opinion articles for The Hill and has been published in the Washington Post and the New York Times.