The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University. The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of defense, geopolitical, economic security, and global development issues throughout the world, with a focus on issues concerning international relations, trade, technology, finance, energy and geostrategy. CSIS is officially a bipartisan think tank with scholars that represent varying points of view across the political spectrum. It is known for inviting well-known foreign policy and public service officials from the U.S. Congress and the executive branch, including those affiliated with either the Democratic or the Republican Party, as well as foreign officials of varying political backgrounds. It has been labeled a broadly "centrist" think tank by U.S. News & World Report. CSIS is regularly called upon by Congress, the executive branch, and the media for analysis of foreign policy and recommendations to improve U.S. strategy. It conveys research through original data and multimedia tools as well as traditional reports, and it is seen as an industry leader in multimedia among other policy organizations. Its analysis has been awarded favorable scores for lack of bias, factual reporting and credibility by independent fact checkers.
History
1960s The center was founded in 1962 by Arleigh Burke and David Manker Abshire. It originally was part of Georgetown University. It officially opened its doors on September 4, shortly before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The original office was located one block away from Georgetown's campus in a small brick townhouse located at 1316 36th Street. The first professional staff member hired was Richard V. Allen who later served in the Reagan administration. At a conference held in the Hall of Nations at Georgetown University in January 1963, the center developed its blueprint for its intellectual agenda. The book that emerged from the conference, National Security: Political, Military and Economic Strategies in the Decade Ahead, was more than one thousand pages long. The book set out a framework for discussing national security and defined areas of agreement and disagreement within the Washington foreign policy community during the Cold War. The book argued for a strategic perspective on global affairs and also defined a school of thought within international relations studies for that period. The practitioners of this school of thought subsequently made their way to the pinnacles of U.S. policymaking, particularly during the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations.
1970s By the mid to late 1970s, many scholars who worked at the center had found their way to senior positions in government in the Department of State or Department of Defense. When Henry Kissinger retired from his position as U.S. Secretary of State in 1977, Harvard University declined to offer him a professorship. He decided to teach part-time at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and to make CSIS the base for his Washington operations, over offers to teach at Yale, Penn, Columbia, and Oxford. Kissinger's decision to become affiliated with the Washington-based institution attracted more public attention for the center than virtually any event in the preceding fifteen years. Following Kissinger's involvement, other cabinet-level officials, including James Schlesinger, Bill Brock, William J. Crowe, and Harold Brown, joined CSIS in the late 1970s. When Zbigniew Brzezinski joined the center in 1981 after the end of the Carter administration, he worked on issues related to the Soviet Union and Poland's transition to a market economy. The arrangements for these senior government officials allowed them to write, lecture, and consult with media and business firms, and are typical of the way CSIS can incorporate high-level policymakers when they leave government. During the 1970s and 1980s, a myriad of think tanks either expanded operations or emerged in Washington, D.C., representing a range of ideological positions and specialized policy interests.
1980s In 1986, several Georgetown University professors criticized CSIS staff members for giving academically unsupported assessments of foreign policy issues during public interviews. Donations to Georgetown University decreased because of its association with CSIS. A special committee studied the friction, and its report stated that CSIS was more focused on the media than on scholarly research and recommended that CSIS be formally separated from Georgetown University. On October, 17, 1986, Georgetown University's board of directors voted to sever all ties with CSIS. The Center for Strategic and International Studies was incorporated in Washington, D.C. on December 29, 1986, and the formal affiliation between Georgetown and CSIS ended on July 1, 1987.
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