 | |
| Abbreviation | IRI |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1983 (42 years ago) (1983) |
| Type | 501(c)3 organization |
| 52-1340267 | |
| Headquarters | 1225 I Street NW, Suite 800,Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Key people | Daniel Twining (President) Dan Sullivan (Chairman of the Board of Directors) |
| Budget | $78m(2008)[2] |
| Revenue | $55,185,831[1] (2016) |
| Expenses | $55,053,587[1] (2016) |
| Staff | 400(2008)[2] |
| Website | www |
TheInternational Republican Institute (IRI) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1983 and funded and supported by theUnited States federal government.[3] Most of its board is drawn from theRepublican Party.[4] Its public mission is to advance freedom and democracy worldwide by helping political parties to become more issue-based and responsive, assisting citizens to participate in government planning, and working to increase the role of marginalized groups in the political process, including women and youth.[5] It has been repeatedly accused of foreign interference and has been implicated in the 2004 Haitian coup d'état. It was initially known as the National Republican Institute for International Affairs.
IRI's programs include assisting political parties and candidates develop their values and institutional structures,good governance practices,civil society development, civic education, women's and youth leadership development, electoral reform and election monitoring, and political expression in closed societies. Since its founding, IRI has been active globally inAfrica,Asia, theCaribbean,Eastern Europe,Latin America, and theMiddle East.
In 2018, U.S. SenatorJohn McCain, who served as IRI's chairman of the board for 25 years, informed IRI's board of directors that he was stepping down. McCain recommended U.S. SenatorDan Sullivan to succeed him.[6]
IRI was founded in 1983 following then U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan's 1982 speech before theBritish Parliament inWestminster in which he proposed a broad objective of helping countries build the infrastructure of democracy. Quoting theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, Reagan said, "we must be staunch in our conviction that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings."[7]
IRI operates globally, providing training and assistance to political parties. As a501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, IRI plays no part in domestic U.S. politics. However, the majority of its board are drawn from theRepublican Party.[4] Its sister organization, theNational Democratic Institute, draws mainly from theDemocratic Party.
In 1995, IRI established theFreedom Award "to honor individuals who have worked to advance freedom and democracy in their countries and around the world". Its first recipient wasAlfredo Cristiani, who served asPresident of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994. Other recipients have includedMiguel Obando y Bravo, theArchbishop of Managua from 1970 to 2005,Ronald Reagan, the 40thPresident of the United States,Aung San Suu Kyi, theState Counsellor andMinister of Foreign Affairs ofMyanmar,Soviet dissidentNatan Sharansky,Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, thePresident of Liberia from 2006 to 2018, and others.[8]
IRI received funding for itsHaiti programs fromUSAID from 2002 until 2004.[9][10] IRI ended its Haiti program in summer 2007.[11]
On January 29, 2006,Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television premiered a documentary film about the IRI's role in the coup,Haiti: Democracy Undone.[12]
Brian Dean Curran, U.S. Ambassador at the time and a former Clinton appointee, accused IRI of undermining his efforts to hold peaceful negotiations betweenJean-Bertrand Aristide and his opposition after contestedparliamentary elections in 2000. According to Curran, Stanley Lucas, then IRI's representative in Haiti, advised opposition leaders not to compromise with Aristide, who was later driven from power. Curran also alleges that Lucas represented himself to the opposition as theWashington, D.C. envoy and his advice, which was contrary to that of theU.S. State Department, was advice from theU.S. government.[13] IRI responded to Ambassador Curran's allegations in a letter to the New York Times.[14]
In 2009, IRI received $550,000 from theNational Endowment for Democracy to "promote and enhance the participation of think tanks inMexico andHonduras as pressure groups to impel political parties to develop concrete positions on key issues" and to "support initiatives to implement political positions during the campaigns in 2009" following the2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.[15]
In 2008, the government ofCuba accused formerU.S. congressional staff memberCaleb McCarry of orchestrating the2004 Haitian coup and attempting to provoke a coup d'état in Cuba.[16]
According to an April 15, 2011 article inThe New York Times, IRI, theNational Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and other groups were credited for training activists in theMiddle East, includingEgypt andTunisia, who advocated for reform in authoritarian regimes.[17]
In 2011,Egypt's Ministry of Justice issued a report on foreign funding of NGOs operating in Egypt that alleged that IRI had received approximately $7 million by USAID for theEgyptian 2011–12 elections. Themilitary rulers who gained control of Egypt following theJanuary 2011 revolution considered this foreign funding interference in Egypt's internal affairs.[18]
IRI has operated programs inPoland since 1991, where it says it has worked to unite and organize a diverse range of "center andcenter right" political parties together to create theSolidarity Electoral Action (AWS), which governed Poland in coalition with theFreedom Union (UW) party between 1997 and 2001.[19] It also said that it provided training in political campaigning, communications training and research which helped organise and create the AWS.[19]
In August 2020, IRI president Daniel Twining and four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations and six U.S. Republican lawmakers weresanctioned by theChinese government for supporting theHong Kong pro-democracy movement in the2019–20 Hong Kong protests. Leaders of the five organizations who were sanctioned alleged that the unspecified sanctions were a tit-for-tat measure in response to the earlier sanctioning by theU.S. government of 11 Hong Kong officials, which was a reaction to the enactment of theHong Kong national security law at the end of June 2020.[20][21]
IRI has been funded by theNational Endowment for Democracy (NED). AfterElon Musk'sDepartment of Government Efficiency cut funding to the NED by blocking disbursement from theUS Department of Treasury in February 2025, IRI was forced to lay off two-thirds of its work force inWashington, D.C. and closed more than 20 of its overseas offices.[22][23]
IRI is heavily engaged inAfrica, currently working inBenin,Burkina Faso,Cameroon,Central African Republic,Chad,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Ethiopia,Ghana,Kenya,Mozambique,Nigeria,Sierra Leone,Somalia,Somaliland,Sudan,Tanzania,The Gambia,Uganda, andZimbabwe.[24]
In theAsia-Pacific region, IRI is active inBangladesh,Burma,Cambodia,China,Fiji,Indonesia, Korea,Laos,Malaysia,Maldives,Mongolia,Nepal,Pakistan,Papua New Guinea,Philippines,Samoa,Solomon Islands,Sri Lanka,Taiwan,Thailand,Timor-Leste, andVanuatu.[25]
IRI announced its decision to open a field office in Taiwan in October 2020.[26]
InEurasia, IRI currently works inArmenia,Belarus,Georgia,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyz Republic,Moldova,Ukraine, andUzbekistan.[27] In 2016, it was designated as an "undesirable organization" in Russia.[28]
InEurope, IRI operates inAlbania,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Bulgaria,Kosovo,Montenegro,North Macedonia,Serbia, andTurkey.[29]
InLatin America and theCaribbean, IRI operates inArgentina,Bolivia,Colombia,Cuba,Ecuador,El Salvador,Guatemala,Guyana,Haiti,Honduras,Mexico,Nicaragua,Panama,Peru, andVenezuela.[30]
In theMiddle East andNorth Africa, IRI operates inAlgeria,Iraq,Jordan,Lebanon,Libya,Morocco,Syria, andTunisia.[31]
The IRI Freedom Fund supports IRI's international operations.[32]
Countering China’s Information Manipulation: A Toolkit for Understanding and Action, September 6, 2023[33]
Countering China’s Information Manipulation in the Indo-Pacific and Kazakhstan, June 27, 2023[34]
National Survey of Bangladesh | March-April 2023[35]
Engaging Marginalized Youth in Laos, March 2, 2021[36]
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