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Foreign Policy

Freedom House is an international, non-profit, nonpartisan, organization that promotes world-wide democracy and political freedom. Freedom House was established in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. The organization was founded at a time where American Isolationism was strongly in effect and many feared the war would weaken and jeopardize the stability of the United States free republic. I find it interesting that this is something we are dealing with today in the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. The fear of jeopardizing the free republic in the U.S. isn’t necessarily a major concern but isolationists are growing to be more and more popular with the public and their frustrations concerning the ongoing war in Iraq.
The main goal of Freedom House is world wide political freedom. The organization states that:
[Freedom is possible only in democratic political systems in which the governments are accountable to their own people; the rule of law prevails; and freedoms of expression, association, and belief, as well as respect for the rights of minorities and women, are guaranteed.]
Freedom House is well known for its four annual surveys: Freedom in the World, Freedom of the Press, Nations in Transit, and Countries at the Crossroads. The four surveys provide valuable reliable information concerning political rights, civil liberties, freedom of the press, and levels of democracy around the globe. Freedom House has published an annual Map of Freedom since 1972. The map illustrates the measurement of political rights and civil liberties throughout the world. The organization has also published a Freedom of the Press Map annually since 1980. The map now covers 194 countries and territories. The map classifies each country’s media as either “free”, “partly free”, or “not free”. The Nations in Transit report monitors the democratic reform levels in former communist states from Central Europe...