Center for Strategic and International Studies
Encyclopedia
The Center for Strategic and International Studies is a bipartisan Washington, D.C.
, foreign policy
think tank
. The center was founded in 1962 by Admiral
Arleigh Burke
and Ambassador David Manker Abshire
, originally as part of Georgetown University
. The formal affiliation between Georgetown and CSIS ended on July 1, 1987.
According to its mission statement, "CSIS provides strategic insights and policy solutions to decision makers in government, international institutions, the private sector, and civil society." The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses on political
, economic
and security
issues, focusing on technology
, public policy
, international trade
and finance
, and energy
.
of CSIS is John Hamre
, former Deputy Secretary of Defense
. He has held the position since April 2000.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Sam Nunn
, a former Democratic
Senator
from Georgia
and longtime chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
. Its board of trustees includes many former senior government officials including Henry Kissinger
, Zbigniew Brzezinski
, William Cohen
, George Argyros
and Brent Scowcroft
. Its Transnational Threats Director is Arnaud de Borchgrave
.
CSIS has a staff of approximately 220.
or Russia
, as well as globally, such as terrorism
, homeland security
, energy
, trade
and technology
.
CSIS is broken down into numerous programs and projects each with its own unique missions and interests. For example, the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group provides research into the defense industry on behalf of government and corporate customers. CSIS also has several endowed chairs in economics, Chinese studies
, and other subjects.
CSIS has published the Freeman Report, a foreign policy periodical, focusing on economics and international security in Asia and Southeast China since the 1970s. Additionally, it publishes the Washington Quarterly – a journal on "strategic global changes and their impact on public policy.
CSIS was a sponsoring organization of the Iraq Study Group
and Operation Dark Winter
.
29.101 million, 75% of which is funded from corporate, foundation and individual contributions. The remainder comes from endowments, publication sales and government contracts. Between 1973 and 1981, Richard Scaife donated $5.3 million to CSIS.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
. The center was founded in 1962 by Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Arleigh Burke
Arleigh Burke
Admiral Arleigh Albert '31-knot' Burke was an admiral of the United States Navy who distinguished himself during World War II and the Korean War, and who served as Chief of Naval Operations during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.-Early life and naval career:Burke was born in Boulder,...
and Ambassador David Manker Abshire
David Manker Abshire
David Manker Abshire has served as a Special Counselor to President Reagan and was the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 1983-1987. Currently David M. Abshire presides over the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. In July 2002, he was elected President of the Richard Lounsbery...
, originally as part of Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
. The formal affiliation between Georgetown and CSIS ended on July 1, 1987.
According to its mission statement, "CSIS provides strategic insights and policy solutions to decision makers in government, international institutions, the private sector, and civil society." The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses on political
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, economic
Economic policy
Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. It covers the systems for setting interest rates and government budget as well as the labor market, national ownership, and many other areas of government interventions into the economy.Such policies are often...
and security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
issues, focusing on technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
, international trade
International trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...
and finance
International finance
International finance is the branch of economics that studies the dynamics of exchange rates, foreign investment, global financial system, and how these affect international trade. It also studies international projects, international investments and capital flows, and trade deficits. It includes...
, and energy
Energy security
Energy security is a term for an association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led...
.
Leadership and staff
The current president and CEOChief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of CSIS is John Hamre
John Hamre
John J. Hamre is a specialist in international studies, a former Washington bureaucrat and the current president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a position he has held with that think tank since April 2000.-Education:Hamre is the son of Melvin Sanders and Ruth Lucile...
, former Deputy Secretary of Defense
United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
The Deputy Secretary of Defense is the second-highest ranking official in the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Deputy Secretary of Defense is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate...
. He has held the position since April 2000.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Sam Nunn
Sam Nunn
Samuel Augustus Nunn, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician. Currently the co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative , a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Nunn served for 24 years as a...
, a former Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and longtime chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
The Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy , benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and...
. Its board of trustees includes many former senior government officials including Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981....
, William Cohen
William Cohen
William Sebastian Cohen is an author and American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as Secretary of Defense under Democratic President Bill Clinton.-Early life and education:...
, George Argyros
George Argyros
George Leon Argyros is the former United States Ambassador to Spain. He is also a successful real estate investor, and was the owner of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners from 1981 to 1989.-Early and personal life:...
and Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft, KBE was the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush and a Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force. He also served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National...
. Its Transnational Threats Director is Arnaud de Borchgrave
Arnaud de Borchgrave
Arnaud de Borchgrave is an American journalist who specializes in international politics.Born in Belgium to Audrey Dorothy Louise Townshend, daughter of Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, and Belgian count Baudouin de Borchgrave d’Altena , head of Belgium's military intelligence...
.
CSIS has a staff of approximately 220.
Programs
To guide the policymaking community, CSIS focuses on all aspects of foreign and security policy, particularly by examining emerging trends and long-term effects of both global and regional issues. This includes analyzing developments within specific geographic areas, such as in the Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
or Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, as well as globally, such as terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, homeland security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
, energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
.
CSIS is broken down into numerous programs and projects each with its own unique missions and interests. For example, the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group provides research into the defense industry on behalf of government and corporate customers. CSIS also has several endowed chairs in economics, Chinese studies
Sinology
Sinology in general use is the study of China and things related to China, but, especially in the American academic context, refers more strictly to the study of classical language and literature, and the philological approach...
, and other subjects.
CSIS has published the Freeman Report, a foreign policy periodical, focusing on economics and international security in Asia and Southeast China since the 1970s. Additionally, it publishes the Washington Quarterly – a journal on "strategic global changes and their impact on public policy.
CSIS was a sponsoring organization of the Iraq Study Group
Iraq Study Group
The Iraq Study group , was a ten-person bipartisan panel appointed on March 15, 2006, by the United States Congress, that was charged with assessing the situation in Iraq and the US-led Iraq War and making policy recommendations...
and Operation Dark Winter
Operation Dark Winter
Operation Dark Winter was the code name for a senior-level bio-terrorist attack simulation conducted from June 22–23, 2001. It was designed to carry out a mock version of a covert and widespread smallpox attack on the United States...
.
Funding
For Fiscal Year 2007, CSIS had an operating budget of US$United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
29.101 million, 75% of which is funded from corporate, foundation and individual contributions. The remainder comes from endowments, publication sales and government contracts. Between 1973 and 1981, Richard Scaife donated $5.3 million to CSIS.
Notable current and past members
- Ehud Barack
- Arnaud de BorchgraveArnaud de BorchgraveArnaud de Borchgrave is an American journalist who specializes in international politics.Born in Belgium to Audrey Dorothy Louise Townshend, daughter of Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, and Belgian count Baudouin de Borchgrave d’Altena , head of Belgium's military intelligence...
- Anthony CordesmanAnthony CordesmanAnthony H. Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is a national security analyst for ABC News on a number of global conflicts...
- Raymond F. DuBoisRaymond F. DuBoisRaymond F. DuBois Jr. is a private consultant in national security and defense policy and also a Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think-tank in Washington, D.C...
- Victor ChaVictor ChaVictor Cha is a professor and author, as well as former Director for Asian Affairs in the White House's National Security Council, with responsibility for Japan, North and South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. He was President Bush's top advisor on North Korean affairs. He currently holds the D. S...
- Karl-Theodor zu GuttenbergKarl-Theodor zu GuttenbergKarl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg is a German politician of the Christian Social Union ....
- Fred IkleFred IkleDr. Fred Charles Iklé was a United States Department of Defense official during the presidency of Ronald Reagan who is credited with a key role in increasing U.S. aid to anti-Soviet rebels in the Soviet War in Afghanistan...
- Walter LaqueurWalter LaqueurWalter Zeev Laqueur is an American historian and political commentator. He was born in Breslau, Germany , to a Jewish family. In 1938, Laqueur left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, became victims of the Holocaust...
- Michael LedeenMichael LedeenMichael Arthur Ledeen is an American specialist on foreign policy. His research areas have included state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, the Middle East, Europe , U.S.-China relations, intelligence, and Africa and is a leading neoconservative...
- Robert MosbacherRobert MosbacherRobert Adam Mosbacher, Sr. , was an American businessman, accomplished yacht racer, and a Republican politician. In sailing, Sports Illustrated called him "the unquestioned master of fleet racing." In business in 1954, he found a million-dollar field of natural gas in South Texas...
- Edward LuttwakEdward LuttwakEdward Nicolae Luttwak is an American military strategist and historian who has published works on military strategy, history and international relations.-Biography:...
- Theodore Edgar McCarrick
- Clark A. MurdockClark A. MurdockClark Murdock is a senior adviser at Center for Strategic and International Studies , a Washington, D.C.-based foreign policy think tank. Murdock specializes in strategic planning, defense policy, and national security affairs...
- Madeleine AlbrightMadeleine AlbrightMadeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...
- Kurt M. CampbellKurt M. CampbellKurt M. Campbell is an American diplomat and academic, currently serving as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.He was previously the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security , a national security think tank launched in January 2007...
- Michele FlournoyMichele FlournoyMichèle Angelique Flournoy is Under Secretary of Defense for Policy of the United States. She was confirmed in the position by the U.S. Senate on February 9, 2009 and was at the time the highest-ranking woman to hold a post at the Pentagon in the facility's history. She founded and was named...
- Juan ZarateJuan ZarateJuan Zarate was a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism during the George W. Bush administration...
- James L. JonesJames L. JonesJames Logan Jones, Jr. is the former United States National Security Advisor and a retired United States Marine Corps General....