Independent Institute
Encyclopedia
The Independent Institute is a libertarian
think tank
based in Oakland, California
. Founded in 1986 by
David J. Theroux http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=531, the Institute sponsors studies of major political, social, economic, legal, environmental and foreign policy issues. It has more than 140 research fellows. The Institute was originally established in San Francisco, and was re-located in 1989 to Oakland. In 2006 the Institute opened an office in Washington, D.C. The Institute is organized into six centers which address a full range of public policy issues.
, Cambridge University Press
, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Palgrave
, University of Michigan Press
, Stanford University Press
, Ivan R. Dee, New York University Press, University Press of Kentucky
, etc.
For fifteen years, the Institute has published a quarterly journal, The Independent Review
, edited by the economist and historian, Robert Higgs
. Devoted to the study of political economy and the critical analysis of government policy, the Independent Review is peer-reviewed and includes articles ranging across the fields of economics, political science, law, history, philosophy, and sociology.
Articles on the Independent Institute's findings are published in major newspapers, magazines and journals, and Institute fellows regularly appear on TV and radio programs in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, the Institute conducts numerous conference programs for scholars, business leaders, the media, policy makers and the general public. For example, the Institute's Independent Policy Forum http://www.independent.org/events series of seminars has featured historians Joyce Appleby
and Robert Conquest
; economists Roger Noll, Lord Peter Bauer and Nobel Laureates Gary Becker
and James M. Buchanan
; legal scholars Alex Kozinski
, Stephen Halbrook, David D. Friedman, Robert Cooter, Richard Epstein, David D. Cole
, and Randy Barnett
; foreign policy experts Lawrence Korb
, Daniel Ellsberg
, George Shultz, Michael Scheuer
, and Gen. William Odom; criminologists Gary Kleck
, Frank Zimring and James Q. Wilson
; best-selling authors Gore Vidal
, P. J. O'Rourke
, George Gilder
, Shelby Steele
, and Michael Crichton
; human rights leaders Harry Wu
, Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate Desmond Tutu
, and Elena Bonner; scientists Bruce Ames
, John Christy
, and Nobel Laureate Charles Townes; judges Vaughn Walker and James P. Gray
; journalists Alexander Cockburn
, John Stossel
, former Wall Street Journal editor Robert L. Bartley, and Bill Kurtis
; business leaders David Packard
, John Templeton
, Robert Galvin, William Bowes, Jr., and Walter B. Wriston; Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz; and many others.
Drawing upon its research and publications program in criminal justice, the Independent Institute has further organized a series of televised debates hosted by Harvard
law professor and Emmy Award
-winner, Arthur R. Miller
. The program, Stopping Violent Crime: New Directions for Reduction and Preventionhttp://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=56, was distributed on PBS-TV and featured former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, Federal Judge David Sentelle, Police Foundation
President Hubert Williams, criminologist Marvin Wolfgang, civil libertarian writer Wendy Kaminer
, and others.
In 2006, having launched its office in Washington, the Institute expanded its media program, including a weekly column by Senior Fellow Álvaro Vargas Llosa
through the Washington Post Writers Group, attracting a weekly readership of more than 5 million worldwide. Mr. Vargas Llosa is Senior Fellow with the Institute's Center on Global Prosperity http://www.independent.org/research/cogp, and the host of the 2009 4-part National Geographic documentary series on Latin America
, Consequences. In addition, to follow up on earlier Institute Open Letters on health care, high technology, and other issues, the Independent Institute released its Open Letter on Immigrationhttp://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1727, signed by more than 500 economists, including five Nobel Laureates, and received endorsements in editorials in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The Open Letter on Immigration was a project of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation http://www.independent.org/research/coei.
The Institute also operates a special program for students http://www.independent.org/students, including a competitive essay contest for college students that awards cash fellowships; Summer Seminars on Liberty, Economy and Society http://www.independent.org/students/seminars for high school and college students; student internships http://www.independent.org/students/internships; and tuition assistance for disadvantaged families to send their children to private schools (Independent Scholarship Fund ).
, Lewis H. Lapham
, Robert Higgs
, Representative Ron Paul
, James Bamford
, Barton Bernstein, Thomas Gale Moore, Gareth Porter, Theresa Hitchens, Mark Danner
, Joseph Cirincione
, Christopher Scheer
, and others. The Institute has consistently criticized the legacy of U.S. interventionism, corporate welfare, and abuse of civil liberties through its Center on Peace and Liberty http://www.independent.org/research/copal/. For example, the Institute's book by Ivan Eland, Partitioning for Peace proposes a decentralized, partition solution as a U.S. exit strategy from Iraq. In addition, its award-winning book, Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance, by Mike Moore (former Editor, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) has critiqued the weaponization of space, defending peaceful commercial development.
, including forestlands, water systems, climate change, air quality, energy, endangered species, toxic hazards, agriculture, food, etc. Notable books include Re-Thinking Green, Plowshares & Pork Barrels, A Poverty of Reason, Cutting Green Tape, Electric Choices, and Hot Talk, Cold Science.
from Independent Publisher Magazine, and a 4M Highest Rating for Ethics in Social and Public Policy from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
at Santa Clara University
.
Other awards have included those to Senior Fellow Ivan Eland
http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=487 who received the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic in 2004, and Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa
http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=494 who was awarded the Freedom of Expression Award http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1378 from the Organization of Ibero-American Journalists in 2003, 2006 Annual Juan Bautista Alberdi Award from the Hispanic American Center for Economic Research, and Young Global Leader for 2007 from the World Economic Forum
. Senior Fellow Bruce Benson http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=523 received the 2006 Adam Smith Award, Research Analyst Gabriel Gasave received the Freedom Award for Brave Defense of Liberty from the Fundacion Atlas, and Senior Fellow Robert Higgs
http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=489 received the 1998 Templeton Honor Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society, 2006 Friedrich von Wieser Memorial Prize for Excellence in Economic Education, 2006 Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, 2006 Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty, and 2007 Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Cause of Liberty.
In addition, the Institute's book by Robert Higgs, Depression, War, and Cold War, was selected by Choice
Magazine as the 2007 Outstanding Academic Book and by Society
Magazine as the Social Science Book of the Month. The Institute's book edited by Gabriel Roth
, Street Smart, was designated by Planetizen as “Top 10” Book for 2007 in Urban Planning, Design, and Development Community, and Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, by Donald Downs, received the Peter Shaw Memorial Award for 2006.
In 2010 the Independent Institute won the Templeton Freedom Award in the category of Free Market Solutions to Poverty for publishing the book, Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
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...
based in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. Founded in 1986 by
David J. Theroux http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=531, the Institute sponsors studies of major political, social, economic, legal, environmental and foreign policy issues. It has more than 140 research fellows. The Institute was originally established in San Francisco, and was re-located in 1989 to Oakland. In 2006 the Institute opened an office in Washington, D.C. The Institute is organized into six centers which address a full range of public policy issues.
Publications
The results of the Institute's work are published as books and other publications http://www.independent.org/publications and form the basis for numerous conferences http://www.independent.org/events and media programs http://www.independent.org/newsroom. Books http://www.independent.org/publications/books/ are published by such publishers as Oxford University PressOxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Palgrave
Palgrave
- Companies :*Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publishing company[The Palgrave Society], studying the history and genealogy of families with the surname Palgrave or any of its many variants.- People :*John Palsgrave - Companies :*Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publishing company[The Palgrave...
, University of Michigan Press
University of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is part of the University of Michigan Library and serves as a primary publishing unit of the University of Michigan, with special responsibility for the creation and promotion of scholarly, educational, and regional books and other materials in digital and print...
, Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press
The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
, Ivan R. Dee, New York University Press, University Press of Kentucky
University Press of Kentucky
The University Press of Kentucky is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 1949 the press was established as a separate academic agency...
, etc.
For fifteen years, the Institute has published a quarterly journal, The Independent Review
Independent Review
Several magazines, journals, and newspapers have used this title, some of which are:*Independent Review , a now defunct progressive English journal founded, in part, by the historian G.M. Trevelyan in London. Edward Jenks was editor, and members of its editorial board included Trevelyan, G. Lowes...
, edited by the economist and historian, Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs is an American economic historian, economist combining the insights from the Public Choice, Institutional and Austrian schools of economics, and a classical liberal or libertarian in political and legal theory and public policy...
. Devoted to the study of political economy and the critical analysis of government policy, the Independent Review is peer-reviewed and includes articles ranging across the fields of economics, political science, law, history, philosophy, and sociology.
Articles on the Independent Institute's findings are published in major newspapers, magazines and journals, and Institute fellows regularly appear on TV and radio programs in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, the Institute conducts numerous conference programs for scholars, business leaders, the media, policy makers and the general public. For example, the Institute's Independent Policy Forum http://www.independent.org/events series of seminars has featured historians Joyce Appleby
Joyce Appleby
Joyce Oldham Appleby is an American historian. She is Professor Emerita of History at University of California, Los Angeles Joyce Oldham Appleby (born April 9, 1929) is an American historian. She is Professor Emerita of History at University of California, Los Angeles Joyce Oldham Appleby (born...
and Robert Conquest
Robert Conquest
George Robert Ackworth Conquest CMG is a British historian who became a well-known writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of The Great Terror, an account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s...
; economists Roger Noll, Lord Peter Bauer and Nobel Laureates Gary Becker
Gary Becker
Gary Stanley Becker is an American economist. He is a professor of economics, sociology at the University of Chicago and a professor at the Booth School of Business. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992, and received the United States' Presidential Medal of Freedom...
and James M. Buchanan
James M. Buchanan
James McGill Buchanan, Jr. is an American economist known for his work on public choice theory, for which he received the 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' self-interest and non-economic forces affect government economic policy...
; legal scholars Alex Kozinski
Alex Kozinski
Alex Kozinski is Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, an essayist, and a judicial commentator.-Biography:...
, Stephen Halbrook, David D. Friedman, Robert Cooter, Richard Epstein, David D. Cole
David D. Cole
David D. Cole is an American law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He has published in various legal fields including civil rights, criminal justice, constitutional law and law and literature...
, and Randy Barnett
Randy Barnett
Randy E. Barnett is a lawyer, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and a legal theorist in the United States...
; foreign policy experts Lawrence Korb
Lawrence Korb
Lawrence J. Korb , is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Adviser to the Center for Defense Information...
, Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg, PhD, is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War,...
, George Shultz, Michael Scheuer
Michael Scheuer
Michael F. Scheuer is a former CIA intelligence officer, American blogger, historian, foreign policy critic, and political analyst. He is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies...
, and Gen. William Odom; criminologists Gary Kleck
Gary Kleck
Gary Kleck is a criminologist at Florida State University.-Criminology:He has done numerous studies of the effects of guns on death and injury in crimes, on suicides, and gun accidents, the impact of gun control laws on rates of violence, the frequency and effectiveness of defensive gun use by...
, Frank Zimring and James Q. Wilson
James Q. Wilson
James Q. Wilson is an American academic political scientist and an authority on public administration. He is a professor and senior fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College....
; best-selling authors Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
, P. J. O'Rourke
P. J. O'Rourke
Patrick Jake "P. J." O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on...
, George Gilder
George Gilder
George F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...
, Shelby Steele
Shelby Steele
-Awards:*National Book Critics Circle Award in the general non-fiction category for the book The Content of Our Character.*Emmy and Writers Guild Awards for his 1991 Frontline documentary film Seven Days in Bensonhurst.-External links:**...
, and Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
; human rights leaders Harry Wu
Harry Wu
Harry Wu is an activist for human rights in the People's Republic of China. Now a resident and citizen of the United States, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation. In 1996 the Columbia Human Rights Law Review awarded Wu its second Award for...
, Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
Laureate Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, and Elena Bonner; scientists Bruce Ames
Bruce Ames
Bruce Nathan Ames is an American biochemist. He is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute...
, John Christy
John Christy
John R. Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change. He is best known, jointly with Roy Spencer, for the first successful development of a satellite temperature...
, and Nobel Laureate Charles Townes; judges Vaughn Walker and James P. Gray
James P. Gray
James "Jim" P. Gray is an American jurist, politician, and writer. He was the presiding judge of the Superior Court of Orange County, California. Gray was the 2004 Libertarian candidate for the United States Senate in California...
; journalists Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
, John Stossel
John Stossel
John F. Stossel is an American consumer reporter, investigative journalist, author and libertarian columnist. In October 2009 Stossel left his long time home on ABC News to join the Fox Business Channel and Fox News Channel, both owned and operated by News Corp...
, former Wall Street Journal editor Robert L. Bartley, and Bill Kurtis
Bill Kurtis
Bill Kurtis is an American television journalist, producer, narrator, and news anchor. He is also the current host of A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files...
; business leaders David Packard
David Packard
David Packard was a co-founder of Hewlett-Packard , serving as president , CEO , and Chairman of the Board . He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969–1971 during the Nixon administration...
, John Templeton
John Templeton
Sir John Marks Templeton was an American-born British stock investor, businessman and philanthropist.-Biography:...
, Robert Galvin, William Bowes, Jr., and Walter B. Wriston; Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz; and many others.
Drawing upon its research and publications program in criminal justice, the Independent Institute has further organized a series of televised debates hosted by Harvard
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
law professor and Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winner, Arthur R. Miller
Arthur R. Miller
Arthur Raphael Miller is a leading scholar in the field of American civil procedure and a University Professor at New York University. Before that he was the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard Law School , after being on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of...
. The program, Stopping Violent Crime: New Directions for Reduction and Preventionhttp://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=56, was distributed on PBS-TV and featured former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, Federal Judge David Sentelle, Police Foundation
Police Foundation
The Police Foundation, of Washington, DC, is a non-profit foundation dedicated to helping the police be more effective in doing their job. It was founded on July 22, 1970 by the Ford Foundation, and has continued to receive its primary support from that foundation, although it now has a large...
President Hubert Williams, criminologist Marvin Wolfgang, civil libertarian writer Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality, about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism; I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other...
, and others.
In 2006, having launched its office in Washington, the Institute expanded its media program, including a weekly column by Senior Fellow Álvaro Vargas Llosa
Álvaro Vargas Llosa
Álvaro Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer and political commentator on international affairs with emphasis on Latin America. He is also the writer and presenter of a documentary series for National Geographic on contemporary Latin American history that is being shown around the world.Vargas Llosa...
through the Washington Post Writers Group, attracting a weekly readership of more than 5 million worldwide. Mr. Vargas Llosa is Senior Fellow with the Institute's Center on Global Prosperity http://www.independent.org/research/cogp, and the host of the 2009 4-part National Geographic documentary series on Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, Consequences. In addition, to follow up on earlier Institute Open Letters on health care, high technology, and other issues, the Independent Institute released its Open Letter on Immigrationhttp://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1727, signed by more than 500 economists, including five Nobel Laureates, and received endorsements in editorials in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The Open Letter on Immigration was a project of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation http://www.independent.org/research/coei.
The Institute also operates a special program for students http://www.independent.org/students, including a competitive essay contest for college students that awards cash fellowships; Summer Seminars on Liberty, Economy and Society http://www.independent.org/students/seminars for high school and college students; student internships http://www.independent.org/students/internships; and tuition assistance for disadvantaged families to send their children to private schools (Independent Scholarship Fund ).
Economic issues
The Institute has produced scholarly books and other studies on free-market entrepreneurship and regulation, deregulation, taxation, privatization, and community development.The War on Terror
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 in 2001, the Independent Institute launched a program of critical analysis of the "War on Terror". The Institute argued that targeted defensive measures would succeed and that U.S. preemptive, interventionist war and "nation-building" policies would not. In so doing, the Institute has organized numerous events featuring Gore VidalGore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
, Lewis H. Lapham
Lewis H. Lapham
Lewis H. Lapham is an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He also is the founder of the eponymous publication about history and literature entitled Lapham's Quarterly. He has written numerous books on...
, Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs is an American economic historian, economist combining the insights from the Public Choice, Institutional and Austrian schools of economics, and a classical liberal or libertarian in political and legal theory and public policy...
, Representative Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
, James Bamford
James Bamford
V. James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agencies, most notably the National Security Agency.-Biography:...
, Barton Bernstein, Thomas Gale Moore, Gareth Porter, Theresa Hitchens, Mark Danner
Mark Danner
Mark David Danner is a prominent American writer, journalist, and educator. He is a former staff writer for The New Yorker and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Danner specializes in U.S. foreign affairs, war and politics, and has written extensively on Haiti, Central America,...
, Joseph Cirincione
Joseph Cirincione
Joseph Cirincione is the President of the Ploughshares Fund, a public grant-making foundation focused on nuclear weapons policy and conflict resolution. He was appointed to the presidency by the Ploughshares board of directors on March 5, 2008...
, Christopher Scheer
Christopher Scheer
Christopher Scheer is the co-author, with Robert Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry, of The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq published in 2003 in the U.S., England and Australia. The book appeared on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list and was a part of the national debate in 2004 about the...
, and others. The Institute has consistently criticized the legacy of U.S. interventionism, corporate welfare, and abuse of civil liberties through its Center on Peace and Liberty http://www.independent.org/research/copal/. For example, the Institute's book by Ivan Eland, Partitioning for Peace proposes a decentralized, partition solution as a U.S. exit strategy from Iraq. In addition, its award-winning book, Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance, by Mike Moore (former Editor, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) has critiqued the weaponization of space, defending peaceful commercial development.
Environmental issues
The Institute has completed numerous publications on the value of market-based environmentalism to resolve the tragedy of the commonsTragedy of the commons
The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this...
, including forestlands, water systems, climate change, air quality, energy, endangered species, toxic hazards, agriculture, food, etc. Notable books include Re-Thinking Green, Plowshares & Pork Barrels, A Poverty of Reason, Cutting Green Tape, Electric Choices, and Hot Talk, Cold Science.
Awards
The Independent Institute is the recipient of numerous awards http://www.independent.org/aboutus/awards.asp, including two Mencken Awards, seven Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Awards, the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association, two IPPY AwardsIndependent Publisher Book Award
The Independent Publisher Book Awards , launched in 1996, are designed to bring increased recognition to titles published by independent authors and publishers...
from Independent Publisher Magazine, and a 4M Highest Rating for Ethics in Social and Public Policy from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University promotes research and dialogue in five major focus areas: Bioethics, Business Ethics, Campus Ethics, Character Education, and Government Ethics. The Center offers public talks, workshops, and training, as well as sponsoring...
at Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University is a private, not-for-profit, Jesuit-affiliated university located in Santa Clara, California, United States. Chartered by the state of California and accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, it operates in collaboration with the Society of Jesus , whose...
.
Other awards have included those to Senior Fellow Ivan Eland
Ivan Eland
Ivan Eland is an American defense analyst and author. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute. Eland's writings generally propose libertarian and non-intervertionist policies....
http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=487 who received the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic in 2004, and Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa
Álvaro Vargas Llosa
Álvaro Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer and political commentator on international affairs with emphasis on Latin America. He is also the writer and presenter of a documentary series for National Geographic on contemporary Latin American history that is being shown around the world.Vargas Llosa...
http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=494 who was awarded the Freedom of Expression Award http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1378 from the Organization of Ibero-American Journalists in 2003, 2006 Annual Juan Bautista Alberdi Award from the Hispanic American Center for Economic Research, and Young Global Leader for 2007 from the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
. Senior Fellow Bruce Benson http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=523 received the 2006 Adam Smith Award, Research Analyst Gabriel Gasave received the Freedom Award for Brave Defense of Liberty from the Fundacion Atlas, and Senior Fellow Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs is an American economic historian, economist combining the insights from the Public Choice, Institutional and Austrian schools of economics, and a classical liberal or libertarian in political and legal theory and public policy...
http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=489 received the 1998 Templeton Honor Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society, 2006 Friedrich von Wieser Memorial Prize for Excellence in Economic Education, 2006 Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, 2006 Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty, and 2007 Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Cause of Liberty.
In addition, the Institute's book by Robert Higgs, Depression, War, and Cold War, was selected by Choice
Choice
Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them. While a choice can be made between imagined options , often a choice is made between real options, and followed by the corresponding action...
Magazine as the 2007 Outstanding Academic Book and by Society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
Magazine as the Social Science Book of the Month. The Institute's book edited by Gabriel Roth
Gabriel Roth
Gabriel Fernando Roth is an Agentine footballer playing for Rangers.-External links: * at Terra.com.ar * at BDFA...
, Street Smart, was designated by Planetizen as “Top 10” Book for 2007 in Urban Planning, Design, and Development Community, and Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, by Donald Downs, received the Peter Shaw Memorial Award for 2006.
In 2010 the Independent Institute won the Templeton Freedom Award in the category of Free Market Solutions to Poverty for publishing the book, Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Funding
On its website the Institute states that it "receives no government funding. Instead, it draws its support from a diverse range of foundations, businesses and individuals, and the sale of its publications and other services." http://www.independent.org/aboutus/ The Independent Institute does not publish a list of its donors in keeping with its ascribing to the Donor’s Bill of Rights. http://www.independent.org/membership/donorsbill.aspResearch fellows
- George AyitteyGeorge AyitteyGeorge Ayittey is a Ghanaian economist, author and president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington DC. He is a professor at American University, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute...
- Stephen BaskervilleStephen BaskervilleStephen K. Baskerville is an American scholar of political science and is described by Paul Craig Roberts as a leading authority on divorce, child custody and the family court system.-Education and employment history:...
- Boris BegovićBoris BegovicBoris Begović is an economics scholar and policy influencer in Serbia who has written and spoken on economic problems in the Balkans.Dr. Begović has written a number of papers for the Centre for Liberal-Democratic studies ....
- David T. BeitoDavid T. BeitoDavid T. Beito is a historian and professor of history at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression ; From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967 ; The Voluntary City: Choice,...
- Bruce L. BensonBruce L. BensonDr. Bruce L. Benson is an American academic economist who is widely recognized as an authority on law and economics and a major exponent of anarcho-capitalism legal theory. He is DeVoe L. Moore Professor and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University, where he serves as Chairman...
- Peter BoettkePeter BoettkePeter J. Boettke is an American economist of the Austrian School.-Early life and education:Boettke was born in Rahway, New Jersey to Fred and Elinor Boettke and remained there until he moved to Pennsylvania to attend Thiel College in Greenville and later Grove City College. He became interested in...
- Boudewijn BouckaertBoudewijn BouckaertBoudewijn Bouckaert is a Belgian law professor, a member of the Flemish Movement, and a libertarian conservative thinker and politician. He chairs the academic board of the LIB-ERA! think tank and serves as Member of the Flemish Parliament for the liberal party List Dedecker...
- Donald J. BoudreauxDonald J. BoudreauxDonald J. Boudreaux is professor of economics at George Mason University. He served as chairman from August 2001 and stepped down in August 2009. He previously served as president of the libertarian think tank Foundation for Economic Education, a post he accepted in May 1997...
- Allan C. CarlsonAllan C. CarlsonAllan C. Carlson is a scholar and professor of history at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. He is the president of the Howard Center, a director of the Family in America Studies Center, the International Secretary of the World Congress of Families and editor of the Family in America...
- G. Marcus ColeG. Marcus ColeG. Marcus Cole is the Wm. Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott professor of law at Stanford Law School. He is an expert on the law of bankruptcy, corporate reorganizataion, and venture capital....
- Tyler CowenTyler CowenTyler Cowen is an American economist, academic, and writer. He occupies the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics as a professor at George Mason University and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution...
- Christopher CoyneChristopher CoyneChristopher Coyne is the F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University.-Education:After graduating in 1999 with a B.S. from Manhattan College, Coyne received his M.A. and Ph.D...
- Anthony de JasayAnthony de JasayAnthony de Jasay is a Hungarian-born philosopher and economist known for his anti-statist writings. He was born at Aba, Hungary in 1925. . He was educated at Szekesfehervar and Budapest, taking a degree in Agriculture...
- Thomas DiLorenzoThomas DiLorenzoThomas James DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is an adherent of the Austrian School of Economics. He is a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an associated scholar of the Abbeville Institute...
- Donald DownsDonald DownsDonald Alexander Downs is an American political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison known for his work on the First Amendment.Downs received his Ph.D. from the University of California - Berkeley and his B.A. from Cornell University...
- Robert EkelundRobert EkelundRobert Burton Ekelund, Jr. is an American economist.-Education:Originally from Galveston, Texas, Ekelund attended St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, earning his B.B.A. in economics in 1962 and his M.A. in economics and history the next year...
- Ivan ElandIvan ElandIvan Eland is an American defense analyst and author. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute. Eland's writings generally propose libertarian and non-intervertionist policies....
- Williamson EversWilliamson EversWilliamson M. "Bill" Evers is an American political activist and education researcher. In 1988, he became a resident scholar at Stanford University's Hoover Institution -- first as a national fellow, then a visiting scholar, and most recently a research fellow...
- Fred E. FoldvaryFred E. FoldvaryFred Emanuel Foldvary is a lecturer in economics at Santa Clara University, California, and a research fellow at The Independent Institute...
- Robert HiggsRobert HiggsRobert Higgs is an American economic historian, economist combining the insights from the Public Choice, Institutional and Austrian schools of economics, and a classical liberal or libertarian in political and legal theory and public policy...
- Christopher LayneChristopher LayneChristopher Layne, PhD is Robert M. Gates Chair in Intelligence and National Security at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. An international relations theorist, he is a noted neorealist and critic of liberal internationalism. In his writings on U.S...
- Deepak LalDeepak LalDeepak Lal is a British development economist of Indian origin who was once a junior member of India's diplomatic corps. Lal was born in Lahore in 1940. He graduated in History from Delhi University's St. Stephens College in 1959; later at Jesus College, Oxford he received the B.A. degree in...
- Álvaro Vargas LlosaÁlvaro Vargas LlosaÁlvaro Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer and political commentator on international affairs with emphasis on Latin America. He is also the writer and presenter of a documentary series for National Geographic on contemporary Latin American history that is being shown around the world.Vargas Llosa...
- Dominick Armentano