About the Institute
As Washington’s first progressive multi-issue think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) has served as a policy and research resource for visionary social justice movements for over four decades — from the anti-war and civil rights movements in the 1960s to the peace and global justice movements of the last decade. Some of the greatest progressive minds of the 20th and 21st centuries have found a home at IPS, starting with the organization's founders, Richard Barnet and Marcus Raskin. IPS scholars have included such luminaries as Arthur Waskow, Gar Alperovitz, Saul Landau, Bob Moses, Rita Mae Brown, Barbara Ehrenreich, Roger Wilkins and Orlando Letelier.
Today the Institute’s work is organized into more than a dozen projects, reflecting our public scholars’ diverse areas of expertise. In practice, these projects collaborate strategically to pursue three overarching policy goals:
Peace
Every human being has the right to security, both economic and social. From China to Palestine to Afghanistan to the borders of our own nation, IPS scholars believe that such security is only possible when governments deal with their citizens and with each other based on principles of mutual respect, human rights, and international law.
Justice
The world’s wealth derives in large part from resources that belong to all of us. Extreme income inequality is both unfair and unsustainable. The Institute’s work explicitly links the welfare of people in the United States to the welfare of people in impoverished countries and emphasizes the need to reverse the global and national policies accelerating inequality.
Environment
Each of us has the right to clean air, land, water, and food. We have a responsibility to keep the planet habitable for future generations of humans and other living things. IPS scholars monitor the negative role of the World Bank and other international financial institutions in climate-altering fossil fuel investment. We collaborate with international efforts to keep the alternative economy and energy movements focused on truly sustainable solutions.