The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) was founded in Washington, D.C., during October 1963
as an independent, left-leaning source of policy research for government, scholars,
activists, and the general public.
The discussions that led to the formation of IPS began during the spring of 1962 between
Marcus Raskin and Richard Barnet, whose respective experiences in public service during the
late 1950s and early 1960s had convinced them that the United States federal government was
unresponsive to public needs.
Marcus Raskin, who provided the organizational spark, was born in Milwaukee in 1934. He
briefly studied at the Juilliard School of Music, and then transferred to the University of
Chicago, graduating with a B.A. and then a law degree. Raskin began his career in government
as the legislative counsel to a loose-knit group of liberal congressmen known as the Liberal
Project that was headed by Robert Kastenmeier of Wisconsin and James Roosevelt of
California. It was through Raskin that the Liberal Project became associated with
intellectuals such as David Reisman and James Warburg. In 1961 Raskin became an assistant to
McGeorge Bund, President Kennedy's national security advisor, and then transferred to a
position with the Presidential Panel on Education when discussion about IPS began in 1962.
As of 2009, Raskin continued to work as a distinguished fellow at IPS.
Richard J. Barnet was born in Boston in 1929 and educated at Harvard University and Harvard
Law School. In 1963 when IPS was organized he was an aide to John J. McCloy in the U.S. Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency. Barnet served on the boards of several foreign policy
organizations, and wrote 15 books and numerous articles and opinion pieces. His Global Reach, the Power of the Multinational Corporations (1974)
was one of the first books to recognize the negative effects of globalization. Barnet served
as co-director, later senior fellow, and finally distinguished fellow of IPS until his
retirement in 1998. Richard Barnet died in 2004.
So that IPS could offer an independent policy critique, Barnet and Raskin did not accept
government funding. As a result, much of their earliest work consisted of fundraising, with
the crucial money coming from the Stern Family Fund, the Samuel Rubin Foundation, and James
P. Warburg. During its first months IPS merged with the Peace Research Institute (PRI),
which was then in the process of dissolution, and Arthur O. Waskow of the PRI staff joined
IPS. Thanks to Waskow, many of the activities initiated by IPS were influenced by PRI
programs.
IPS was governed by a board of trustees and structured on the academic model; Barnet,
Raskin, and Waskow were fellows, while individuals who joined the staff to work on specific
projects and programs received associate fellow status. IPS also implemented an academic
tenure system, although it was ultimately unable to raise sufficient funds to sustain it.
IPS also offered visiting fellowships to scholars needing a research base in the District of
Columbia.
One of the most important IPS projects was the creation of alternative educational programs
that included seminars for scholars and congressional staff by which IPS hoped to influence
government policy, student internships, and a Ph.D. program offered in conjunction with
Union Graduate School. In 1979 IPS established the Washington School of Politics and Ideas
to offer continuing education classes, seminars, and workshops to the general public. Over
the years some of the nation's leading liberal intellectuals spoke at IPS-sponsored
events.
During the 1960s, providing an intellectual home for students, many of whom were civil
rights and anti-Vietnam War activists, led IPS to active opposition to the war. Raskin and
Bernard Fall authored the Viet-Nam Reader, which served as a
text for many anti-war teach-ins. “A Call to Resist,” a paper written by Raskin led to his
indictment on conspiracy charges along with Benjamin Spock as one of the Boston Five. Raskin
was ultimately acquitted.
Funding problems began during the 1970s. This was due in part to the institute's active
opposition to the war and its need to increase the number of women fellows. To meet the
financial crisis, the leaders proposed cutting staff salaries. In addition to the salary
issue, the staff argued about the relative emphasis to be placed on academic pursuits,
seminars, and conferences (an orientation more generally favored by grant funders) versus
social action organizing. Ultimately, twelve fellows formed a local of the American
Federation of Teachers. After Raskin, Barnet, and the IPS Board failed to recognize the
union, several staff members left and organized the Public Resource Center. The PRC
continued for several years, and IPS continued to focus its intellectual work on policy
issues.
In addition to its educational programs, IPS spread its influence by fostering the
development of organizations based on the IPS model such as the Bay Area Institute for
Public Policy (1969); the Cambridge Institute founded by IPS fellows Gar Alperovitz and
Christopher Jencks (1969); the Harvard Project on Work, Technology and Character established
by IPS fellow Michael Maccoby (1969); Health/PAC begun by Robb Burlage (1967); the Institute
for Southern Studies founded by Sue Thrasher and others (1970); the National Association of
Neighborhoods established by Kotler; and World Peacemakers (1978). IPS also played a role in
the establishment of the Government Accountability Project. Publications of IPS and its
affiliates similarly extended the institute's influence. These journals included The Elements, edited by James Ridgeway; In
These Times, founded by James Weinstein and Martin J. Sklar in 1976; Mother Jones, established by Paul Jacobs and others in 1976;
Quest, a quarterly feminist journal founded by Charlotte
Bunch; Southern Exposure, the quarterly magazine of the
Institute for Southern Studies; Working Papers for a New
Society, published by the Cambridge Institute, and the Pacific News Service, which
began as a project of the Bay Area Institute. IPS itself published many books and
monographs. The IPS fellows and associates, as individuals, also expanded the institute's
influence through participation in organizations such as the Council for a Livable World,
the National Conference for New Politics, and the New Democratic Coalition.
To create a forum for the study of international issues, in 1973 IPS organized the
Transnational Institute (TNI), with offices in Amsterdam and London. Orlando Letelier, an
exiled leader of the former leftist Chilean government of Salvador Allende, was appointed
director of TNI. On September 21, 1976, Letelier and his IPS associate Ronni Karpen Moffitt
were killed in Washington, D.C., by a bomb planted in Letelier's car by agents of Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet. Because of his diplomatic status Letelier's murder became a
federal matter. However, the FBI investigation languished which may have been because of a
combination of international diplomatic considerations and the fact that IPS was then
involved in a suit against the FBI for illegal surveillance. As a result, during the late
1970s and 1980s IPS was greatly concerned with the repercussions of the Letelier-Moffitt
assassination. Ultimately, IPS fellow Saul Landau, who took over Letelier's leadership of
TNI, headed an investigation of the crime which resulted in a book, Assassination on Embassy Row, published with John Dinges. IPS and Isabel Letelier, who joined the institute after her husband's death,
worked to keep alive awareness of the crime by establishing an annual award for achievement
in social justice. Despite persistent efforts, IPS was unable to bring to justice those
individuals involved in the crime who were harbored by Pinochet in Chile.
In addition to the focus on the Letelier assassination, IPS devoted a great deal of its
resources to combating ongoing attacks from the right wing media. During the Nixon
Administration IPS was the subject of surveillance by the FBI for its anti-war actions. As
the public mood became more conservative during the Reagan Administration, IPS was less able
to influence government. At the same time, however, the right wing proclaimed that the IPS
was a powerful and dangerous radical organization and a front for Soviet policy. The attacks
on IPS culminated in 1981 in the publication of The Spike, a
novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave about a think tank that operated as a Communist front. It was
widely believed that The Spike was a thinly veiled depiction
of the Institute for Policy Studies. Despite the attacks, IPS pointed to a range of
accomplishments during the 1980s that included ongoing talks with the Soviets about
disarmament and democratization, important scholarship about the dangers of nuclear weapons
and the International Monetary Fund, the initiation of the Real Security Education Project
and the Third World Women's Project, and the publication of dozens of books on the most
important issues of the period.
