Commentary

End-of-Year Message from Kenneth Weinstein

Hudson Institute

December 2011--

This has been a landmark year for Hudson Institute, in which we celebrated our 50th anniversary and our work was more visible than ever before.

I can think of no better way to cap off our 50th anniversary year than by proudly announcing the appointment of former AEI President Christopher DeMuth as a Distinguished Fellow of Hudson Institute. DeMuth will bring to Hudson an unparalleled depth of knowledge and experience in the world of regulation, and beyond, to the manner in which ideas come to shape policy.

When the renowned strategist Herman Kahn founded Hudson Institute in 1961, he envisioned a unique organization where bold and unconventional solutions met the challenges of the day. Today, our critical work finds even greater impact, promoting strong national security and pro-growth economics for the 21st century. 

Hudson has 50 years of proven research success: predicting the rise of Asia and of the information age in the early 1960s; designing the Wisconsin Works welfare reform that became the basis for national welfare reform in the 1990s; and in the past decade, predicting the impending credit crisis, Turkey's troubling turn from the West, and Russia's transformation into an authoritarian petro-state.

In 2011, Hudson proved once again that our research is significantly ahead of the curve and an invaluable asset for policymakers and critical thinkers in the United States and abroad. More members of Congress, as well as foreign dignitaries, visited and cited Hudson than at any time in the past few decades.

We celebrated our 50th anniversary with gala dinners and a series of seminars on themes central to our research.

In New York, we honored Chairman Emeritus Wally Stern for his dedication to Hudson and Senator Joseph Lieberman for his long service to our country. In Washington, we presented our signature Herman Kahn Award to Senator Jon Kyl and honored returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. At the Kahn dinner, Senator John McCain paid a poignant tribute to the veterans and his fellow Senator from Arizona.

In additon to Hudson's journals, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology and The 2011 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances, we produced over two dozen reports and monographs. Our scholars also published eleven acclaimed new books this year, including:

As we head into 2012, I would like to share with you some exciting new initiatives.

Given the turmoil in Egypt, we have added several up-and-coming scholars—including Samuel Tadros and Kurt Werthmuller—to our world-class team of experts who focus on the ideological character of radical Islam and the persecution of religious minorities in the Islamic world. Tadros and Werthmuller will focus on Egypt's political transformation, giving Hudson a new depth of expertise. Their work has already garnered the attention of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

In addition to these efforts, we are returning to our roots as a technology-oriented think tank by undertaking a major project to examine why innovation in the United States has failed to live up to expectations. Drawing on Hudson's reputation for pathbreaking research, we have formed a project advisory board that includes many of the biggest names in technology, including PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, Biogen Idec CEO George Scangos, and President of Rockefeller University Marc Tessier-Lavigne. 

These new initiatives—and others on national security, India, the economics of the Internet, and e-government—will add in critical ways to what is arguably one of the most serious research agendas in the think tank world, including our cornerstone programs on American national security, Islamic radicalism, human rights and religious freedom, philanthropy at home and abroad, the rise of Asia, and American culture.

None of what Hudson has accomplished could have been achieved without the vigorous and consistent support of our friends. 

Our 50th-anniversary year has been outstanding—a year that I am certain Herman Kahn would have been proud of. As we begin our second half century of forward-looking policy research that promotes security, prosperity, and freedom—and as we head into a critical election cycle that will shape our nation's agenda for some time to come—I ask you to make Hudson Institute a priority in your end-of-year giving.

Any contribution you make to general funds will be matched, thanks to a generous offer from Hudson's Chairman Emeritus Wally Stern. So this year your donation will go twice as far to promote the ideas we believe in. Of course we remain immensely grateful for any gifts you direct to specific research.

Click here to make an online donation.

Let me extend my best wishes to you and yours for the holiday season.

Sincerely,

Kenneth R. Weinstein, Ph.D. 

President and CEO

P.S. I hope you can take a moment to enjoy the video clip below in celebration of Hudson's 50th anniversary. Click here to view.