Stanley Foundation

Stanley Foundation

Formation	1956
Type	Public Policy Think Tank
Location	Muscatine, Iowa
Chairman	Richard H. Stanley
President	Keith Porter
Website	www.stanleyfoundation.org

The Stanley Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, private operating foundation. Foundation programming is focused on promoting and building support for principled multilateralism in addressing international issues. The foundation was founded in 1956 by C. Maxwell Stanley, a professional engineer, businessman, and world citizen, and is headquartered in Muscatine, IA. According to its mission statement, “The Stanley Foundation advances multilateral action to create fair, just, and lasting solutions to critical issues of peace and security.” The foundation's current work includes specific actions toward policy change in the strategic areas of nuclear policy, human protection, and climate change, in addition to educational efforts.^[1]

History

C. Maxwell and Elizabeth M. Stanley created the Stanley Foundation in 1956.^[2] Policy dialogue work started in 1960 with the Strategy for Peace Conference, and the first conference on the United Nations of the Next Decade was held in 1965. Project Enrichment, the initial community education program, began in the Muscatine schools in 1971. Following Max Stanley’s death in 1984, Richard H. Stanley became president of the Foundation. Like his father, Dick is a professional engineer, businessman, and world citizen. In 1989, a two-tier governance structure was established to facilitate Foundation continuity and greater family involvement. From 2007 to January 2013, Vladimir P. Sambaiew served as the Foundation's president, capping a distinguished 30-year career as a Foreign Service Officer in the US Department of State.^[3] After his retirement he was replaced on January 11, 2013 by Keith Porter, who had been with the Stanley Foundation for 24 years prior to his election.^[4] Dick Stanley continues as Board chair. Foundation staff has increased in numbers and capabilities, and the foundation continues active interactions with governments, international institutions, and non-state actors.

Programming

Over the years, programming has grown, changed, and expanded, with periodic reviews and adjustments to update priorities and sharpen focus. In addition to a diverse series of events and programs, the Stanley Foundation has historically been recognized for his media. From 1974 to 2004, the foundation published the influential international news magazine World Press Review. Common Ground, an award-winning weekly radio program on world affairs, ran from 1980 to 2004.^[5] The Stanley Foundation's current work includes specific actions toward policy change in the strategic functional areas of nuclear policy, human protection, and climate change as well as educational efforts.

Climate Change

The Stanley Foundation is engaging key stakeholders at multiple levels to determine and pursue transformational pathways necessary to reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5° C. In particular, programming focuses on advancing the determination of necessary transformational pathways to inspire policy development and action that make a 1.5° C target achievable, encouraging sub- and nonstate actors to be on the leading edge of identifying and pursuing necessary transformational pathways to limit warming to 1.5° C., fostering cooperation between and among advocates, sub- and nonstate actors, and the policymaking community as they innovate on the most challenging transformational pathways to limit warming to 1.5° C. The foundation is part of Galvanizing the Groundswell of Climate Actions, which is working to promote stronger and more ambitious sub- and nonstate climate action and as a catalyst for transformational actions at all levels. ^[6]

Nuclear policy

The Stanley Foundation works to help global governance and technology development co-evolve in ways that manage or leverage the disruptive effects of emerging technologies on strategic stability, nonproliferation, and disarmament. Efforts focus on helping establish shared definitions of the risks and opportunities that emerging technologies pose for strategic stability, nonproliferation, and disarmament, informing and support existing nuclear governance institutions as they adapt to be more responsive to the risks of emerging technologies, engendering collective responsibility among stakeholders for managing the disruptive effects of emerging technologies and identifying and promoting innovative ways that emerging technologies can be applied to improve strategic stability, strengthen nonproliferation, and promote disarmament.^[7]

Preventing genocide

To prevent the next mass atrocity, the Stanley Foundation engages UN officials, diplomats, and policymakers to support full implementation of the Responsibility to Protect—particularly as a preventive framework. The foundation works to promote strategic policy approaches to pre-crisis atrocity prevention and greater international coordination in both preventing and responding to mass atrocity threats.

The foundation also considers civil society perspectives for building state capacity to prevent atrocity crimes. ^[8]

Community partnerships

The Stanley Foundation partners with community organizations to provide educational opportunities and support in the local community.^[9] These opportunities include presentations of the Earth Awareness Portable Classroom in Iowa and the immediate Quad Cities area, the chance for local educators to study and travel internationally through The Catherine Miller Explorer Awards, and various international events, such as the Iowa Student Global Leadership Conference.

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