Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 22:01, 11 December 2024

American Enterprise Institute

AEI's headquarters near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.
Abbreviation	AEI
Formation	1938; 86 years ago (1938)
Type	Public policy think tank
Tax ID no.	53-0218495
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Location	United States
Coordinates	38°54′33″N 77°02′29″W / 38.909230°N 77.041470°W / 38.909230; -77.041470
President	Robert Doar
Revenue	$43.5 million (2020)
Expenses	$47.8 million (2020)
Website	www.aei.org

This article is part of a series on
Conservatism in the United States
Schools Compassionate Fiscal Fusion Liberal Libertarian Moderate Movement Neo- Paleo- Postliberal Populist Progressive Social Straussian Traditionalist
Principles American exceptionalism American nationalism Anti-communism Christian nationalism Civil religion Classical liberalism Communitarianism Constitutionalism Culture of life Pro-life Familialism Family values Federalism States' rights Gender essentialism Complementarianism Judeo-Christian values Individualism Law and order Limited government Meritocracy Natural aristocracy Militarism Peace through strength Moral absolutism Natural law Ordered liberty Patriotism Property rights Republicanism Right to bear arms Rule of law Supply-side economics Tradition
History Loyalists Southern chivalry Solid South New Humanism Southern Agrarians Old Right Conservative Manifesto Conservative coalition America First Committee McCarthyism United States in the 1950s Goldwater campaign New Right Reagan era Reagan Doctrine Reaganomics Neo- vs. paleoconservatism Redeemers Republican Revolution Tea Party movement Trump era First term Second term
Intellectuals Adams Anton Babbitt Bacevich Bell Bellow Berger Bloom Boorstin Bradford Buckley Burgess Burnham Calhoun Carl Chambers Conquest Deneen Eastman Eliot Francis Genovese Gottfried Hanson Hazony Himmelfarb Hoppe Hurston Jaffa Kendall Kimball Kirk Kirkpatrick Kreeft Kristol Kuehnelt-Leddihn Lasch Lind Lovecraft Loury Lukacs Mansfield Mencken Meyer Molnar Murray Nisbet Pangle Ransom Rieff Santayana Schaeffer Sowell Strauss Viereck Voegelin Weaver Weyl Wolfe
Politicians Abbott (Greg) Adams (John) Adams (John Quincy) Bolton Buchanan (Pat) Bush (George H. W.) Bush (George W.) Calhoun Cheney (Dick) Clay Cleveland Coolidge Cruz DeSantis Dirksen Eisenhower Gingrich Goldwater Harding Helms Hoover (Herbert) Huckabee Lincoln Lodge Luce McCain McCarthy (Joseph) McConnell McKinley Nixon Palin Paul (Rand) Paul (Ron) Pence Pierce Randolph Reagan Romney Roosevelt Rubio Rumsfeld Ryan Sanders (Sarah) Santorum Sherman Taft (Robert) Taft (William) Taylor Thurmond Trump Vance Wallace (George) Wolfowitz
Jurists Alito Barrett Bork Burger Colson Frelinghuysen George Goldsmith Gorsuch Harlan II Kavanaugh Kennedy Luttig Meese O'Connor Parker Rehnquist Roberts Sanford Scalia Sessions Sutherland Taft (William) Thomas (Clarence) Vermeule Whittaker
Commentators Ahmari Beck Bongino Breitbart Buchanan (Pat) Buckley Caldwell Carlson Cass Chodorov Coulter D'Souza Derbyshire DiLorenzo Douthat Dreher Elder Fleming Goldberg Grant Griffin Van den Haag Hannity Hart Hegseth Herberg Hoover (Margaret) Ingraham Jones Kelly Kirk Knowles Krauthammer Lahren Levin Limbaugh Mac Donald Metaxas Neuhaus Ngo North Novak O'Reilly Owens Podhoretz Pool Portnoy Prager Robertson Shapiro Shlaes Sullivan Walsh Watters Whittle Will Wintrich Woods
Activists Abramoff Agostinelli Ahmanson Andreessen Atwater Bannon Bennett Bezmenov Blum Bozell Cohn Coors Dans Dobson Dolan Drudge Falwell Feulner Gabriel Horowitz Kauffman Krikorian Kirk Kristol LaHaye Lindbergh Leo McEntee Mercer (Rebekah) Mercer (Robert) Miller Murdoch Musk Political views O'Keefe Park Phillips Prager Reed Regnery Roberts Rove Rufo Rusher Scaife Schlafly (Andrew) Schlafly (Phyllis) Stone Starbuck Thiel Viguerie Thomas (Ginni) Washington Weyrich Wood Yenor
Literature The Federalist Papers (1788) Democracy in America (1835–1840) Notes on Democracy (1926) I'll Take My Stand (1930) Our Enemy, the State (1935) The Managerial Revolution (1941) Ideas Have Consequences (1948) God and Man at Yale (1951) The Conservative Mind (1953) The Conscience of a Conservative (1960) A Choice Not an Echo (1964) Losing Ground (1984) A Conflict of Visions (1987) The Closing of the American Mind (1987) The Bell Curve (1994) The Revolt of the Elites (1995) The Death of the West (2001) The Blank Slate (2002) Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005) Hillbilly Elegy (2017) The Benedict Option (2017) Why Liberalism Failed (2018)
Concerns Abortion American decline Cancel Culture Culture war Multiculturalism "Disparate impact" controversy CRT controversy DEI controversy Griggs v. Duke Power Co. Higher ed. bubble Go woke, go broke ESG "Woke capitalism" Homeschooling Immigration reduction Illegal immigration Immigration and crime Border crisis Intelligence and public policy Constitutional interpretations Originalism Textualism Managerial state Mudsill theory Second Amendment Sub-replacement fertility Unitary executive
PartiesActive American Party American Independent Party Conservative Party of New York State Constitution Party Republican Party Defunct Anti-Masonic Party Constitutional Union Party Democratic Party (historically, factions) Boll weevils Bourbon Democrats Conservative Democrats Dixiecrats Reagan Democrats Southern Democrats Rhode Island Suffrage Party Federalist Party National Republican Party Native American Party Whig Party
Think tanks Acton Institute AdTI AEI CSP Center for the National Interest Claremont Institute CEI CSPC EPPC FRI Gatestone Institute Heartland Institute The Heritage Foundation Heritage Action Mandate for Leadership Project 2025 Hoover Institution Hudson Institute ISI James Madison Program Leadership Institute Manhattan Institute Mises Institute PRI Project for the New American Century (Defunct) Ripon Society R Street Institute Rockford Institute SPN Sutherland Institute Tax Foundation Witherspoon Institute
Media Newspapers Chicago Tribune The Epoch Times New Hampshire Union Leader The Jewish Voice The New York Observer New York Post The Remnant The Wall Street Journal (editorial board) The Washington Times Journals American Affairs The American Conservative The American Spectator American Thinker City Journal Claremont Review of Books Commentary Compact Chronicles The Dispatch First Things The Imaginative Conservative Jewish World Review Modern Age National Affairs The National Interest National Review The New American The New Atlantis The New Criterion Policy Review (defunct) Public Discourse Southern Partisan Spectator USA Tablet Taki's Magazine Telos Washington Examiner The Weekly Standard (defunct) TV channels CBN Fox Business Fox News Newsmax TV One America News Network VOZ Websites Babylon Bee Breitbart News The Bulwark Campus Reform The Center Square Conservative Review Daily Caller Daily Signal Daily Wire Discover the Networks The Federalist FrontPage Magazine Front Porch Republic Gateway Pundit Hot Air Human Events Independent Journal Review InfoWars Jihad Watch LifeZette NewsBusters PJ Media Rare RedState The Dispatch Townhall Twitchy Washington Examiner The Washington Free Beacon The Western Journal WorldNetDaily Other Blaze Media Encounter Books Evie Magazine The First Imprimis The Political Cesspool Passage Publishing PragerU RealClearPolitics Red Scare Regnery Publishing RSBN The Rubin Report Sinclair Broadcast Group
Other organizations Economics ATR Club for Growth FreedomWorks (defunct) NFIB NTU Tea Party Patriots USCC Gun rights GOA NAGR NRA Second Amendment Caucus Identity politics ACT! CWA Council of Conservative Citizens GAG IWF LCR Moms for Liberty Nativist CIS FAIR Immigration Restriction League NumbersUSA Oath Keepers Three Percenters Religion ADF Court cases ACLJ AFA The American TFP Chalcedon Foundation CCA Christian Voice Eagle Forum FCR The Fellowship FFC Focus on the Family Foundation for Moral Law Liberty Counsel Moral Majority (defunct) NOM NRLC PTMC Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Thomas More Law Center Watchdog groups AIM Econ Journal Watch Franklin News Foundation JW MRC O'Keefe Media Group Project Veritas (defunct) Youth/student groups NJC TPUSA Young Americans for Freedom Young America's Foundation YAL Miscellaneous The 85 Fund AHI ACU Bradley Foundation TCC CNP CPAC Freedom Caucus Hillsdale College IFF JBS John M. Olin Foundation Liberty Fund LU NAS Philadelphia Society Regent University RSC Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal TPPF Other AFL Atlas Network CN ConservAmerica Donors Trust FedSoc Gab Gettr NCPAC PJI Parler Republican Main Street Partnership The Right Stuff SACR YRNF Ziklag
Movements Asian and Pacific Islander Black Christian right Reconstructionism Classical education movement Paideia Dark Enlightenment Female Green Hispanic and Latino LGBT Libertarian republicans Militia movement Monarchism Mormon White Horse Prophecy Theodemocracy Parental rights movement Fathers' rights Patriot movement Christian Radical right Reactionary feminism Right-libertarianism Paleolibertarianism Secessionism Neo-Confederates in Texas Trumpism Never Trump
Related Agenda 47 America First Bibliography of US conservatism Conservative talk radio Dunning School GOP factions History of US conservatism Modern timeline List of American conservatives NatCon Colloquialisms "Barstool conservatism" "Cuckservative" "Don't immanentize the eschaton!" Republicans pounce RINO "South Park Republican"
Conservatism portal United States portal
v t e

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right think tank based in Washington, D.C., that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. AEI is an independent nonprofit organization supported primarily by contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals.

Founded in 1938, the organization is aligned with conservatism but does not support political candidates. AEI advocates in favor of private enterprise, limited government, and democratic capitalism. Some of their positions have attracted controversy, including their defense policy recommendations for the Iraq War, their analysis of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, and their energy and environmental policies based on their more than two-decade-long opposition to the prevailing scientific opinion on climate change.

AEI is governed by a 28-member Board of Trustees. Approximately 185 authors are associated with AEI. Arthur C. Brooks served as president of AEI from January 2009 through July 1, 2019. He was succeeded by Robert Doar.

History

Beginnings (1938–1954)

AEI grew out of the American Enterprise Association (AEA), which was founded in 1938 by a group of New York businessmen led by Lewis H. Brown. AEI's founders included executives from Bristol-Myers, Chemical Bank, Chrysler, Eli Lilly, General Mills, and Paine Webber.

In 1943, AEA's main offices were moved from New York City to Washington, D.C. during a time when Congress's portfolio had vastly increased during World War II. AEA opposed the New Deal, and aimed to propound classical liberal arguments for limited government. In 1944, AEA convened an Economic Advisory Board to set a high standard for research; this eventually evolved into the Council of Academic Advisers, which over the decades included economists and social scientists, including Ronald Coase, Martin Feldstein, Milton Friedman, Roscoe Pound, and James Q. Wilson.

AEA's early work in Washington, D.C. involved commissioning and distributing legislative analyses to Congress, which developed AEA's relationships with Melvin Laird and Gerald Ford. Brown eventually shifted AEA's focus to commissioning studies of government policies. These subjects ranged from fiscal to monetary policy and including health care and energy policy, and authors such as Earl Butz, John Lintner, former New Dealer Raymond Moley, and Felix Morley. Brown died in 1951, and AEA languished as a result. In 1952, a group of young policymakers and public intellectuals including Laird, William J. Baroody Sr., Paul McCracken, and Murray Weidenbaum, met to discuss resurrecting AEA. In 1954, Baroody became executive vice president of the association.

William J. Baroody Sr. (1954–1980)

Baroody was executive vice president from 1954 to 1962 and president from 1962 to 1978. Baroody raised money for AEA to expand its financial base beyond the business leaders on the board. During the 1950s and 1960s, AEA's work became more pointed and focused, including monographs by Edward Banfield, James M. Buchanan, P. T. Bauer, Alfred de Grazia, Rose Friedman, and Gottfried Haberler.

In 1962, AEA changed its name to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) to avoid any confusion with a trade association representing business interests attempting to influence politicians. In 1964, William J. Baroody Sr., and several of his top staff at AEI, including Karl Hess, moonlighted as policy advisers and speechwriters for presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election. "Even though Baroody and his staff sought to support Goldwater on their own time without using the institution's resources, AEI came under scrutiny of the IRS in the years following the campaign," author Andrew Rich wrote in 2004. Representative Wright Patman subpoenaed the institute's tax papers, and the IRS initiated a two-year investigation of AEI. After this, AEI's officers attempted to avoid the appearance of partisan political advocacy.

Baroody recruited a resident research faculty; Harvard University economist Gottfried Haberler was the first to join in 1972. In 1977, former president Gerald Ford joined AEI as a "distinguished fellow." Ford brought several of his administration officials with him, including Robert Bork, Arthur Burns, David Gergen, James C. Miller III, Laurence Silberman, and Antonin Scalia. Ford also founded the AEI World Forum, which he hosted until 2005. Other staff hired during this time included Walter Berns and Herbert Stein. Baroody's son, William J. Baroody Jr., a Ford White House official, also joined AEI, and later became president of AEI, succeeding his father in that role in 1978.

The elder Baroody made an effort to recruit neoconservatives who had supported the New Deal and Great Society but were disaffected by what they perceived as the failure of the welfare state. This also included Cold War hawks who rejected the peace agenda of 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. Baroody brought Jeane Kirkpatrick, Irving Kristol, Michael Novak, and Ben Wattenberg to AEI.

While at AEI, Kirkpatrick authored "Dictatorships and Double Standards", which brought her to the attention of Ronald Reagan, and Kirkpatrick was later named U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. AEI also became a home for supply-side economists during the late 1970s and early 1980s. By 1980, AEI had grown from a budget of $1 million and a staff of ten to a budget of $8 million and a staff of 125.

William J. Baroody Jr. (1980–1986)

Baroody Sr. retired in 1978, and was replaced by his son, William J. Baroody Jr. Baroody Sr. died in 1980, shortly before Reagan took office as U.S. president in January 1981. According to Politico, the think tank "rose to prominence" in this period "as the primary intellectual home of supply-side economics and neoconservatism."

During the Reagan administration, several AEI staff were hired by the administration. But this, combined with prodigious growth, diffusion of research activities, and managerial problems, proved costly. Some foundations then supporting AEI perceived a drift toward the center politically. Centrists like Ford, Burns, and Stein clashed with rising movement conservatives. In 1986, the John M. Olin Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation withdrew funding for AEI, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy. The board of trustees fired Baroody Jr. and, after Paul McCracken then served briefly as interim president.

Christopher DeMuth (1986–2008)

In December 1986, AEI hired Christopher DeMuth as its new president, and DeMuth served in the role for 22 years.

In 1990, AEI hired Charles Murray (and received his Bradley Foundation support for The Bell Curve) after the Manhattan Institute dropped him. Others brought to AEI by DeMuth included John Bolton, Dinesh D'Souza, Richard Cheney, Lynne Cheney, Michael Barone, James K. Glassman, Newt Gingrich, John Lott, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. During DeMuth's tenure, the organization turned further to the political right.

AEI had severe financial problems when DeMuth began his presidency. During the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, AEI's revenues grew from $10 million to $18.9 million. Academic David M. Lampton writes that DeMuth was responsive to the financial power of "America's hard right".

The institute's publications Public Opinion and The AEI Economist were merged into The American Enterprise, edited by Karlyn Bowman from 1990 to 1995 and by Karl Zinsmeister from 1995 to 2006, when Glassman created The American.

AEI was closely tied to the George W. Bush administration. More than 20 staff members served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions, including Dick Cheney, John R. Bolton, Lynne Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz. Bush addressed the institute on three occasions. "I admire AEI a lot—I'm sure you know that", Bush said. "After all, I have been consistently borrowing some of your best people." Bush Cabinet officials also frequented AEI. In 2002, Danielle Pletka joined AEI to promote the foreign policy department. AEI and several of its staff—including Michael Ledeen and Richard Perle—became associated with the start of the Iraq War. Bush used a February 2003 AEI dinner to advocate for a democratized Iraq, which was intended to inspire the remainder of the Mideast. In 2006–07, AEI staff, including Frederick W. Kagan, provided a strategic framework for the 2007 surge in Iraq. The Bush administration also drew on AEI scholars and their work in other areas, such as Leon Kass's appointment as the first chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics and Norman J. Ornstein's work heading a campaign finance reform working group that helped draft the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that Bush signed in 2002.

Arthur C. Brooks (2008–2019)

When DeMuth retired as president at the end of 2008, AEI's staff numbered 185, with 70 scholars and several dozen adjuncts, and revenues of $31.3 million. Arthur C. Brooks succeeded him as president at the start of the Late-2000s recession. In a 2009 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Brooks positioned AEI to be much more aggressive in responding to the policies of the Barack Obama administration. Under his leadership, AEI identified itself with "compassionate conservativism" and the maximisation of happiness. Politico said that Brooks "helped elevate into a bastion of free-market orthodoxy and center-right policy wonkery during the Obama years", before leaving to become a "happiness expert" and self-help guru. In 2018, Brooks announced that he would step down effective July 1, 2019.

Termination of David Frum's residency

On March 25, 2010, AEI resident fellow David Frum announced that his position at the organization had been "terminated." Following this announcement, media outlets speculated that Frum had been "forced out" for writing a post to his FrumForum blog called "Waterloo", in which he criticized the Republican Party's unwillingness to bargain with Democrats on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In the editorial, Frum claimed that his party's failure to reach a deal "led us to abject and irreversible defeat."

After his termination, Frum clarified that his article had been "welcomed and celebrated" by AEI President Arthur Brooks, and that he had been asked to leave because "these are hard times." Brooks had offered Frum the opportunity to write for AEI on a nonsalaried basis, but Frum declined. The following day, journalist Mike Allen published a conversation with Frum, in which Frum expressed a belief that his termination was the result of pressure from donors. According to Frum, "AEI represents the best of the conservative world ... But the elite isn't leading anymore ... I think Arthur took no pleasure in this. I think he was embarrassed."

Robert Doar (2019–present)

In January 2019, Robert Doar was selected by AEI's board of trustees to be AEI's 12th president, succeeding Arthur Brooks on July 1, 2019. In October 2023, Doar led an AEI delegation (including Kori Schake, Dan Blumenthal, Zack Cooper, and Nicholas Eberstadt, among others) to visit Taiwan to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen.

Personnel

AEI's officers include Robert Doar, Danielle Pletka, Yuval Levin, Michael R. Strain, and Ryan Streeter.

AEI has a Council of Academic Advisers, which includes Alan J. Auerbach, Eliot A. Cohen, Eugene Fama, Aaron Friedberg, Robert P. George, Eric A. Hanushek, Walter Russell Mead, Mark V. Pauly, R. Glenn Hubbard, Sam Peltzman, Harvey S. Rosen, Jeremy A. Rabkin, and Richard Zeckhauser. The Council of Academic Advisers selects the annual winner of the Irving Kristol Award.

Board of directors

AEI's board is chaired by Daniel A. D'Aniello. Current notable trustees include:

• Cliff Asness, hedge fund manager and the co-founder of AQR Capital Management
• Dick Cheney, former U.S. vice president
• Pete Coors, vice chairman of the board of Molson Coors Brewing Company
• Harlan Crow, chairman and CEO, Crow Holdings, the Trammell Crow family's investment company
• Ravenel B. Curry III, president, Eagle Capital Management
• Dick DeVos, president, Windquest Group
• John V. Faraci, chairman and CEO, International Paper
• Tully Friedman, chairman and CEO, Friedman Fleischer & Lowe
• Christopher Galvin, former CEO and chairman, Motorola
• Harvey Golub, retired chairman and CEO, American Express Company
• Robert F. Greenhill, founder and chairman, Greenhill & Co.
• Frank Hanna III, CEO, Hanna Capital
• Bruce Kovner, chairman, Caxton Alternative Associates (former AEI chairman)
• John A. Luke Jr., chairman and CEO, MeadWestvaco
• Kevin Rollins, former president and CEO, Dell
• Matthew K. Rose, executive chairman, BNSF Railway
• Edward B. Rust Jr., chairman and CEO, State Farm (former AEI chairman)
• Mel Sembler, chairman emeritus, Sembler Company

Political stance and impact

AEI is a member of the Atlas Network of free market think tanks and is an associate member of the State Policy Network of conservative and libertarian think tanks.

In the 2000s, AEI was the most prominent think tank associated with American neoconservatism. Irving Kristol, widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism, was a senior fellow at AEI and the AEI issues an 'Irving Kristol Award' in his honour. Paul Ryan has described the AEI as "one of the beachheads of the modern conservative movement".

AEI has close ties with pro-Brexit politicians in the British Conservative Party. For instance, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss have all made regular appearances at its World Forum and other events, and Suella Braverman and Liam Fox have been hosted by it.

The institute has been described as a right-leaning counterpart to the left-leaning Brookings Institution; however, the two entities have often collaborated. From 1998 to 2008, they co-sponsored the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, and in 2006 they launched the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. In 2015, a working group consisting of members from both institutions coauthored a report entitled Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream.

According to the 2011 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania), AEI is number 17 in the "Top Thirty Worldwide Think Tanks" and number 10 in the "Top Fifty United States Think Tanks". As of 2019, the American Enterprise Institute also leads in YouTube subscribers among free-market groups.

Research programs

AEI's research is divided into seven broad categories: economic policy studies, foreign and defense policy studies, health care policy studies, political and public opinion studies, social and cultural studies, education, and poverty studies. Until 2008, AEI's work was divided into economics, foreign policy, and politics and social policy.

Economic policy studies

Economic policy was the original focus of the American Enterprise Association, and "the Institute still keeps economic policy studies at its core". According to AEI's annual report, "The principal goal is to better understand free economies—how they function, how to capitalize on their strengths, how to keep private enterprise robust, and how to address problems when they arise". Michael R. Strain directs economic policy studies at AEI. Throughout the beginning of the 21st-century, AEI staff have pushed for a more conservative approach to aiding the recession that includes major tax-cuts. AEI supported President Bush's tax cuts in 2002 and claimed that the cuts "played a large role in helping to save the economy from a recession". AEI also suggested that further taxes were necessary in order to attain recovery of the economy. An AEI staff member said that the Democrats in congress who opposed the Bush stimulus plan were foolish for doing so as he saw the plan as a major success for the administration.

Financial crisis of 2007–2008

As the financial crisis of 2007–2008 unfolded, The Wall Street Journal stated that predictions by AEI staff about the involvement of housing GSEs had come true. In the late 1990s, Fannie Mae eased credit requirements on the mortgages it purchased and exposed itself to more risk. Peter J. Wallison warned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's public-private status put taxpayers on the line for increased risk. "Because of the agencies' dual public and private form, various efforts to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fulfill their public mission at the cost of their profitability have failed—and will likely continue to fail", he wrote in 2001. "The only viable solution would seem to be full privatization or the adoption of policies that would force the agencies to adopt this course themselves."

Wallison ramped up his criticism of the GSEs throughout the 2000s. In 2006, and 2007, he moderated conferences featuring James B. Lockhart III, the chief regulator of Fannie and Freddie In August 2008, after Fannie and Freddie had been backstopped by the US Treasury Department, Wallison outlined several ways of dealing with the GSEs, including "nationalization through a receivership," outright "privatization," and "privatization through a receivership." The following month, Lockhart and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson took the former path by putting Fannie and Freddie into federal "conservatorship." As the housing crisis unfolded, AEI sponsored a series of conferences featuring commentators including Desmond Lachman, and Nouriel Roubini. Makin had been warning about the effects of a housing downturn on the broader economy for months. Amid charges that many homebuyers did not understand their complex mortgages, Alex J. Pollock crafted a prototype of a one-page mortgage disclosure form.

The claim that AEI predicted and warned about the financial crisis of 2007–2008 is heavily disputed. In her book, Dark Money (2016), American investigative journalist Jane Mayer writes that contrary to their claims, AEI took the "lead role" in crafting a revisionist narrative about the financial crisis, promoting what equities analyst Barry Ritholtz called "Wall Street's 'big lie'". AEI's argument, "that government programs that helped low-income home buyers get mortgages caused the collapse", did not "withstand even casual scrutiny", according to Ritholz. Multiple studies, including those from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies and the U.S. Government Accountability Office, did not support the conclusions about mortgages reached by AEI. Ritholz argues that AEI intentionally shifted the blame from the financial sector, many of whom worked or were affiliated with AEI, according to Mayer, to the government and the consumer, so as to continue promoting the questionable idea that the free market does not need regulation.

Tax and fiscal policy

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Kevin Hassett and Alan D. Viard are AEI's principal tax policy experts, although Alex Brill, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Aparna Mathur also work on the subject. Specific subjects include "income distribution, transition costs, marginal tax rates, and international taxation of corporate income... the Pension Protection Act of 2006; dynamic scoring and the effects of taxation on investment, savings, and entrepreneurial activity; and options to fix the alternative minimum tax". Hassett has coedited several volumes on tax reform.

Viard edited a book on tax policy lessons from the Bush administration. AEI's working paper series includes developing academic works on economic issues. One paper by Hassett and Mathur on the responsiveness of wages to corporate taxation was cited by The Economist; figures from another paper by Hassett and Brill on maximizing corporate income tax revenue was cited by The Wall Street Journal.

Center for Regulatory and Market Studies

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

From 1998 to 2008, the Reg-Markets Center was the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, directed by Robert W. Hahn. The center, which no longer exists, sponsored conferences, papers, and books on regulatory decision-making and the impact of federal regulation on consumers, businesses, and governments. It covered a range of disciplines. It also sponsored an annual Distinguished Lecture series. Past lecturers in the series have included William Baumol, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Alfred Kahn, Sam Peltzman, Richard Posner, and Cass Sunstein.

Research in AEI's Financial Markets Program also includes banking, insurance and securities regulation, accounting reform, corporate governance, and consumer finance.

Energy and environmental policy

AEI's work on climate change has been subject to controversy. Some AEI staff and fellows have been critical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international scientific body tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. According to AEI, it "emphasizes the need to design environmental policies that protect not only nature but also democratic institutions and human liberty". American historian of science Naomi Oreskes notes that this idea became prominent during the conservative turn towards anti-environmentalism in the 1980s. Corporations claimed to uphold a kind of laissez-faire capitalism that promoted individual rights by pushing for deregulation. To do this successfully, companies would fund think tanks like AEI to cast doubt on science and spread disinformation by arguing that environmental dangers were unproven.

When the Kyoto Protocol (designed to reduce carbon emissions globally) was approaching in 1997, AEI was hesitant to encourage the U.S. to join. In an essay from the AEI outlook series of 2007, the authors discuss the Kyoto Protocol and state that the United States "should be wary of joining an international emissions-trading regime". To back this statement, they point out that committing to the Kyoto emissions goal would be a significant and unrealistic obligation for the United States. In addition, they state that the Kyoto regulations would have an impact not only on governmental policies, but also the private sector through expanding government control over investment decisions. AEI staff said that "dilution of sovereignty" would be the result if the U.S. signed the treaty.

In February 2007, a number of sources, including the British newspaper The Guardian, reported that the AEI had offered scientists $10,000 plus travel expenses and additional payments, asking them to dispute the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. This offer was criticized as bribery. The letters alleged that the IPCC was "resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent, and prone to summary conclusions that are poorly supported by the analytical work" and asked for essays that "thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs".

In 2007, The Guardian reported that the AEI received $1.6 million in funding from ExxonMobil, and further notes that former ExxonMobil CEO Lee R. Raymond is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of trustees. This story was repeated by Newsweek, which drew criticism from its contributing editor Robert J. Samuelson because "this accusation was long ago discredited, and Newsweek shouldn't have lent it respectability." The Guardian article was disputed in a The Wall Street Journal editorial. The editorial stated: "AEI doesn't lobby, didn't offer money to scientists to question global warming, and the money it did pay for climate research didn't come from Exxon."

AEI has promoted carbon taxation as an alternative to cap-and-trade regimes. "Most economists believe a carbon tax (a tax on the quantity of CO2 emitted when using energy) would be a superior policy alternative to an emissions-trading regime," wrote Kenneth P. Green, Kevin Hassett, and Steven F. Hayward. "In fact, the irony is that there is a broad consensus in favor of a carbon tax everywhere except on Capitol Hill, where the 'T word' is anathema." Other AEI staff have argued for similar policies. Thernstrom and Lane are codirecting a project on whether geoengineering would be a feasible way to "buy us time to make transition while protecting us from the worst potential effects of warming". Green, who departed AEI in 2013, expanded its work on energy policy. He has hosted conferences on nuclear power and ethanol With Aparna Mathur, he evaluated Americans' indirect energy use to discover unexpected areas in which energy efficiencies can be achieved.

In October 2007, resident scholar and executive director of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies Robert W. Hahn commented:

Fending off both sincere and sophistic opposition to cap-and-trade will no doubt require some uncomfortable compromises. Money will be wasted on unpromising R&D; grotesquely expensive renewable fuels may gain a permanent place at the subsidy trough. And, as noted above, there will always be a risk of cheating. But the first priority should be to seize the day, putting a domestic emissions regulation system in place. Without America's political leadership and economic muscle behind it, an effective global climate stabilization strategy isn't possible.

AEI visiting scholar N. Gregory Mankiw wrote in The New York Times in support of a carbon tax on September 16, 2007. He remarked that "there is a broad consensus. The scientists tell us that world temperatures are rising because humans are emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Basic economics tells us that when you tax something, you normally get less of it." After Energy Secretary Steven Chu recommended painting roofs and roads white in order to reflect sunlight back into space and therefore reduce global warming, AEI's magazine The American endorsed the idea. It also stated that "ultimately we need to look more broadly at creative ways of reducing the harmful effects of climate change in the long run." The American's editor-in-chief and fellow Nick Schulz endorsed a carbon tax over a cap and trade program in The Christian Science Monitor on February 13, 2009. He stated that it "would create a market price for carbon emissions and lead to emissions reductions or new technologies that cut greenhouse gases."

Former scholar Steven Hayward has described efforts to reduce global warming as being "based on exaggerations and conjecture rather than science". He has stated that "even though the leading scientific journals are thoroughly imbued with environmental correctness and reject out of hand many articles that don't conform to the party line, a study that confounds the conventional wisdom is published almost every week". Likewise, former AEI scholar Kenneth Green has referred to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as "the positively silly idea of establishing global-weather control by actively managing the atmosphere's greenhouse-gas emissions", and endorsed Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear for having "educated millions of readers about climate science".

Christopher DeMuth, former AEI president, accepted that the earth has warmed in recent decades, but he stated that "it's not clear why this happened" and charged as well that the IPCC "has tended to ignore many distinguished physicists and meteorologists whose work casts doubt on the influence of greenhouse gases on global temperature trends". Fellow James Glassman also disputes the prevailing scientific opinion on climate change, having written numerous articles criticizing the Kyoto accords and climate science more generally for Tech Central Station. He supported the views of U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who claims that "global warming is 'the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,'" and, like Green, cites Crichton's novel State of Fear, which "casts serious doubt on global warming and extremists who espouse it". Joel Schwartz, an AEI visiting fellow, stated: "The Earth has indeed warmed during the last few decades and may warm further in the future. But the pattern of climate change is not consistent with the greenhouse effect being the main cause."

In 2013, the magazine of the UK's Institute of Economic Affairs published an article by AEI fellow Roger Bate entitled "20 years denouncing eco-militants", in which he argued that "evidence of climate impact is still hard to prove, and harm even more difficult to establish", and dismissed calls for a ban on the insecticide DDT as "green alarmism". In 2018, British investigative website openDemocracy repeated that AEI "has long been funded by ExxonMobile", an allegation repeated by Esquire the same year, describing AEI's Danielle Pletka of spreading disinformation about climate change on the Meet the Press TV show.

Foreign and defense policy studies

AEI's foreign and defense policy studies researchers focus on "how political and economic freedom—as well as American interests—are best promoted around the world". AEI staff have tended to be advocates of a hard U.S. line on threats or potential threats to the United States, including the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Russia, and terrorist or militant groups like al Qaeda and Hezbollah. Likewise, AEI staff have promoted closer U.S. ties with countries whose interests or values they view as aligned with America's, such as Israel, the Republic of China (Taiwan), India, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and emerging post-Communist states such as Poland.

AEI takes a pro-Israel stance. In 2015 it awarded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu its 'Irving Kristol Award'.

AEI's foreign and defense policy studies department, directed by Danielle Pletka, is the part of the institute most commonly associated with neoconservatism. According to Vanity Fair, in 2002 it was seen "as the intellectual command post of the neoconservative campaign for regime change in Iraq". Prominent foreign-policy neoconservatives at AEI include Richard Perle, Gary Schmitt, and Paul Wolfowitz. Joshua Muravchik and Michael Ledeen (the latter seen as an "ultra neo-conservative") spent many years at AEI, although they departed at around the same time as Reuel Marc Gerecht in 2008 in what was rumored to be a "purge" of neoconservatives at the institute, possibly "signal the end of domination over the think tank over the past several decades", although Muravchik later said it was the result of personality and management conflicts.

U.S. national security strategy, defense policy, and the "surge"

In late 2006, the security situation in Iraq continued to deteriorate, and the Iraq Study Group proposed a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops and further engagement of Iraq's neighbors. Consulting with AEI's Iraq Planning Group, Frederick W. Kagan published an AEI report entitled Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq calling for "phase one" of a change in strategy to focus on "clearing and holding" neighborhoods and securing the population; a troop escalation of seven Army brigades and Marine regiments; and a renewed emphasis on reconstruction, economic development, and jobs.

While the report was being drafted, Kagan and Keane were briefing President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other senior Bush administration officials behind the scenes. According to Bob Woodward, " Schoomaker was outraged when he saw news coverage that retired Gen. Jack Keane, the former Army vice chief of staff, had briefed the president on December 11 about a new Iraq strategy being proposed by the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative think tank. 'When does AEI start trumping the Joint Chiefs of Staff on this stuff?' Schoomaker asked at the next chiefs' meeting."

Kagan, Keane, and Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman presented the plan at a January 5, 2007, event at AEI. Bush announced the change of strategy on January 10. Kagan authored three subsequent reports monitoring the progress of the surge.

AEI's defense policy researchers, who also include Schmitt and Thomas Donnelly, also work on issues related to the U.S. military forces' size and structure and military partnerships with allies (both bilaterally and through institutions such as NATO). Schmitt directs AEI's Program on Advanced Strategic Studies, which "analyzes the long-term issues that will impact America's security and its ability to lead internationally".

Area studies

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Its Asia studies program is directed by Dan Blumenthal. The program covers "the rise of China as an economic and political power; Taiwan's security and economic agenda; Japan's military transformation; the threat of a nuclear North Korea; and the impact of regional alliances and rivalries on U.S. military and economic relationships in Asia". Blumenthal and his team wrote several articles for ForeignPolicy.com and other outlets during the Obama presidency advocating for military support and funding for Taiwan.

Papers in AEI's Tocqueville on China Project series "elicit the underlying civic culture of post-Mao China, enabling policymakers to better understand the internal forces and pressures that are shaping China's future".

AEI's Europe program was previously housed under the auspices of the New Atlantic Initiative, which was directed by Radek Sikorski before his return to Polish politics in 2005. Leon Aron's work forms the core of the institute's program on Russia. AEI staff tend to view Russia as posing "strategic challenges for the West".

Mark Falcoff, now retired, was previously AEI's resident Latinamericanist, focusing on the Southern Cone, Panama, and Cuba. He has warned that the road for Cuba after Fidel Castro's rule or the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo would be difficult for an island scarred by a half-century of poverty and civil turmoil. Roger Noriega's focuses at AEI are on Venezuela, Brazil, the Mérida Initiative with Mexico and Central America, and hemispheric relations.

AEI has historically devoted significant attention to the Middle East, especially through the work of former resident scholars Ledeen and Muravchik. Pletka's research focus also includes the Middle East, and she coordinated a conference series on empowering democratic dissidents and advocates in the Arab World. In 2009, AEI launched the Critical Threats Project, led by Kagan, to "highlight the complexity of the global challenges the United States faces with a primary focus on Iran and al Qaeda's global influence". The project includes IranTracker.org, with contributions from Ali Alfoneh, Ahmad Majidyar and Michael Rubin, among others.

International organizations and economic development

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

For several years, AEI and the Federalist Society cosponsored NGOWatch, which was later subsumed into Global Governance Watch, "a web-based resource that addresses issues of transparency and accountability in the United Nations, NGOs, and related international organizations". NGOWatch returned as a subsite of Global Governance Watch, led by Jon Entine. AEI scholars focusing on international organizations includes John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and John Yoo, who researches international law and sovereignty.

AEI's research on economic development dates back to the early days of the institute. P. T. Bauer authored a monograph on development in India in 1959, and Edward Banfield published a booklet on the theory behind foreign aid in 1970. Since 2001, AEI has sponsored the Henry Wendt Lecture in International Development, named for Henry Wendt, an AEI trustee emeritus and former CEO of SmithKline Beckman. Notable lecturers have included Angus Maddison and Deepak Lal.

Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair, focusing on demographics, population growth and human capital development; he served on the federal HELP Commission.

Paul Wolfowitz, the former president of the World Bank, researches development policy in Africa.

Roger Bate focuses his research on malaria, HIV/AIDS, counterfeit and substandard drugs, access to water, and other problems endemic in the developing world.

Health policy studies

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

AEI scholars have engaged in health policy research since the institute's early days. A Center for Health Policy Research was established in 1974. For many years, Robert B. Helms led the health department. AEI's long-term focuses in health care have included national insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, pharmaceutical innovation, health care competition, and cost control.

The center was replaced in the mid-1980s with the Health Policy Studies Program. The AEI Press has published dozens of books on health policy since the 1970s. Since 2003, AEI has published the Health Policy Outlook series on new developments in U.S. and international health policy. AEI also published A Better Prescription in February 2010 to outline their ideal plan to healthcare reform, calling for putting the money and control in the hands of the consumers and continuing the market-based system of healthcare, a form of healthcare that "relies on financial incentives rather than central direction and control."

According to openDemocracy, "In the late 1990s, while he was funded by the tobacco industry, Bate argued against the science which shows that exposure to tobacco causes cancer."

Helms long argued against the tax break for employer-sponsored health insurance, arguing that it distorts insurance markets and limits consumer choices.

Scott Gottlieb, also a medical doctor, rejoined AEI after a term as commissioner with the Food and Drug Administration. He has expressed concern about relatively unreliable comparative effectiveness research being used to restrict treatment options under a public plan.

Roger Bate's work includes international health policy, especially pharmaceutical quality, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and multilateral health organizations. In 2008, Dora Akunyili, then Nigeria's top drug safety official, spoke at an AEI event coinciding with the launch of Bate's book Making a Killing.

Paul Ryan, then-minority point man for health care in the House of Representatives, delivered the keynote address at a 2009 AEI conference on mandated universal coverage, insurance exchanges, the public plan option, medical practice and treatment, and revenue to cover federal health care costs.

In 2004, as Purdue Pharma, a company known as the maker of OxyContin, one of the many drugs abused in the opioid epidemic in the United States, was facing a threat to its sales due to rising lawsuits against it, resident fellow Sally Satel wrote an op ed for the New York Times. She commented, “When you scratch the surface of someone who is addicted to painkillers, you usually find a seasoned drug abuser with a previous habit involving pills, alcohol, heroin or cocaine. Contrary to media portrayals, the typical OxyContin addict does not start out as a pain patient who fell unwittingly into a drug habit.” According to AP, Satel "sometimes cited Purdue-funded studies and doctors in her articles on addiction for major news outlets and occasionally shared drafts of the pieces with Purdue officials in advance, including on occasions in 2004 and 2016." In 2018, she was hired by JD Vance's charity, Our Ohio Renewal, to a residency in Ohio. When this was criticised because of her ties to Purdue, Satel said she “never consulted with” or “took a cent from Purdue” and didn’t know Purdue had donated money to AEI.

After undergoing a kidney transplant in 2006, Satel expanded her work from drug addiction treatment and mental health to include studies of compensation systems that she argues would increase the supply of organs for transplant.

In addition to their work on pharmaceutical innovation and FDA regulation, Gottlieb and John E. Calfee have examined vaccine and antiviral drug supplies in the wake of the 2009 flu pandemic.

Legal and constitutional studies

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest, formed in 2007 from the merger of the National Legal Center for the Public Interest, houses all legal and constitutional research at AEI. Legal studies have a long pedigree at AEI; the institute was in the vanguard of the law and economics movement in the 1970s and 1980s with the publication of Regulation magazine and AEI Press books. Robert Bork published The Antitrust Paradox with AEI support. Other jurists, legal scholars, and constitutional scholars who have conducted research at AEI include Walter Berns, Richard Epstein, Bruce Fein, Robert Goldwin, Antonin Scalia, and Laurence Silberman.

The AEI Legal Center sponsors the annual Gauer Distinguished Lecture in Law and Public Policy. Past lecturers include Stephen Breyer, George H. W. Bush, Christopher Cox, Douglas Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, Colin Powell, Ronald Reagan, William Rehnquist, Condoleezza Rice, Margaret Thatcher, and William H. Webster.

Ted Frank, the director of the AEI Legal Center, focuses on liability law and tort reform. Michael S. Greve focuses on constitutional law and federalism, including federal preemption. Greve is a fixture in the conservative legal movement. According to Jonathan Rauch, in 2005, Greve convened "a handful of free-market activists and litigators met in a windowless 11th-floor conference room at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington" in opposition to the legality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. "By the time the meeting finished, the participants had decided to join forces and file suit... . No one paid much attention. But the yawning stopped on May 18, when the Supreme Court announced it will hear the case."

Political and public opinion studies

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

AEI's "Political Corner" includes a range of political viewpoints, from the center-left Norman J. Ornstein to the conservative Michael Barone. The Political Corner sponsors the biannual Election Watch series, the "longest-running election program in Washington", featuring Barone, Ornstein, Karlyn Bowman, and—formerly—Ben Wattenberg and Bill Schneider, among others. Ornstein and Fortier (an expert on absentee and early voting) collaborate on a number of election- and governance-related projects, including the Election Reform Project. AEI and Brookings are sponsoring a project on election demographics called "The Future of Red, Blue, and Purple America", co-directed by Bowman and Ruy Teixeira.

AEI's work on political processes and institutions has been a central part of the institute's research programs since the 1970s. The AEI Press published a series of several dozen volumes in the 1970s and 1980s called "At the Polls"; in each volume, scholars would assess a country's recent presidential or parliamentary election. AEI scholars have been called upon to observe and assess constitutional conventions and elections worldwide. In the early 1980s, AEI scholars were commissioned by the U.S. government to monitor plebiscites in Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands.

Another landmark in AEI's political studies is After the People Vote. AEI's work on election reform continued into the 1990s and 2000s; Ornstein led a working group that drafted the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

AEI published Public Opinion magazine from 1978 to 1990 under the editorship of Seymour Martin Lipset and Ben Wattenberg, assisted by Karlyn Bowman. The institute's work on polling continues with public opinion features in The American Enterprise and The American and Bowman's AEI Studies in Public Opinion.

Social and cultural studies

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "American Enterprise Institute" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

AEI's social and cultural studies program dates to the 1970s, when William J. Baroody Sr., perceiving the importance of the philosophical and cultural underpinnings of modern economics and politics, invited social and religious thinkers like Irving Kristol and Michael Novak to take up residence at AEI. Since then, AEI has sponsored research on a wide variety of issues, including education, religion, race and gender, and social welfare.

Supported by the Bradley Foundation, AEI has hosted since 1989 the Bradley Lecture Series, "which aims to enrich debate in the Washington policy community through exploration of the philosophical and historical underpinnings of current controversies". Notable speakers in the series have included Kristol, Novak, Allan Bloom, Robert Bork, David Brooks, Lynne Cheney, Ron Chernow, Tyler Cowen, Niall Ferguson, Francis Fukuyama, Eugene Genovese, Robert P. George, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Samuel P. Huntington (giving the first public presentation of his "clash of civilizations" theory in 1992), Paul Johnson, Leon Kass, Charles Krauthammer, Bernard Lewis, Seymour Martin Lipset, Harvey C. Mansfield, Michael Medved, Allan H. Meltzer, Edmund Morris, Charles Murray, Steven Pinker, Norman Podhoretz, Richard Posner, Jonathan Rauch, Andrew Sullivan, Cass Sunstein, Sam Tanenhaus, James Q. Wilson, John Yoo, and Fareed Zakaria.

Education

Education policy studies at AEI are directed by Frederick M. Hess. Hess co-directs AEI's Future of American Education Project, whose working group includes Washington, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee and Michael Feinberg, the cofounder of KIPP. Hess works closely with Rhee: she has spoken at AEI on several occasions and appointed Hess to be one of two independent reform evaluators for the District of Columbia Public Schools. Hess coauthored Diplomas and Dropouts, a report on university graduation rates that was widely publicized in 2009. The report, along with other education-related projects, was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

AEI is sometimes identified as a supporter of school vouchers, but Hess was critical of vouchers in 2009: "t is by now clear that aggressive reforms to bring market principles to American education have failed to live up to their billing. ... In the school choice debate, many reformers have gotten so invested in the language of 'choice' that they seem to forget choice is only half of the market equation. Markets are about both supply and demand—and, while 'choice' is concerned with emboldening consumer demand, the real action when it comes to prosperity, productivity, and progress is typically on the supply side."

AEI is a national allied organization of the American Federation for Children founded in 2010 by Dick and Betsy DeVos of the DeVos Family Foundation. The AEI were supportive of Betsy DeVos' positions when she served under Donald Trump as Education Secretary in 2017-21. Hess supported her plan to gut the Borrower Defense Rule, that enables defrauded students to seek debt relief. In a National Review op-ed, Hess praised DeVos’ proposal to base debt forgiveness on student income as “clearly better for colleges, taxpayers, and students”.

In a 2024 report co-authored with the Heritage Foundation, AEI argued that higher education institutions should not give faculty stipends to join or attend conferences of professional organizations because these groups make statements on political issues.

Funding

In the 1980s about 60% of its funding came from organizations like Lilly Endowment, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Trust and the Earhart Foundation. The remaining of their funding was from major corporations like Bethlehem Steel, Exxon, J.C. Penney and the Chase Manhattan Bank.

As of 2005 AEI had received $960,000 from ExxonMobil. Purdue Pharma, a company known as the maker of OxyContin, one of the many drugs abused in the opioid epidemic in the United States, donated $50,000 a year to the AEI from 2003 through 2019, plus contributions for special events, adding to a total greater than $800,000.

In the 2009 tax year, its four largest funders were a donor-advised fund, Donors Capital Fund ($2,000,000), Paul Singer ($1,100,000), the Kern Family Foundation ($1,071,912) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), Taiwan’s equivalent to an embassy. Seventh largest was the US Chamber of Commerce ($473,000). In 2010, AEI received a US$2.5 million grant from the Donors Capital Fund. Foundations associated with the Koch brothers have been major funders of the Institute.

A 2013 study by Drexel University Sociologist Robert J. Brulle noted that AEI received $86.7 million between 2003 and 2010.

AEI received more than $1.6 million from the Charles Koch Foundation between 2011 and 2016, over $5 million from conservative donor advised funds DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund between 2012 and 2016, over $1.7 million from the Sarah Scaife Foundation between 2012 and 2016, $480,000 from the Bradley Foundation from 2012 to 2016, and $425,000 from the Coors Foundation between 2011 and 2016.

In 2014, the charity evaluating service American Institute of Philanthropy gave AEI an "A−" grade in its CharityWatch "Top-Rated Charities" listing. AEI's revenues for the fiscal year ending June 2015 were $84,616,388 against expenses of $38,611,315.

In 2017-2018, the AEI received significant funding from the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, including $1 million in 2017.

See also

• List of American Enterprise Institute scholars and fellows
• Francis Boyer Award
• Irving Kristol Award

References

1. ^ "Annual Report" (PDF). American Enterprise Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
2. Hounshell, Blake (April 27, 2022). "Democrats Ask if They Should Hit Back Harder Against the G.O.P." The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 9, 2022. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
3. "Why the American Enterprise Institute chief is so popular". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
4. Steinhauer, Jennifer (February 25, 2014). "In New Home, Policy Group Gets Big Gift". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
5. ^ Schifferes, Steve (April 3, 2003). "Battle of the Washington think tanks". BBC News. Archived from the original on January 6, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
6. ^ Bondarenko, Peter (February 5, 2015). "American Enterprise Institute". Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago, Illinois: Britannica Group Inc. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
7. "Board of Trustees". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
8. "Authors". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
9. ^ Martin, Rachel (May 15, 2018). "Arthur Brooks To Step Down As President Of AEI". NPR. Archived from the original on June 21, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
10. Costa, Robert (January 18, 2019). "AEI names Robert Doar as new president as conservative movement tries to find its way in Trump era". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
11. ^ AEI. "History of AEI". Archived from the original on July 8, 2009. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
12. ^ "Board of Trustees". AEI. Archived from the original on February 29, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
13. ^ Van Atta, Dale (2008). With Honor: Melvin Laird in War, Peace, and Politics. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 55–56, 509. ISBN 978-0-299-22680-0.
14. ^ Abelson, Donald E. (2006). A Capitol Idea. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-3115-4.
15. Grazia, Alfred de (December 1964). "Essay in Apportionment and Representative Government". Political Science Quarterly. 79 (4): 612–614. doi:10.2307/2146715. JSTOR 2146715.
16. Schlesinger, Arthur (December 1969). "Review: New Perspectives on the Presidency?". Public Administration Review. 29 (6): 670–679. doi:10.2307/974112. JSTOR 974112.
17. Phillips-Fein, Kim (2009). Invisible Hands. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-393-05930-4.
18. ^ Rich, Andrew (2004). Think tanks, public policy, and the politics of expertise. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 54.
19. Judis, John B. (2001). The paradox of American democracy. London: Taylor and Francis.
20. Kristol, Irving (1995). Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea. New York: Free Press.
21. Weiner, Tim (December 9, 2006). "Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan's Forceful Envoy, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
22. Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (December 2003). "In the Tank: The Intellectual Decline of AEI". Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
23. ^ Ward, Ian (September 15, 2023). "Arthur Brooks Is Now a Self-Help Guru Writing Books with Oprah". POLITICO. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
24. See AEI's Annual Reports, 1980–1985.
25. Spackman, Andy (December 22, 2009). "The American Enterprise Institute (www.aei.org)". Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship. 15 (1): 44–50. doi:10.1080/08963560903017607. ISSN 0896-3568. S2CID 58839559.
26. DeParle, Jason (October 9, 1994). "Daring Research or 'Social Science Pornography'?". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on January 29, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
27. ^ Lampton, David M. (2024). Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 266. ISBN 978-1-5381-8725-8.
28. See AEI Annual Reports, 1988–89 and 2000.
29. Arin, Kubilay Yado (2013): Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy. Wiesbaden: VS Springer.
30. Abramowitz, Michael (July 19, 2006). "Conservative Anger Grows Over Bush's Foreign Policy". The Washington Post. p. A01. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
31. "President Bush Discusses Progress in Afghanistan, Global War on Terror" (Press release). The White House. February 15, 2007. Archived from the original on March 12, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
32. Rose, David (January 2007). "Neo Culpa". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on May 30, 2009. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
33. "George Bush's speech to the American Enterprise Institute". The Guardian. February 27, 2003. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
34. ^ Gordon, Michael R. (August 30, 2008). "Troop 'Surge' Took Place Amid Doubt and Debate". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 10, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
35. ^ Kagan, Frederick W. (January 5, 2007). "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq". American Enterprise Institute. Phase I Report. Archived from the original on April 8, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
36. Wade, Nicholas (March 19, 2002). "SCIENTIST AT WORK/Leon R. Kass; Moralist of Science Ponders Its Power". The New York Times. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
37. Gross, Terry (November 7, 2012). "Could A Second Term Mean More Gridlock?". NPR. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
38. ^ "2008 Annual Report" (PDF). American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 14, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
39. Weigel, David (March 13, 2009). "Conservative Think Tank Adjusts to Tough Times". Washington Independent. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
40. Brooks, Arthur C. (April 30, 2009). "The Real Culture War Is Over Capitalism". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 31, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
41. ^ Rose, David (February 26, 2014). "Why Was the Dalai Lama Hanging Out with the Right-Wing American Enterprise Institute?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
42. Young, Chris (June 25, 2014). "Kochs, American Enterprise Institute, and happiness and well-being research: Center for Public Integrity on the billionaires' research initiative". Slate Magazine. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
43. "AEI Says Goodbye". Frumforum.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
44. "A Farewell to Frum". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
45. ^ Montopoli, Brian (March 25, 2010). "GOP Commentator David Frum Loses Job After Criticizing Party". CBS News. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
46. "PostPartisan - AEI hits David Frum where it hurts". Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
47. Scherer, Michael (March 25, 2010). "Amid Column Furor, The American Enterprise Institute Dismisses David Frum". Time. Archived from the original on May 30, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2018 – via swampland.blogs.time.com.
48. Frum, David (March 21, 2010). "Waterloo". FrumForum. Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
49. Allen, Mike (March 26, 2010). "Frum thinks critique of GOP led to boot -- 2 big bipartisan bashes -- Chris Matthews, cornered -- HHS Secretary is vastly more powerful -- Jackie Calmes to White House beat -- Kimberly Dozier to AP". Politico. ISSN 2381-1595. OCLC 864712228. Archived from the original on March 29, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
50. "AEI names Robert Doar new President". The Washington Post. January 18, 2019. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
51. "President Tsai meets delegation from American Enterprise Institute". english.president.gov.tw. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
52. "US think tank commits to strengthening US-Taiwan defense ties | Taiwan News | 2023-10-16 15:56:00". Taiwan News. October 16, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
53. "Officers". AEI. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
54. "Council of Academic Advisers". AEI. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
55. ^ Lawrence, Felicity; Evans, Rob; Pegg, David; Barr, Caelainn; Duncan, Pamela (November 29, 2019). "How the right's radical thinktanks reshaped the Conservative party". the Guardian. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
56. ^ "Here Are The Corporations And Right-Wing Funders Backing The Education Reform Movement". Media Matters for America. April 27, 2016. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
57. Saunders, Frances Stonor: The Cultural Cold War The New Press, 1999.
58. ^ "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to receive 2015 AEI Irving Kristol Award". aei.org. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
59. Lofflmann, Georg (2017). American Grand Strategy under Obama: Competing Discourses. Edinburgh University Press. p. 121.
60. "UK's Braverman lobbies in US for tougher asylum rules – DW – 09/26/2023". dw.com. September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
61. Lawless, Jill (September 26, 2023). "The UK's hardline immigration chief says international rules make it too easy to seek asylum". AP News. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
62. Withnall, Adam (April 17, 2014). "Edward Snowden is a 'self-publicising narcissist' who committed". The Independent. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
63. "An insider's guide to the upcoming week". The Washington Post. April 30, 2007. p. A02. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
64. Milbank, Dana (December 8, 2000). "White House Hopes Gas Up A Think Tank: For Center-Right AEI, Bush Means Business". The Washington Post. p. A39.
65. "Election Reform Project". Archived from the original on February 11, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
66. "OPPORTUNITY, RESPONSIBILITY, AND SECURITY : A CONSENSUS PLAN FOR REDUCING POVERTY AND RESTORING THE AMERICAN DREAM" (PDF). Brookings.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 13, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
67. Feeney, Lauren (December 12, 2015). "To reduce poverty, a plan experts across the political spectrum can agree upon". PBS News. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
68. James G. McGann (director) (January 20, 2012). "The Global Go To Think Tank Report, 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 31, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2014. Other AEI "Top Think Tank" rankings include #32 in Security and International Affairs, #3 in Health Policy, #10 in Domestic Economic Policy, #9 in International Economic Policy, and #7 in Social Policy. By "Special Achievement" AEI's rating is #13 in Most Innovative Policy Ideas/Proposals, #13 in Outstanding Policy-Oriented Public Policy Research Programs, #20 in Best Use of the Internet or Social Media to Engage the Public, #13 in Best Use of the Media (Print or Electronic) to Communicate Programs and Research, #15 in Best External Relations/Public Engagement Programs, and #13 in Greatest Impact on Public Policy (Global).
69. Chafuen, Alejandro. "The 2019 Ranking Of Free-Market Think Tanks Measured By Social Media Impact". Forbes. Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
70. "AEI's Organization and Purposes". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
71. McKinnon, John D. (July 12, 2008). "Critic of the Firms Sadly Says 'Told You'". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012.
72. Holmes, Stephen A. (September 30, 1999). "Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending". The New York Times. p. C2. Archived from the original on March 23, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
73. Wallison, Peter J. (2001). "Introduction". In Wallison, Peter J. (ed.). Serving Two Masters, Yet Out of Control: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. AEI Studies on Financial Market Deregulation. Washington, DC: AEI Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-8447-4166-6. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009.
74. "Breakfast with Jim Lockhart and Senator Chuck Hagel". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. September 13, 2006. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
75. Wallison, Peter J. (August 26, 2008). "Fannie and Freddie by Twilight". Financial Services Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009.
76. Labaton, Stephen; Andrews, Edmund L. (September 7, 2008). "In Rescue to Stabilize Lending, U.S. Takes Over Mortgage Finance Titans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 21, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
77. "Mortgage Credit and Subprime Lending: Implications of a Deflating Bubble". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. March 28, 2007. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
78. "The Deflating Mortgage and Housing Bubble, Part II". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. October 11, 2007. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
79. "The Deflating Mortgage and Housing Bubble, Part III: What Next?". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. March 12, 2008. Archived from the original on April 19, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
80. "The Deflating Mortgage and Housing Bubble, Part IV: Where Is the Bottom?". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. October 30, 2008. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
81. "The Deflating Bubble, Part V: Forecast and Policy Recommendations for the Next Six Months". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. March 17, 2009. Archived from the original on December 28, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
82. Makin, John H. (December 2006). "Housing and American Recessions". Economic Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009.
83. Pollock, Alex J. (May 2, 2007). "To Make Mortgages Fair, Keep Disclosures To a Page". The American. Archived from the original on June 26, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
84. Rucker, Patrick (June 15, 2007). "One-page mortgage form pitched as simplicity tool". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 9, 2008. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
85. Mayer, Jane (2016). Dark Money. Doubleday. pp. 291–293. ISBN 978-0-385-53559-5.
86. ^ American Enterprise Institute, Research Highlights, accessed April 7, 2008. Archived copy at the Library of Congress (November 3, 2011).
87. Hassett, Kevin A.; Hubbard, R. Glenn, eds. (2001). Transition Costs of Fundamental Tax Reform. Washington, DC: AEI Press. ISBN 978-0-8447-4112-3. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Auerbach, Alan J.; Hassett, Kevin A., eds. (2005). Toward Fundamental Tax Reform. Washington, DC: AEI Press. ISBN 978-0-8447-4234-2. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
88. Viard, Alan D., ed. (2009). Tax Policy Lessons from the 2000s. Washington, DC: AEI Press. ISBN 978-0-8447-4278-6. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009.
89. Hassett, Kevin A.; Mathur, Aparna (July 6, 2006). "Taxes and Wages". American Enterprise Institute. working paper. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
90. "A toll on the common man". The Economist. June 29, 2006.
91. Brill, Alex; Hassett, Kevin A. (July 31, 2007). "Revenue-Maximizing Corporate Income Taxes: The Laffer Curve in OECD Countries". American Enterprise Institute. working paper. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
92. Editorial (December 26, 2006). "The Wages of Growth". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 27, 2008. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
93. "Events". Reg-Markets Center. Archived from the original on July 12, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
94. "Research Highlights". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. November 3, 2011. Archived from the original on November 3, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
95. Hayward, Steven F. (February 15, 2005). "Climate Change Science: Time for 'Team B'?". AEI. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
96. Bate, Roger (August 2, 2005). "Climate Change Policy after the G8 Summit". AEI. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
97. Oreskes, Naomi; Conway, Erik M. (2010). Merchants of Doubt. Bloomsbury Press. pp. 125, 165, 217, 232, 234, 247. ISBN 978-1-59691-610-4.
98. Hassett, Kevin A. (June 1, 2007). "Climate Change: Caps vs. Taxes". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on August 25, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
99. Sample, Ian (February 2, 2007). "Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
100. Floyd, Chris (February 3, 2007). "American Enterprise Institute allegedly offers bribes to scientists for disputing UN climate change report". Atlantic Free Press. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
101. Wendland, Joel (February 6, 2007). "Big Oil, the American Enterprise Institute, and their War on Science". Political Affairs Magazine. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
102. Eilperin, Juliet (February 5, 2007). "AEI Critiques of Warming Questioned: Think Tank Defends Money Offers to Challenge Climate Report". The Washington Post. p. A04. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
103. American Enterprise Institute. "Letter to Prof. Steve Schroeder" (PDF). ThinkProgress. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
104. "Global Warming Smear". The Guardian. February 2, 2007. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
105. Samuelson, Robert J. (August 20–27, 2007). "Greenhouse Simplicities". Newsweek. p. 47. Archived from the original on December 17, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
106. Editorial (February 9, 2007). "Global Warming Smear". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 19, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
107. "Global Warming Smear". Wall Street Journal. February 9, 2007. Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
108. AEI also backs the carbon taxation policy due to an incentive to reduce the use of carbon-intensive energy that would result. "The increased costs of energy would flow through the economy, ultimately giving consumers incentives to reduce their use of electricity, transportation fuels, home heating oil, and so forth". Along with consumers reducing their use of carbon-energy, they will be inclined to buy more efficient appliances, cars, and homes that apply "more attention to energy conservation".Green, Kenneth P.; Hassett, Kevin A.; Hayward, Stephen F. (June 1, 2007). "Climate Change: Caps vs. Taxes?". Environmental Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
109. Lane, Lee (2006). Strategic Options for Bush Administration Climate Policy. Washington, DC: AEI Press. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
110. Lane, Lee; Thernstrom, Samuel (January 19, 2007). "A New Direction for Bush Administration Climate Policy". Environmental Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
111. Thernstrom, Samuel (June 23, 2008). "Resetting Earth's Thermostat". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
112. "Is Nuclear Power a Solution to Global Warming and Rising Energy Prices?". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. October 6, 2006. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
113. "Ethanol: Boon or Boondoggle?". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. November 8, 2006. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
114. Green, Kenneth P. (July 29, 2008). "Ethanol and the Environment". Environmental Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
115. Green, Kenneth P.; Mathur, Aparna (December 4, 2008). "Measuring and Reducing Americans' Indirect Energy Use". Environmental Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
116. Green, Kenneth P.; Mathur, Aparna (March 4, 2009). "Indirect Energy and Your Wallet". Environmental Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on May 13, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
117. Hahn, Robert W. (October 1, 2007). "Time to Change U.S. Climate Policy". AEI. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 11, 2009.
118. "One Answer to Global Warming: A New Tax". AEI. September 16, 2007. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
119. Thernstrom, Samuel (June 5, 2009). "White Makes Right? Steven Chu's Helpful Idea". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on January 13, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
120. "To Slow Climate Change, Tax Carbon". AEI. February 13, 2009. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
121. Hayward, Steven F. (June 12, 2006). "Acclimatizing: How to Think Sensibly about Global Warming". AEI. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
122. Hayward, Steven F. (May 15, 2006). "How to Think Sensibly, or Ridiculously, About Global Warming". AEI. Archived from the original on December 26, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
123. Green, Kenneth (May 8, 2006). "Clouds of Global-Warming Hysteria". National Review Online. Archived from the original on December 26, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
124. DeMuth, Christopher (September 2001). "The Kyoto Treaty Deserved to Die". The American Enterprise. Archived from the original on December 9, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
125. Confessore, Nicholas (December 2003). "How James Glassman reinvented journalism—as lobbying". Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
126. Glassman, James K. (December 15, 2003). "Certainty of Catastrophic Global Warming is a Hoax". Capitalism Magazine. Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
127. Glassman, James K. (December 14, 2004). "Global Warming: Extremists on the Run". AEI. Archived from the original on January 3, 2006. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
128. Schwartz, Joel (July 2007). "A North Carolina Citizen's Guide to Global Warming" (PDF). John Locke Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
129. ^ "Right-wing think tank accused of promoting tobacco and oil industry "propaganda" in schools". openDemocracy. November 28, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
130. Holmes, Jack (November 26, 2018). "Chuck Todd's 'Meet The Press' Hosts Danielle Pletka of American Enterprise Institute to Dispute Climate Change". Esquire. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
131. "Michael Ledeen". BBC NEWS. May 18, 2003. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
132. Heilbrunn, Jacob (December 19, 2008). "Flight of the Neocons". The National Interest. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
133. Weigel, David (March 11, 2009). "Former AEI Scholar Blasts Danielle Pletka". The Washington Independent. Archived from the original on June 20, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
134. Woodward, Bob (2008). The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006–2008. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416558989.
135. Kagan, Frederick W. (April 25, 2007). "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq". American Enterprise Institute. Phase II Report. Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.; Kagan, Frederick W. (September 6, 2007). "No Middle Way: The Challenge of Exit Strategies from Iraq". American Enterprise Institute. Phase III Report. Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.; Kagan, Frederick W. (March 24, 2008). "Iraq: The Way Ahead". American Enterprise Institute. Phase IV Report. Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
136. "AEI Expands Asian Studies Program". American Enterprise Institute - AEI. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
137. ^ Clifton, Eli (June 25, 2013). "The Secret Foreign Donor Behind the American Enterprise Institute". The Nation. Archived from the original on March 19, 2020.
138. Ceaser, James W. (January 25, 2010). "Why Tocqueville on China?". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on February 6, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
139. Falcoff, Mark (2003). Cuba the Morning After: Confronting Castro's Legacy. Washington: AEI Press.
140. "Battling the Deadly Drug Cartels in Mexico: A Shared Responsibility". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. November 8, 2007. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
141. Azarva, Jeffrey; Pletka, Danielle; Rubin, Michael (2008). Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats. Washington: AEI Press.
142. "Critical Threats". Critical Threats. Archived from the original on January 30, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
143. Bolton, John R. (2007). Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad. New York: Simon and Schuster.
144. Bauer, P. T. (1959). United States Aid and Indian Economic Development. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
145. Banfield, Edward C. (1970). American Foreign Aid Doctrines. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
146. "- AEI". AEI. October 19, 2012. Archived from the original on April 2, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
147. Eberstadt, Nicholas (May 8, 2024). "East Asia's Coming Population Collapse". Foreign Affairs. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
148. "Nicholas Eberstadt | Scholars". American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
149. ^ Bate, Roger (2008). Making a Killing. Washington: AEI Press.
150. Bate, Roger (2006). All the Water in the World. St. Leonard's, Australia: Centre for Independent Studies.
151. American Enterprise Institute, Annual Report, 1981–82.
152. Antos, Joseph; P. Miller, Thomas (February 23, 2010). A Better Prescription (PDF). American Enterprise Institute.
153. Cogan, John F.; Hubbard, R. Glenn; Kessler, Daniel P. (2005). Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
154. Glied, Sherry (1994). Revising the Tax Treatment of Employer-Provided Health Insurance. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
155. Helms, Robert B., ed. (1993). American Health Policy: Critical Issues for Reform. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
156. Helms, Robert B. (January 2005). "Tax Reform and Health Insurance". Health Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on June 13, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009. Dowd, Bryan E. (September 2007). "The Bush Administration's Health Insurance Tax Reform Proposal". Health Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on June 13, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009. Helms, Robert B. (June 2009). "Taxing Health Insurance: A Tax Designed to Be Avoided". Health Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
157. ^ Armstrong, David (November 19, 2019). "Inside Purdue Pharma's Media Playbook: How It Planted the Opioid 'Anti-Story'". ProPublica. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
158. Gottlieb, Scott (February 2009). "Promoting and Using Comparative Research: What Are the Promises and Pitfalls of a New Federal Effort?". Health Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.Gottlieb, Scott; Klasmeier, Coleen (June 2009). "Comparative Effectiveness Research: The Need for a Uniform Standard". Health Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
159. See conference information at "AEI - Cracking Down on Killer Drugs: Dora Akunyili and the Nigerian Success Story". Archived from the original on June 20, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
160. See conference information at "AEI - the Five (Not So) Easy Pieces of Health Reform". Archived from the original on June 18, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009..
161. Smyth, Julie Carr (August 18, 2022). "Vance's anti-drug charity enlisted doctor echoing Big Pharma". AP News. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
162. Satel, Sally (December 16, 2007). "Desperately Seeking a Kidney". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
163. Satel, Sally, ed. (2009). When Altruism Isn't Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
164. Gottlieb, Scott (May 2009). "Vaccine Readiness in a Time of Pandemic: Policy Promises Realized and the Challenges That Remain". Health Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009. Calfee, John E. (June 2009). "And Now, a Few Words about Antivirals for Pandemic Flu". Health Policy Outlook. American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
165. Bork, Robert H. (1978). The Antitrust Paradox. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 9780465003693.
166. Gauer Distinguished Lecture in Law and Public Policy Archived June 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
167. "Ted Frank Biography". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Archived from the original on July 2, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
168. Greve, Michael S., ed. (2007). Federal Preemption: States' Powers, National Interests. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
169. Rauch, Jonathan (June 6, 2009). "The Peculiar Problem Of 'Peekaboo'". National Journal.
170. "American Enterprise Institute's Political Corner". Archived from the original on April 20, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
171. Ornstein, Norman J. (September 10, 2007). "My Neocon Problem". The New Republic. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
172. Clemons, Steve (August 31, 2007). "Norm Ornstein's Neocon Problem". The Washington Note. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
173. Hassett, Kevin A. (July 11, 2011). "Corporate Cash Balances and Economic Activity". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
174. Fortier, John C. (2006). Absentee and Early Voting. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
175. "AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project". February 11, 2009. Archived from the original on February 11, 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
176. "The Future of Red, Blue, and Purple America". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. February 28, 2008. Archived from the original on July 4, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
177. American Enterprise Institute, Annual Report, 1982-1983; Ranney, Austin, ed. (1985). Democracy in the Islands: The Micronesian Plebiscites of 1983. Washington, DC: AEI Press.
178. The first two editions (in 1980 and 1992) were edited by Walter Berns; the 2004 edition was edited by John C. Fortier and included contributions from Berns, Norman J. Ornstein, Akhil Amar, Vikram Amar, and Martin Diamond. Fortier, John C., ed. (2004). After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College. Washington: AEI Press. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
179. Ornstein, Norman J.; Carrado, Anthony (April 1, 2007). "Reform That Has Really Paid Off". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
180. Richey, Warren (December 11, 2003). "Court upholds 'soft money' ban". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
181. "AEI Studies in Public Opinion". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Archived from the original on October 31, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
182. Kristol, Irving; Novak, Michael (December 11, 1980). "Remembrances of William J. Baroody, Sr". Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
183. "Bradley Lecture Series". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on February 20, 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
184. DeBonis, Mike (March 4, 2009). "Fund and Games". City Paper. Washington. Archived from the original on January 11, 2010. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
185. See, for example: Lozada, Carlos (June 3, 2009). "Making It to Pomp and Circumstance". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2009. ; Marklein, Mary Beth (June 3, 2009). "4-year colleges graduate 53% of students in 6 years". USA Today. Archived from the original on June 6, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
186. "Diplomas and Dropouts Report Exposes Dramatic Variation in Completion Rates at Colleges and Universities Across the Country" (Press release). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. June 3, 2009. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
187. "American Enterprise Institute For Public Policy Research". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
188. Kahlenberg, Richard D. (January 31, 2017). "Are Vouchers the Answer to Obama's Failed School-Reform Initiative?". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
189. "Right Wing Watch". Archived from the original on July 1, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
190. Hess, Frederick M. (September–October 2009). "After Milwaukee". The American. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
191. Derysh, Igor (December 19, 2019). "Exclusive: Betsy DeVos' family foundation funnels money to right-wing groups that boost her agenda". Salon. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
192. Blake, Jessica (August 27, 2024). "Academic associations face critique for political statements". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
193. Weinraub, Bernard (January 15, 1981). "INSTITUTE PLAYS KEY ROLE IN SHAPING REAGAN PROGRAMS". The New York Times.
194. "Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank". Archived from the original on April 17, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
195. Hickley, Walter (February 12, 2013). "Inside The Secretive Dark-Money Organization That's Keeping The Lights On For Conservative Groups". Business Insider. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
196. Brulle, Robert J. (January 25, 2013), "Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations", Climatic Change, 122 (4): 681, Bibcode:2014ClCh..122..681B, doi:10.1007/s10584-013-1018-7, S2CID 27538787, archived from the original on October 9, 2019, retrieved October 12, 2019
197. "Top Rated Charities". Charity Watch. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
198. "IRS Form 990". GuideStar. Internal Revenue Service. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
199. "A look at DeVos family philanthropic giving". POLITICO. December 7, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2024.

External links

• Official website
• "American Enterprise Institute Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

• American Enterprise Institute
• Advocacy groups in the United States
• Climate change denial
• Conservative organizations in the United States
• Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
• Organizations established in 1938
• Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.
• Neoconservatism
• Political and economic think tanks in the United States
• Think tanks based in Washington, D.C.