In the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, the ILD expanded its mission to include cultivating relations with non-communist parties, and shed its overtly revolutionary objectives. In this era, the department sought to forge ties with "any foreign political party that was willing to meet with it." With the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the ILD's expanded mission of engaging with parties across the political spectrum became more important. Since the early 2000s, the ILD has increased its global outreach. According to scholar Anne-Marie Brady, the ILD is "tasked with gathering intelligence on foreign politicians and political parties, and developing asset relations with them."