Hoover Institution

Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was founded in 1919 and although based on the campus of Stanford University, California, it has an explicit political philosophy, strongly favouring 'limited government' and 'market-based solutions to public policy problems'. U.S. corporations contribute significantly to its funding, only about15% of which comes via Stanford. In 1959 the Institution stated that 'the purpose of this institution must be, by its research and publications, to demonstrate the evils of the doctrines of Karl Marx'.

Funding

During the 2001–02 fiscal year (ending August 31, 2002), the Hoover Institution expended $30.6 million on its programs and activities. According to the Institute: The Hoover Institution is supported by donations from individuals and their related foundations and corporations (approximately 40 percent); by payout from endowment funds, the market value of which exceeds $250 million (approximately 45 percent); and by a contribution from Stanford University dedicated to the library and archives (approximately 15 percent).

Between 1985 and 2001, the Institution received $15,431,103 in 136 separate grants from only nine foundations.:

• Castle Rock Foundation
• Earhart Foundation
• JM Foundation
• Koch Family Foundations (Charles G. Koch Foundation)
• John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Scaife Foundations (Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage)
• Smith Richardson Foundation

Links to Republicans

Condoleezza Rice - who was appointed by President Bush in December 2000 to be Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, is the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution[5].

Anne Krueger - a member of the Council of Economic Advisors was a senior fellow at the Institute.[6]

Gale Norton - Bush’ controversial Secretary of the Interior worked at Hoover in the mid-eighties after serving at the Mountain States Legal Foundation. She was at PERC at the time of her appointment (see below).[7]

George Shultz - has been the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow at Hoover since 1989. He was Reagan’s Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989, was also an advisor to President Bush’s 2000-election campaign. He is a member of the board of Bechtel, and a patron to the American Enterprise Institute’s New Atlantic Initiative[8]. He is also on the Board of Directors of the ACCF and ICCF

Principals

• John Raisian – Director – Ex-Reagan executive director of the President's Task Force on Food Assistance.
• Richard Sousa - Senior Associate Director

Board of Overseers

The Hoover Institute has a board of Overseers, which includes Officers, Executive Committee. Finance Committee, Nominating Committee, Development Committee, a Communications Committee and a Library Committee. The Institution does not give biographies of the Committees, but it does include ultraconservative philanthropist Richard M. Scaife. In 2000 the “Hoover Institution presented the first Hoover Institution Award for Uncommon Commitment to Richard M. Scaife in recognition of his contributions to the Institution and its guiding principles” Scaife is trustee and chairman of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Allegheny Foundation, and the Carthage Foundation, all of which fund right-wing groups in the US[9].

Staff

• Henry I. Miller - is a Senior Research Fellow focusing on public policy toward science and technology, especially pharmaceutical development and 'the new biotechnology'. From 1989 to 1994, he was the founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology. Miller’s influence spans across numerous right-wing think tanks and corporate front groups. He is also an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a member of the scientific advisory board of the George C. Marshall Institute (1994–), and a director of the American Council on Science and Health (1996–) and of Consumer Alert (1996–)[10]. He also writes for Tech Central Station and is a member of its Science Roundtable[11]. Miller is also an advisor to the US delegation to the Codex committee on biotechnology-derived food[12]. He writes joint articles with Gregory Conko from the CEI, one of which argues that “the new biotechnology pose no inherent risks” despite evidence to the contrary[13]. Another article on biotechnology suggests that the UN Biosafety Protocol was based on “trade protectionism” and “anti-science fearmongering”[14]. In 2000, Miller was one of the authors of a report called the “Fear Profiteers” launched on the junk-man’s website – nomorescares, along with Bonner Cohen, John Carlisle, Michael Fumento, Michael Gough, Kenneth Smith and Elizabeth Whelan[15]. In July 2003, the Hoover Institution and George C Marshall Institute, released the book “Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking”. Present at the press conference were Henry Miller, Michael Gough from the Cato Institute; and Roger Bate, from the AEI/ CEI / International Policy Network.[16].

Other Visiting / Honorary Fellows of note:

• Newt Gingrich
• Ronald Reagan
• Margaret Thatcher
• Donald Rumsfeld
• John Abizaid

Contact

• Address: Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010
• Web address: http://www-hoover.stanford.edu

Reference

• [5] http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/rice.html
• [6] http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=2939
• [7] http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=6187
• [8] http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/BIOS/shultz.html; http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/shultz/shultz.html
• [9] http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/newsletter/00spring/scaife.html
• [10] http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/miller_h.html
• [11] http://www.Tech Central Station.com/biomillerhenry.html; http://www.Tech Central Station.com/scienceroundtable.html
• [12] http://healthfactsandfears.com/contributors/hmiller.html
• [13] http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/miller-conko200310060916.asp
• [14] http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,01806.cfm
• [15] http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2000Q3/usual.html
• [16] U.S. Newswire (2003) “George C. Marshall Institute, Hoover Institution Release ‘Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking’”, 23 July.
• Bill Berkowitz, Rumsfeld Redeploys to Right-Wing Think Tank, Inter Press Service, 13 September 2007]