The Hoover Institution is an American public policy think tank located at Stanford University in California. Its official name is the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. It began as a library founded in 1919 by Republican Herbert Hoover,[2] before he became President of the United States. The library, known as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, houses multiple archives related to Hoover, World War I, World War II, and other world history.
The Hoover Institution is a unit of Stanford University but has its own board of overseers. It is located on the campus. Its mission statement outlines its basic tenets: representative government, private enterprise, peace, personal freedom, and the safeguards of the American system.
The Hoover Institution is an influential voice in American public policy. The Institution has long been a place of scholarship for individuals who previously held high-profile positions in government, such as Edwin Meese, Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Amy Zegart—all Hoover Institution fellows. In 2007, retired U.S. Army General John P. Abizaid, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, was named the Institution's first Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow.
