The Hollings Center is a tax exempt, non-profit (501-c-3) organization founded in 2004, through Congress appropriations bills by Senators Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) and Judd Gregg

Judd Gregg

Judd Alan Gregg is a former Governor of New Hampshire and former United States Senator from New Hampshire, who served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a businessman and attorney in Nashua before entering politics...

 (R-NH). The organization's main objective is to promote dialogue between the United States, the nations of the Middle East, North Africa, Southwest Asia, Turkey, and other countries with predominantly Muslim populations in order to open channels of communication, deepen cross-cultural understanding, expand people-to-people contacts, and generate new thinking on important international issues. The Center is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

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....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, where conferences are typically convened.