James Baker Institute
The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, often shortened to Baker Institute, is an American think tank on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1993, it has become a notable center of public policy research. It is named for James Baker, former United States Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury. The institute's founding director, Edward P. Djerejian, is the former United States Ambassador to Israel and Syria and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. The institute's board of advisors include William Barnett (Chair), Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and Rice University's President David Leebron. The institute employs scholars and researchers from a variety of backgrounds.
The institute concentrates on the public policy questions of the day. It is an integral part of Rice University, and the university's faculty and students are involved in its research programs and public events. The institute is located on the Rice campus in James A. Baker III Hall, which also houses the School of Social Sciences (including the departments of Economics and Political Science).
The institute is non-partisan and tries to bridge the gap between theory and practice in public policy. Its current research includes: Arab media and politics, conflict resolution, drug policy, energy, health economics, homeland security and terrorism, international economics, religion and culture, science and technology policy, space policy, tax and expenditure policy, the Americas Project (Latin American policy), the Transnational China Project (Chinese culture and policy), urban studies, and the U.S.-Mexico Project (issues about the U.S. border with Mexico).
The institute hosts events with national figures, which are available on their website via streaming technology. It is supported mainly by donor contributions.
The institute is a sponsoring organization for the Iraq Study Group.
From 1995 through 2001, the Baker Institute awarded the Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service.
Read more about James Baker Institute: Research Programs, Lecture Series, Key People
Famous quotes containing the words james, baker and/or institute:
“Ideas are so much flat psychological surface unless some mirrored matter gives them cognitive lustre. This is why as a pragmatist I have so carefully posited ‘reality’ ab initio, and why throughout my whole discussion, I remain an epistemologist realist.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“No one thinks anything silly is suitable when they are an adolescent. Such an enormous share of their own behavior is silly that they lose all proper perspective on silliness, like a baker who is nauseated by the sight of his own eclairs. This provides another good argument for the emerging theory that the best use of cryogenics is to freeze all human beings when they are between the ages of twelve and nineteen.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)