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"The communists have lost the Cold War--
but the West has not yet won it."
--Richard Nixon
About The Nixon Center
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. It is the Center's objective to work
on developing new guiding principles for United States global engagement in a dramatically
new international environment, the 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, DC, The Nixon Center is a non-partisan institution and operates as a substantively and programmatically independent division of The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation. The Center is funded through a combination of corporate and individual donations in addition to foundation grants.
The Center Chairman is Maurice R. Greenberg who is also Chairman and CEO of American International Group. Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger serves as the Center's Honorary Chairman while former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger is Chairman of the Center Advisory Board. Dimitri K. Simes, an expert on U.S.-Russian relations and a foreign policy advisor to President Nixon, is the Center's President.
The Nixon Center has four main programs: National Security Studies, Chinese Studies, U.S.-Russia Relations, and Regional Strategy (Middle East, Caspian Basin, and South Asia). 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. A second national policy conference is planned for 1999.
The Nixon Center also hosts the annual Architect of the New Century Award Dinner. The award is given each year to an American or foreign leaders who, in the spirit of non-partisanship and enlightened national interest, has helped to shape the world of the 21st century.
In just five years of operation, The Nixon Center has consolidated its position as an important voice in America's foreign policy deliberations through the work of its experts. The Nixon 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. The economic dimension of national interest -- an essential element of today's domestic and foreign policies -- is fundamental to the Center's program development. The Center also plans to do more work on the domestic roots of U.S. foreign policy.
(click here for a staff directory)
