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FAQ: How does the ICDISS carry out its Charter?
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The International Council for Democratic Institutions and State Sovereignty, through its
membership and general conferences, functions as a
multilateral networking body comprised of diplomats and specialist practitioners in a variety of professional fields
who collaborate on policy recommendations and practical steps for weak states seeking greater institutionalization,
democratic governance and adaptation to globalization.
Informally, it also forms the skeleton of a rudimentary "corps of system administrators"
working to consolidate specific cases of statehood- and nation building, although in keeping with the role of
the Council as a coordinator, actual in-country work would be delegated to specialized governmental and non-governmental organizations.
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FAQ: Does the ICDISS subscribe to a political position?
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The International Council for Democratic Institutions and State Sovereignty is an apolitical body.
Our mandate is entirely devoid of any political or policy advocacy. Likewise, we remain preference-neutral with
regards to countries, governments or political systems.
Our work, however, is guided by some founding principles laid out in the charter of the Council.
Chief among them is a respect for the tested and proven Westphalian model of sovereign relations
and a belief that the concept of socalled "contingent sovereignty" has the
inherent risk of undermining the perception of fairness which the international
system requires to function.
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FAQ: What is the role of the ICDISS within the United Nations?
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The International Council for Democratic Institutions and State Sovereignty
was founded as a separately functioning entity to retain the ideological
independence of its work and does not seek to be affiliated with any governmental or
supragovernmental body, including the United Nations.
ICDISS counts among its membership both current and former United Nations officials;
some often taking a constructively critical view of the role of the work of that organization
and its specialized agencies. In the year 2005 several members of the Council were
influential in the UN's "A Time for Renewal" movement.
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FAQ: What is your response to claims that ICDISS does not exist?
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Although we do not maintain a dedicated office, and have found that we work best without one, we do have a small and highly qualified group of active members who network internationally and in real-time, using mostly the Internet. Through our joint efforts, we are able to raise funding to carry out our programs, produce legal research and policy reports and hold two conferences per year; in short - to work towards making a difference.
The Council's work has been linked, at various times, to both CIA- and Kremlin-based "disinformation" efforts. While we can not prove a negative, we can merely point out that neither is true, and that these accusations originate with political actors who disagree with our research findings or with the work that we do. Occasionally, these charges have then been repeated on TV (twice, 2003) or in the press (once, 2006) so as to question the work and scholarly contributions of our members or to undermine the effectiveness of the work of our members. The best way to discover if we exist or not is probably to become a member and become involved in what we do.
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FAQ: What are the conditions for democratic institution building?
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The main condition for the development of democratic institutions is the presence of
de facto state sovereignty;
defined as the effective control by a host country government of its territoriality, followed by
the realization by that government of the attractiveness of building institutions
which are democratic by being fair, equitable and transparent in their dealings
and accountable to their citizens.
The Council takes the realistic approach that democratic elections are not
the sine qua non of good government. We work with Jeffrey Sachs' tenet that
good government in the strict sense means relative safety from corruption, from breach of contract, from
property expropriation, and from bureaucratic inefficiency.
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