In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Sarah Bush and Jennifer Hadden announce "the end of the NGO age," arguing that civil society has lost the influence it gained in the post-Cold-War-era. According to them, the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) by the Trump administration marked the symbolic end of this period. NGOs, they argue, have become superfluous—politically irrelevant—as “states have clawed back the power” they once ceded.
For states in the Global North, NGOs are no longer favourable, as many have become critical of the global system that produces poverty, climate catastrophe and inequality in various forms. In reality, the Trump administration promoted a more aggressive foreign policy, emphasising direct trade and military action against countries or groups it deemed hostile to US interests. From the perspective of the far-right, even reformist NGOs—once useful for espionage and for co-opting radical elements—had become Frankenstein-type monsters, now out of control. As the authors note, criticism of NGOs has grown over the past two decades. However, many human rights organisations have risen to the occasion, openly condemning Israeli bombings in Gaza and the ongoing murder and displacement of Palestinians from their homes.
The period following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the rise of neoliberalism in the 1990s was a golden era for NGOs
At the same time, many states in Europe have begun to revoke rights once won through popular struggles—from the Reformation and the Enlightenment to the wave of decolonisation in the 1950s and the radical movements of workers, peasants, and students in the 1960s. In this context, many NGOs have stepped in to defend the values born of those popular struggles, including the ideals of revolution and republicanism—such as those seen in the French and English revolutions and the US War of Independence. Criticism of expanding state power—marked by undemocratic tendencies and the rise of far-right governments—has become more urgent than ever. However, states increasingly use parliamentary authority to alter laws and suppress dissent under a legal guise.
Rise and fall of NGOs
Many NGO-type institutions emerged in the 1980s, an era marked by the rise of postmodernism and growing disillusionment with the "Grand Narrative." This shift was particularly evident among those who had once been active revolutionaries in the late 1960s but, by the 1980s, had transitioned into the middle class, acquiring managerial positions and becoming increasingly distant from the working class. Many former radical students—those previously involved in labour, peasant & students’ movements—later became members of the professional middle class, including lawyers, journalists, teachers, doctors, engineers, and trade unionists. They played a key role in creating NGOs and human rights organisations.
There is no doubt that the period following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the rise of neoliberalism in the 1990s was a golden era for NGOs. This era culminated at the turn of the century, in December 1999, in Seattle, USA, when a broad-based popular movement rose up to challenge free trade, neoliberal policies, and the World Trade Organisation. However, as history shows, reformism—this time in the form of NGOs—was unable to put forward a clear alternative to capitalism, creating confusion instead. A critical moment emerged with the onset of the War on Terror in 2001, revealing the utter failure of NGOs to effectively oppose it.
Paradoxical role of NGOs and the state
NGOs are reformist organisations that criticise state policies and capitalist systems that prioritise profit over people—benefiting a few while generating widespread poverty, climate catastrophes, and inequality. However, they do so without offering a clear alternative to the system as a whole.
By the mid-second decade of the 21st century, the US economy and its status as a global hegemonic power began facing multiple challenges from various fronts. As a result, like elsewhere, the US state increasingly redirected public funds toward the corporate sector and the military-industrial complex, rather than welfare or overseas development campaigns. In this context, criticism from NGOs has naturally grown.
Although so-called civil society in the form of NGOs does not offer a political alternative to far-right governments, its role as a vocal critic of this political phenomenon—one that now threatens the very people who voted it into power—remains as important as ever.
The criticism from the far-right of NGOs is understandable in this case. However, in the face of the state's increasing undemocratic measures and growing assaults on people's rights to dissent, freedom of expression, and equality before the law, the role of civil society and NGOs must be defended.