- Hudson Institute
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Hudson Institute 
Founder(s) Herman Kahn Type Think tank Founded 1961 Location 1015 Fifteenth Street, NW
Washington, D.C., USAOrigins RAND Corporation Key people Charles Blahous, Zeyno Baran, Herbert London, Kenneth R. Weinstein, Richard Weitz Area served United States of America Revenue $10,000,000+[1] Employees 70+ Motto "Celebrating a half century of forging ideas that promote security, prosperity, and freedom." Website www.hudson.org The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation.[2] It moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1984 and to Washington, D.C., in 2004.[3]
The Institute promotes public policy change in accordance with its stated values of a "commitment to free markets and individual responsibility, confidence in the power of technology to assist progress, respect for the importance of culture and religion in human affairs, and determination to preserve America's national security."[2]
The Capital Research Center, a conservative group that seeks to rank non-profits and documents their funding, allocates Hudson as a 7 on its ideological spectrum with 8 being "Free Market Right" and 1 "Radical Left".[4]
In March 2011, Kenneth R. Weinstein was appointed president and CEO of the institute.[2]
Contents
Policy positions
According to its mission statement, the Hudson Institute "challenges conventional thinking and helps manage strategic transitions to the future through interdisciplinary and collaborative studies in defense, international relations, economics, culture, science, technology, and law. Through publications, conferences and policy recommendations, we seek to guide global leaders in government and business."[2]
The Hudson Institute mission statement continues "In the 1970s, Hudson's scholars advocated a turn away from the 'no-growth' policies of the Club of Rome; in the early 1990s, it advised the newly independent Baltic nations on becoming market economies; it assisted in drafting the Wisconsin welfare reform law."[2]
The Institute has taken positions critical of environmentalism.[5] Dennis Avery, as Director of the Hudson's Center for Global Food Issues, has written in opposition to those who favor the adoption of organic agricultural methods.[6]
It was described by US foreign policy scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt as “closely associated with neoconservatives”.[7]
Funding
The Hudson Institute is supported by donations from companies and individuals. Corporate contributors listed in a publication from 2001 included Eli Lilly and Company, Monsanto Company, DuPont, Dow-Elanco, Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy, ConAgra, Cargill, and Procter & Gamble.[8]
Fundraising efforts use testimonials from what the Institute calls its "family of generous supporters and friends", among them, Henry Kissinger, who provides a testimonial: "Hudson Institute is today one of America's foremost policy research centers, in the forefront of study and debate on important domestic and international policy issues, known and respected around the globe, a leader in innovative thinking and creative solutions to the challenges of the present and the future."[9]
Critics question the institute's position on many issues, such as their negative campaigning against organic farming, since they receive large sums of money from conventional food companies. The New York Times commented on Dennis Avery's attacks on organic farming: "The attack on organic food by a well-financed research organization suggests that, though organic food accounts for only 1 percent of food sales in the United States, the conventional food industry is worried."[6]
In a May 18, 2003, BBC broadcast entitled, "The War Party", Meyrav Wurmser, wife of AEI member David Wurmser and member of The Hudson Institute, candidly admitted that “many of us are Jewish” and that “all of us, in fact, are pro-Israel, some of us more fiercely so that others.
While many conservative think tanks eschew government funding, Hudson happily takes government contracts. The Capital Research Center (CRC) database lists Hudson as having received six grants between 1996 and 2002 totaling $731,914 (unadjusted for inflation). Five of the six grants were from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs. (Neither the CRC database or Hudson's annual report for those years provide details on what the grants were specifically for.)
In 2002, Hudson received a grant of $173,484 from the Department of Commerce.
The Hudson Institute's IRS Form 990 for the financial year ending on September 30, 2003 showed total revenue of $9.34 million, including over $146,000 in government grants. Although several of the organizations listed below no longer exist, some of the funding sources listed in the institute's 2002 annual report include:
- Ag Processing Inc
- American Crop Protection Association
- American Cyanamid
- Archer Daniels Midland
- Cargill
- Ciba-Geigy
- ConAgra Foods
- Conrad Black
- CropLife International
- DowElanco
- DuPont
- Eli Lilly and Company
- Exxon Mobil
- Fannie Mae
- General Electric Fund
- Heinz
- IBM
- Lilly Endowment
- McDonald's
- Merck
- Microsoft
- Monsanto
- National Agricultural Chemical Association
- Nichols-Dezenhall Communications Management Group
- Novartis
- PayPal
- PhRMA
- PriceWaterhouseCoopers
- Procter & Gamble
- Sunkist Growers
- Syngenta Crop Protection
- United Agri Products
- Westfield Corporation
After it was revealed that Michael Fumento received funding from Monsanto for his 1999 book Bio-Evolution, company spokesman Chris Horner confirmed that it continues to fund the think tank. "It's our practice, that if we're dealing with an organization like this, that any funds we're giving should be unrestricted," Horner told BusinessWeek. Hudson's CEO and President Kenneth R. Weinstein told BusinessWeek that he was uncertain if the payment should have been disclosed. "That's a good question, period," he said.[10]
Hudson Institute Leadership
Source: [11]
- Kenneth R. Weinstein (CEO and President as of March 18, 2011)[12]
- John P. Walters (Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President)
- Herbert London (President Emeritus)
- Lewis Libby (Senior Vice President)
- John Freeman (Chief Financial Officer)
- Grace Paine Terzian (Vice President for Communications)
Notable trustees, fellows and advisors
In 1990, fellow Bruce Chapman founded another think tank, the Discovery Institute.
Politicians who have been affiliated with Hudson include former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle and Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels who served as Hudson's President and CEO from 1987 to 1990.[13]
Other members have included:
- Raymond Aron
- Zeyno Baran
- Anne Bayefsky
- Daniel Bell
- Conrad Black
- Chuck Blahous
- Robert Bork
- Rudy Boschwitz
- Pierre S. du Pont, IV (emeritus)
- Ralph Ellison
- Joseph Epstein
- Douglas J. Feith
- Joseph M. Giglio[14]
- Alexander Haig (emeritus)
- Bernadine P. Healy, M.D. (emeritus)
- Jay Hein
- Roy Innis
- Jun Isomura
- Donald Kagan (emeritus)
- Amy A. Kass
- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (resigned from his position as a senior advisor after his convictions in United States v. Libby)
- Mario Mancuso
- Betsy McCaughey
- Robert H. McKinney[15]
- John O'Sullivan
- William Odom
- Richard Perle
- Ronald Radosh
- Abram Shulsky[16]
- Max Singer[17] (Co-founder, president until 1973, currently senior fellow and trustee)
- Irwin Stelzer
- Walter P. Stern[18] (Chairman of the Board of Trustees; Board Member; Executive Committee Member)
- Allan R. Tessler[19] (Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees)
- Kenneth R. Weinstein (Board of Trustees)
- Richard Weitz
- Former "Drug Czar" John Walters, Executive Vice President[20]
- Ambassador Curtin Winsor, Jr.[21] (Board Member)
- Yoshiki Hidaka (Japanese Columnist, Visiting Senior Fellow)
- Marcello Pera[22] (Italian philosopher, Senator, and former President of the Italian Senate)
Notes
- ^ CharitiyNavigator.org
- ^ a b c d e The Hudson Institute, "Mission Statement", accessed April 15, 2008.
- ^ The Hudson Institute, "Frequently Asked Questions", accessed April 15, 2008.
- ^ Capital Research profile (archived site)
- ^ Environment Issues article list, The Hudson Institute, accessed August 10, 2008.
- ^ a b Marian Burros, "Eating Well; Anti-Organic, And Flawed", The New York Times, accessed December 14, 2007.
- ^ The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt, Allen Lane (UK Edition), p130
- ^ John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Trust Us, We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future (New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001). ISBN 1-58542-139-1.
- ^ The Hudson Institute, "Meet our Family of Generous Supporters and Friends", accessed April 15, 2008.
- ^ Javers, Eamon. "A Columnist Backed by Monsanto", BusinessWeek , January 13, 2006.
- ^ Hudson Institute leadership, http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=hudson_leadership
- ^ Hudson Institute Press Release, http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=7880&pubType=HI_PressReleases
- ^ http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hudson_upcoming_events&id=800
- ^ Joseph M. Giglio Hudson Institute Biography.
- ^ Robert H. McKinney Hudson Institute Biography.
- ^ Douglas J. Feith and Abram N. Shulsky (20 May 2010). "The Dangerous Illusion of 'Nuclear Zero' – Why even speculate about a nuclear posture that would require world peace as a precondition?". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240263283909550.html.
- ^ Max Singer Hudson Institute Biography.
- ^ Walter P. Stern Hudson Institute Biography.
- ^ Allan R. Tessler Hudson Institute Biography.
- ^ John Walters Hudson Institute Biography
- ^ Curtin Winsor Hudson Institute Biography.
- ^ http://www.marcellopera.it/
Further reading
- Blum, Ruthie. "Who's Right?" The Jerusalem Post, February 17, 2005: 13. (Free summary from fee-based archive.)
- Hadar, Leon T. "Special Report: The 'Neocons': From the Cold War to the 'Global Intifada' ". The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 9.11 (Apr. 1991): 27. (Archived.)
- Hutchinson, Bill, with Michael McAuliff. "Cheney Eyed Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Reactor - Mag". The New York Daily News, September 24, 2007, Nation/World: 7. (Archived.)
- Kirkpatrick, David D. "Lack of Resolution in Iraq Finds Conservatives Divided". The New York Times, April 19, 2004: A21.
- Lynch, Frederic R. "Workforce Diversity: PC's Final Frontier? - Political Correctness - Demystifying Multiculturalism - Cover Story". National Review, February 21, 1994: 32. (Accessed via findarticles.com.)
- White, Andrew. "New York in the 1960s". The American Prospect, October 22, 2001: 40. [Book rev. of The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York, by Vincent J. Cannato (New York: Basic Books, 2001).]
External links
- www.Hudson.org, Hudson Institute homepage
- YouTube.com, The Hudson Institute's YouTube channel
Categories:- 1961 establishments
- Eli Lilly and Company
- Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
- Foreign policy political advocacy groups in the United States
- New Right (United States)
- Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.
- Political and economic think tanks in the United States
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