The Edmund Burke Foundation (EBF) is a national-conservative research organization that traces Anglo-American conservative tradition from its earliest days up through the 20th century. ¹ It is named for Edmund Burke, an 18th-century British politician and political thinker considered the father of conservatism.

The foundation holds the annual National Conference of Anglo-American Conservative Tradition, commonly called “NatCon.” ²

The foundation was co-founded in 2019 by Yoram Hazony, an Israeli conservative philosopher, and David Brog, former executive director of Christians United for Israel. ^{3 4}

Background

The Edmund Burke Foundation is a national-conservative research organization that publishes information tracing Anglo-American conservative tradition from its earliest days up through the 20th century. ⁵ It is named for 18th-century British politician and political thinker Edmund Burke, who is considered the father of conservatism.

The organization was founded in 2019 and says it aims to strengthen the principles of national conservatism in Western and democratic countries. ⁶

Its co-founders are Yoram Hazony, an Israeli conservative philosopher, and David Brog, former executive director of Christians United for Israel. ⁷

Brog rejected some critics’ labels for the tenets of national conservatives, asserting adherents were not isolationists but rather opposed failed interventions; supported free markets, just not trade deals that were not in the U.S. interest; and were not loyalist of former President Donald Trump but open to any politician who would support their agenda. ⁸

The organization’s website provides a list of books, essays, and videos of interest to nationalists and conservatives. The organization says it is also interested in reaching liberals willing to consider a different perspective. ⁹

The EBF held a dinner in Britain’s Natural History Museum in 2023 that featured speakers such as then-U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman, former leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Member of Parliament Miriam Cates. Some employees of the museum complained that EBF did not conform with their values on climate action, immigration, and other political issues. ¹⁰

Principles

In August 2022, the Edmund Burke Foundation published a statement of principles declaring the tenants of national conservatism. The statement had 10 principles: national independence; rejection of imperialism and globalism; national government; God and public religion; the rule of law; free enterprise; public research; family and children; immigration; and race. ¹¹

On national independence, the statement calls for a “world of independent nations.” The statement says, “we oppose transferring the authority of elected governments to transnational or supranational bodies.” ¹²

For the national government, the principles call for a “strong but limited state,” and a “drastic reduction in the scope of the administrative state and the policy-making judiciary that displace legislatures representing the full range of a nation’s interests and values.” ¹³

On the topic of God and public religion, the statement reads: “The Bible should be read as the first among the sources of a shared Western civilization in schools and universities, and as the rightful inheritance of believers and non-believers alike. Where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private.” The statement also calls for religious minorities to be “protected from religious or ideological coercion.” ¹⁴

The statement also supports the rule of law applied equally. On free enterprise, the statement says: “Economic policy must serve the general welfare of the nation.” It continues that economic policy “must also mitigate threats to the national interest, aggressively pursue economic independence from hostile powers, nurture industries crucial for national defense, and restore and upgrade manufacturing capabilities critical to the public welfare.” ¹⁵

The statement calls for a Cold War-style public research policy to compete with China. It also supports a traditional family, and calls for a more restrictive immigration policy. On the topic of race, the statement says, “The nationalism we espouse respects, and indeed combines, the unique needs of particular minority communities and the common good of the nation as a whole.” ¹⁶

NatCon Conventions

Edmund Burke Foundation holds the periodic National Conservatism Conference, also known as just NatCon. ¹⁷ Christopher DeMuth, most well known as a former president of the American Enterprise Institute, is the chairman of the National Conservatism Conference. ¹⁸

The foundation was launched after a series of conferences on national conservatism in London, Washington, and Rome between May 2019 and February 2020. ¹⁹

At the first U.S. conference in July 2019, speakers included conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, then-Trump administration National Security Adviser John Bolton, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Republican mega-donor Peter Thiel, a technology investor. ²⁰

NatCon 2 was held in Orlando in Fall 2021. NatCon Brussels was held in March 2022. NatCon 3 was held in Miami in September 2022, and NatCon UK was held in London in May 2023. ²¹

Funding

The Jewish Philosophy Fund contributed $174,000 to the Edmund Burke Foundation in December 2019. ²²

The Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund contributed $100,058 in December 2019. ²³

Leadership

Yoram Hazony is the co-founder and chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation. He is also the president of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. Hazony is the author of The Virtue of Nationalism, which won the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s Conservative Book of the Year Award in 2019. ²⁴ Hazony is an Israeli conservative and has been named as the leading intellectual behind the national conservatism movement. ²⁵ Former Trump White House official Michael Anton said Hazony’s book was the intellectual basis for the “Trump Doctrine” in foreign policy. ²⁶ Hazony co-founded the Shalem Center, described as an American-style think tank based in Jerusalem, and he has aligned with Israel’s Likud Party. ²⁷

Christopher DeMuth is the chairman of the National Conservatism Conference. He is also a distinguished fellow in American thought at the Heritage Foundation. DeMuth is a former president of the American Enterprise Institute from 1986 to 2008, and D.C. Searle Senior Fellow at AEI from 2008 to 2011. He was also previously a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute. ²⁸

Saurabh Sharma is the executive director of the organization. He is president of American Moment and co-host of its Moment of Truth podcast. He is the former chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas. ²⁹

James Orr is the U.K. chairman of the EBF and an associate professor of philosophy and religion at the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. Previously, Orr was a McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow in Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Christ Church, Oxford. ³⁰

Anna Wellisz is the vice president for external affairs of the organization. Previously, she was a senior director at the White House Writers Group. ³¹

Clifford Humphrey is the director of religious coalitions at the EBF and the director of Troy University’s Institute for Civic and Global Leadership. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and Assistant Professor of Humanities at Thales College. ³²

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