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| Thursday, September 02 2010 | ||
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President Richard Nixon announced the creation of The Nixon Center on January 20, 1994, the 25th anniversary of his first inauguration and just three months before his death in April of that year. While genuinely non-partisan, as reflected in the composition of its Board of Directors and Advisory Council, the Center has a philosophy of an enlightened pursuit of national interest. The specific goal of the Center is to explore ways of enhancing American security and prosperity while taking into account the legitimate perspectives of other nations. With the end of the Cold War, the U.S. found itself without a clear-cut foreign policy direction. The Center’s objective is to develop guiding principles for the United States’ global engagement in a dramatically new international environment, principles which would combine hard-headed pragmatism and fundamental American values. A key leader of the Cold War, President Nixon realized that the collapse of communism meant that new and innovative thinking would be needed if the U.S. was to adjust to the radically different global order. The former president, with encouragement from friends and colleagues, founded the Center as a forward-looking, activist institution designed not just to study and talk, but also to make a difference in shaping U.S. foreign policy perspectives for the 21st century. Located in Washington, D.C., The Nixon Center is a non-partisan public policy institution. The Center is funded through a combination of corporate and individual donations in addition to foundation grants. The Nixon Center has five main programs: Chinese Studies, Immigration and National Security, International Security and Energy Programs, Regional Strategic Programs (Middle East, Caspian Basin and South Asia) and U.S. - Russia Relations. In addition to conducting research into contemporary foreign policy issues, Center program directors also organize an array of conferences, briefings, seminars, lectures, and other events designed to advance U.S. foreign policy debates on crucial political, economic, and security issues. These events are frequently broadcast on C-SPAN and articles by Center analysts appear regularly in major publications. In March 1995, the Center was quickly established as a leading participant in the debate over American foreign policy by its highly successful national policy conference "After Victory: Defining an American Role in an Uncertain World." The conference addressed fundamental questions about U.S. goals and interests in the post-Cold War era and featured major presentations by President Bill Clinton, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Dr. Henry Kissinger, who served as conference chairman. The Nixon Center also hosts the annual Distinguished Service Award Dinner. The award is given each year to an American or foreign leader who, in the spirit of non-partisanship and enlightened national interest, has helped to shape the world of the 21st century. Nixon Center has consolidated its position as an important voice in America's foreign policy deliberations through the work of its experts. In this spirit The Nixon Center has become the sole publisher of the influential foreign policy magazine, The National Interest. However, the Center is committed to having an impact beyond academic discussion. Its objectives include not only the pragmatic analysis of contemporary policy issues, but also broad public education and influence in the national debate on American priorities in the post-Cold War world and in the war on terrorism.
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