Thursday, October 2, 2014

CSIS Establishes Brzezinski Institute of Geostrategy

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently announced that it has established the Brzezinski Institute of Geostrategy, named after Zbigniew Brzezinski, CSIS Counselor and Trustee.  Its mission will be to examine the interaction of history, geography and strategy, with the goal of developing policy-relevant analysis and recommendations.

CSIS also says that the new Institute "seeks to develop a new generation of strategic policy thinkers at home and abroad."  Here is more:
The launching grant for the Institute came from Rilin Enterprises, Ltd., a global construction and logistics firm based in Hong Kong with offices in New York, Beijing, and Dandong, China. Mr. Wenliang Wang serves as chairman of Rilin Enterprises. Mr. Mark Fung, who serves on the Institute’s Advisory Board, is the firm’s general counsel and in the 1990s was Dr. Brzezinski’s student and then seminar assistant at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Located in CSIS’s new state-of-the-art headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Institute will carry out a range of dynamic programming, including annual lectures, visiting fellows from around the world, original research by CSIS scholars on geostrategic issues, new publications, and cutting-edge multimedia content. Through this work, the Institute will help to inform today’s policymakers and train tomorrow’s global leaders.

Dr. John Hamre, President, CEO, and Pritzker Chair at CSIS will act as the Institute's director during its first year.

An event was held October 1 to celebrate the establishment of the new Institute, and former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd gave a keynote address.

Here is a video about the launch of the new Institute.  Here is its new website.  Here is a note from Dr. Hamre.  Here are some projects that the Brzezinski Institute is working on.  Here is a list of the Advisory Board and leadership at the Institute.

CSIS was recently ranked as the fourth best think tank in the world and the world's best defense and national security think tank by the University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.