Glenn Diesen - Greater Eurasia Podcast Mike Benz: How NGOs and the CIA Hijacked Ukraine
Sep 10, 2025
Mike Benz, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. State Department, explores the impact of NGOs backed by intelligence agencies on Ukraine's civil society. He delves into how substantial U.S. funding influences local politics and shapes foreign policy narratives under the guise of humanitarian efforts. Benz highlights George Soros's role in American politics, the control exerted over media in Ukraine, and the profound effects of U.S. interventions on the country's educational and cultural landscape, revealing the complexities of foreign influence in domestic affairs.
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Statecraft Embedded In Civil Society
- Civil society can be either organic or astroturfed by intelligence and statecraft to influence hearts and minds.
- The CIA institutionalized partnerships with media, churches, unions and universities after WWII to wage political warfare during the Cold War.
NED As A Politically Safe Influence Tool
- The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was created to fund groups the CIA previously subsidized while preserving plausible deniability.
- NED centralized overt influence operations to maintain bipartisan support and avoid Congressional backlash from earlier CIA scandals.
Bipartisan Architecture For Influence
- NED was structured with partisan and sectoral branches (IRI, NDI, Chamber, Solidarity Center) to secure bipartisan buy‑in.
- That structure gave the U.S. intelligence/foreign‑policy nexus direct access to political parties, business and labor networks worldwide.
