Center for the Study of the Presidency
Encyclopedia
The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) is a non-profit, non-partisan policy and education organization located 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....

 The Center’s mission is to: promote leadership in and cooperation between the President and Congress; preserve the historic memory of the Presidency by identifying critical lessons from past Executive successes and failures; generate innovative solutions to current national challenges; identify ways to better organize an increasingly compartmentalized federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

; and educate and inspire the next generation of America’s leaders to incorporate civility, inclusiveness, and character into their public and private lives and discourse.

History

The Center incorporated as a non-partisan 501(c)(3) in 1969, growing out of the Library of the Presidential Papers, founded in 1965. Inspired by President Dwight Eisenhower's call for programs on the American Presidency for "students old and young…characterized by accuracy, objectivity and perspective," the Center began educating young leaders and examining 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...

 issues that required Presidential consideration and action. Dr. R. Gordon Hoxie
R. Gordon Hoxie
Ralph Gordon Hoxie was an American educator and college administrator who served as chancellor of Long Island University in the 1960s and founded the Library of Presidential Papers , after he resigned from LIU.Hoxie was born in Waterloo, Iowa and earned his undergraduate degree in 1940...

, a historian and Chancellor of Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...

, became the first President of the Center, and Arthur T. Roth
Arthur T. Roth
Arthur Thomas Roth was an American banker.Known as "Mr. Long Island", Arthur Roth played a key role in the development of Long Island banking from 1926 through the 1970s. Roth started as a messenger at the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company at age 17 and rose quickly through the ranks...

, a banker and Board Vice Chair at Long Island University, the first Chairman of the Center's Board of Trustees.

In late 2008, the Center launched an initiative aimed at both renewing the nation's sense of civility and purpose and helping policy makers develop practical, concrete solutions to national crises. An initial step in the renewal was the name extension of the Center to the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, which reflects CSPC's extensive work both on and with Capitol Hill.

Leadership

Today, Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 David Abshire (Ret.) is President and CEO of the Center, Thomas R. Pickering
Thomas R. Pickering
Thomas Reeve "Tom" Pickering , is a retired United States ambassador. Among his many diplomatic appointments, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992.-Early life:...

 serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees, Edward Weidenfeld
Edward Weidenfeld
Edward L. Weidenfeld, is the former counsel to the United States House Committee on Insular Affairs from 1971-1973 and counsel to the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign. As the founder of the Weidenfeld Law Firm, P.C. in Washington, D.C., he is an attorney specializing in estate and asset protection law...

 serves as Chair of the Executive Committee, and Thomas M. Kirlin is Vice President of Operations and Chief Financial Officer.

Staff

The Center maintains a full-time staff of 20-25, a 30-member Board of Trustees, 51-member National Council of Advisors, 21 other Advisors and Fellows and approximately 35 interns throughout the course of a year.

Programs

The Center’s programs are designed to bring members of the Executive and Legislative branches together with leaders in the private sector, public policy centers, and academic and research communities on a variety of programs and projects aimed at strengthening national governance and solving critical national challenges.

Past Projects

Report to the President Elect 2000 - The Center produced Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Presidency: Seventy-Six Case Studies in Presidential Leadership, In Harm's Way, Advancing Innovation, Comprehensive Strategic Reform, and a number of related publications to prepare to the Administration for the challenges of the Executive Office in a post-Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 environment.

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...

– The Center was one of the four co-sponsoring organizations of the Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 Study Group, led by former Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....

 James Baker
James Baker
James Addison Baker, III is an American attorney, politician and political advisor.Baker served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush...

 and former 9/11 Commission
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...

 Co-Chair and former Congressman Lee H. Hamilton
Lee H. Hamilton
Lee Herbert Hamilton is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and currently a member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999...

. Two Center Trustees, former Senator Charles Robb and former Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 Edwin Meese
Edwin Meese
Edwin "Ed" Meese, III is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan Gubernatorial Administration , the Reagan Presidential Transition Team , and the Reagan White House , eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th Attorney General of...

 III, were among the eight members of the bi-partisan ISG. The Center nominated distinguished experts for all Expert Working Groups (EWGs), which provided analysis and research on the political situation within Iraq, the broader regional and international strategic environment, military and security issues, and economic reconstruction and development. Center staff also served as advisors to the Strategic Environment EWG as well as the Economic Reconstruction and Development EWG.

Transatlantic Relations – The Center’s transatlantic efforts have examined NATO's role in the war on terror, put forward a series of proposals on increased NATO-EU coordination in global and homeland security, and identified better crosswalks and institutional capabilities among NATO, the EU and the G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...

. In 2008 and 2009, the Center conducted an initiative designed to help rising European leaders better understand the challenges and processes of the transition period. The Center brought 17 of these exceptional young leaders (ages 30–40) from positions of policy planning in European governments or in the policy-research community to Washington, DC, to meet with experts involved in this and previous Presidential transitions.

Current projects

SAFI: Saving America's Future Initiative: In September 2008, the Center received a major grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to help the new Administration confront the recent decline in American solvency, unity and global leadership. Influential strategic leaders guiding the project include: David Walker
David M. Walker (U.S. Comptroller General)
David M. Walker served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008, and is now the Founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative.- Career as Comptroller General :...

, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former Comptroller General of the United States
Comptroller General of the United States
The Comptroller General of the United States is the director of the Government Accountability Office , a legislative branch agency established by Congress in 1921 to ensure the fiscal and managerial accountability of the federal government...

; Norman Augustine, former Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....

; and Roy Romer, former Governor of Colorado
Governor of Colorado
The Governor of Colorado is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Colorado General Assembly, to convene the...

.

The comprehensive assessment, published in March 2009, incorporated the findings of the Center's Strengthening America's Future Initiative teams on critical national challenges including: U.S. Innovation and Growth: Small and Mid-size Business; Infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

 and Transportation; Education and Competitiveness; Budget and Taxes; Energy, Climate Change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

, and Resource Management; Finance, Trade and Economics; Commission on U.S. Federal Leadership in Health and Medicine; Restoring America’s Trust and Influence Abroad; National 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...

; Science and Technology; Innovations, Comparative Advantage and Synergies (ICAST); Revitalizing the U.S. Armed Forces; U.S. Geopolitical Relations.

Through the fall of 2009, the Center will released the results of each individual issue team's work, with key recommendations in each area of national crisis. In January 2010, the final SAFI report will be released.

During all phases of this project, the Center is working closely with Congressional leaders, field experts, former government officials, and respected academics to assist the work of the Obama Administration and to communicate the project's findings to the American people.

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...

– The Center addresses strategic homeland security challenges that require Presidential leadership and has led policy initiatives on combating smuggled nuclear weapons; coordinating the Departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security; the strategic partnership between the U.S. and Canada; strengthening the transatlantic relationship in the war on terrorism, and crisis leadership for homeland security.

Foundation for International Understanding – To bridge the gap in global understanding, Meridian International Center and CSPC are co-sponsoring an initiative to create a grant-making Foundation for International Understanding (FIU). The FIU will support the use of media productions and digital media
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...

 technologies to promote mutual understanding and collaboration across borders, cultures, and religions. As part of this mission, the FIU will support media-based initiatives that advance positive social goals, such as: global public health, sustainable development and energy use, economic development and entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. The FIU will award grants to marshal expertise from producers, content providers, media innovators, and social entrepreneurs worldwide. As a public-private partnership
Public-private partnership
Public–private partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies...

, the FIU will rely on a combination of public and private funding to underwrite its operating expenses and grant awards. Through matching grants and co-funding partnerships with other donors, the FIU will leverage additional private sector financial participation. The FIU will have a special (but not exclusive) focus on supporting media-based initiatives that reach youth around the world to correct stereotypes and misperceptions before they become fixed beliefs. Also, FIU will seek to expand opportunities for collaborative learning and problem-solving. To maximize its reach and impact, the FIU will support the full range of media tools, including: Web-based social networking, virtual worlds and virtual classrooms; cell phones and mobile content
Mobile content
Mobile content is any type of media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like ringtones, graphics, discount offers, games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile phone use has grown since the mid 1990s, the significance of the devices in everyday life has grown accordingly...

; educational video games; television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

.

The Presidential Fellows Program was founded in 1970 in response to the Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970...

 as a way to bridge the leadership gap between generations. Each year, the Center invites 85 of the nation’s top college and university students to Washington to participate in the Presidential Fellows Program, a series of leadership conferences in the spring and the fall that feature high-level government officials from the Executive and Legislative branches and the policy community. Fellows, who are nominated by their home schools, engage in year-long research resulting in an original paper on an issue of the modern Presidency. Students have online access to the Center's award-winning Presidential Studies Quarterly and are eligible to participate in two essay contests and compete for publication in our annual anthology of the best Center Fellows' Papers.

National Consortium for Character-Based Leadership - In response to the character failures routinely witnessed in government, business, education, religion, and athletics, CSPC established the National Consortium for Character-Based Leadership, an organization of more than 40 high schools, colleges, service academies, business schools, and independent institutions. The Consortium aims to unite the often disconnected fields of ethics and leadership education by providing tools for students to grapple with morally complex leadership situations. The Consortium’s inaugural conference was held at Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States.The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, about north of its present location. In 1776 it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of...

 in September 2006, and another was held in February, 2008 at 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...

.

Remobilizing NATO in Afghanistan- CSPC is launching an action initiative to persuade European leaders to encourage NATO to enact reforms and encourage member nations share more equitably in NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. The project will be co-chaired by David Abshire and W. Bruce Weinrod, the former Secretary of Defense Representative for Europe and Defense Advisor to the U.S. Mission to NATO, and advised by the recently-retired Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Bantz J. Craddock
Bantz J. Craddock
Bantz John Craddock is a retired United States Army four-star general. His last military assignment was as Commander, U.S. European Command and the NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe as well as the commanding officer of Allied Command Operations from December 2006 to June 30, 2009. He also...

.

The Center will work with Members of Congress to enhance channels of communication with European officials to convey information and recommendations regarding the NATO effort in Afghanistan. A conference in Europe will be organized between American Congressional staffers and their European counterparts to foster an open exchange about NATO’s role in Afghanistan.

SNAP to Health: Improving Nutrition in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - CSPC's Health and Medicine Program, chaired by Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...

 Susan Blumenthal, frames health care challenges and opportunities for the President and Executive Branch of the federal government to enhance public policy making. The Health and Medicine Program is currently studying the effect of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
The United States Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , historically and commonly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal-assistance program that provides assistance to low- and no-income people and families living in the U.S. Though the program is administered by the U.S. Department of...

 (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, on dietary behaviors. This project seeks to put health and nutrition at the forefront of discussions guiding this federal food program reauthorization. The interdisciplinary team for this project includes experts in federal and state health policy, nutritional epidemiology, agricultural economics, and health communications who are undertaking innovative activities as part of this program, including:
  1. Designing and implementing a survey of stakeholder groups to identify barriers and opportunities for improving nutrition for SNAP beneficiaries
  2. Conducting the first statistical analysis of NHANES data to determine the current effects of SNAP on its young beneficiaries, ages 4-19
  3. Developing policy recommendations to be considered as SNAP provisions in the 2012 Farm Bill
  4. Designing and launching an interactive website to serve as a forum for public discourse on improving nutrition in SNAP

Publications

The Center regularly publishes books, reports, and newsletters concerning the Presidency that are of interest to policymakers, scholars and the general public. Publications include:

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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