Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (known as the Wilson Center), located in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial that was established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968. The Wilson Center says it wants to maintain a forum for informed dialogue, research, study, discussion, and collaboration among individuals concerned with policy and scholarship in national and world affairs. [1]
Background
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is a federally subsidized think tank stablished as a “living, national memorial” to the 28th president. It is also funded with private money. [2]
Officially non-partisan, the center says it has fellowships, initiatives, projects, and programs to commemorate the ideals that Wilson championed, which were generally left-progressive on domestic issues and internationalist in foreign policy. [3]
The Wilson Center says it wants to maintain a forum for informed dialogue, research, study, discussion, and collaboration among individuals concerned with policy and scholarship in national and world affairs. [4]
Individuals from the government, non-profit sector, the corporate world, and academia are eligible for appointment to positions in the Wilson Center. [5]
The Wilson Center began in 1999 supporting residential fellowships to academics, public officials, journalists, and business professionals, to research and write in their areas of interest. The center brings people from academia, the corporate sector, diplomats, government officials, journalists, and the public for about 150 temporary stints as visiting scholars. About 70 percent of the visiting scholars are American, and about half write on international policy issues. The center operates from 70 percent private donations and 30 percent funded by the federal budget. [6]
History
Congress established the Wilson Center in 1968 as part of the Smithsonian Institution. [7] Seventy percent of the center’s funding is private donations, with 30 percent from the federal budget. [8]
The act creating the center established a board of trustees made up of 17 members to include the Secretary of State, Secretary of Education, and Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Archivist of the United States, the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Librarian of Congress, and the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. [9]
The president appoints the other 10 members. Nine of the presidential appointees come from the private sector and one comes from the federal government. Members of the board of trustees serve six-year terms. The Wilson Council, a group of about 122 private citizens, act in an advisory role. [10]
The center’s Galina Starovoitova Fellowship was named in honor of a center fellow who was murdered in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1998. [11]
Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American and director of the center’s Middle East Program was arrested in Tehran in May 2007 and was detained in solitary confinement by the Iranian government, charged with seeking to topple that nation’s ruling establishment. The regime released her on August 21, 2007 after international pressure. [12]
Media Outlets
The Wilson Center began publishing The Wilson Quarterly in 1976, featuring articles by academics and other experts on issues that include politics, public policy, culture, religion, and science. The publication has a readership of 60,000. [13]
In 1988, the center launched “Dialogue,” a weekly 30-minute radio program. The radio show is heard on more than 100 public and commercial station. It was also later turned into a TV show that reaches 30 million homes. [14]
The center publishes an e-newsletter, “Wilson Weekly.” [15]
The center also publishes about 15 new book titles each year and sells about 15,000 annually. [16]
Leadership
Bill Haslam is the chairman of the board of trustees for the Wilson Center. Haslam is a Republican and former governor of Tennessee. [17]
Mark Green is the president and CEO of the Wilson Center. He previously was the executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership. Green was formerly the administrator of U.S. Agency for International Development during the George W. Bush Administration. Green was an ambassador to Tanzania under the Bush administration. Before that, he represented Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. [18]
Robert Litwak is the senior vice president and director of international security studies for the Wilson Center. He was previously on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton Administration. [19]
Abraham Denmark is the vice president of programs and director of studies for the Wilson Center. He was previously the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia. [20]
Duncan Wood is the vice president for strategy and new initiatives of the Wilson Center. He is also the co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption. From 1996-2012, Wood was director of the International Relations Program at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City. He is a former fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. [21]
Programs
The Kennan Institute is designed to bring scholars and governmental specialists together to discuss political, social, and economic issues affecting Russia and other successor states to the former Soviet Union. [22]
The Asia Program promotes policy debate on U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to Asia. [23]
The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for bilateral relationship. [24]
The Africa Program addresses critical issues in Africa and works to build stronger U.S.-African relations. [25]
The Argentina Project focuses on policy in Argentina. [26]
The Brazil Institute supports “more consequential relations” between the United States and Brazil. [27]
The Canada Institute focuses on the U.S.-Canada bilateral relations and strengthening economic and cultural ties. [28]
The China Environment Forum was established in 1997 to promote a partnership between the United States and China on energy and the environment. [29]
The Environmental Change and Security Program focuses on the connections between environmental changes with the issues of health, conflict, population dynamics and foreign policy. [30]
The Cold War International History Project supports the prompt release of historical documents from governments on all sides of the Cold War to become part of a digital archive. [31]
The Global Europe Program focuses on issues affecting Europe, U.S.-European relations, and Europe’s ties with the rest of the world, including topics such as NATO and the European Union. [32]
The History and Public Policy Program archives the public records of 20th and 21st century international history. [33]
The Center for Korean History and Public Policy was established in 2015 with support of the Hyundai Motor Company and the Korea Foundation to provide a platform for improving historical understanding of South Korea and informing the public policy debate on the Korean peninsula. [34]
The Kissinger Institute on China focuses on U.S.-China relations. [35]
The Latin American Program provides expertise for decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the hemisphere. [36]
The Maternal Health Institute promotes dialogue among health practitioners, policymakers, and community leaders on maternal health. [37]
The Middle East Program provides analyses and research on U.S. foreign policymaking about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa region. [38]
The Polar Institute began in 2017 for policy analysis facing the Arctic and the Antarctic. [39]
The Urban Sustainability Laboratory was established in 1991 to promote solutions to urban problems such as poverty and environmental degradation to “support sustainable, equitable and peaceful cities.” [40]
The Science and Technology Innovation Program brings experts on emerging technologies into conversations. [41]
The Serious Games Initiative looks at science and policy complexities through the medium of gaming. [42]