Written by The Prometheus Staff | 17 November 2008

The Prometheus Institute is proud to announce that it has been selected as a winner of the 2008 Templeton Freedom Awards, winning the Special Achievement for a Young Institute recognition. The Institute, among 15 other recipients in separate categories, were chosen from over 170 applications from 58 countries, by an independent panel of expert judges.

Named for the late investor and philanthropist, Sir John Templeton, the awards program was established in 2003 to recognize the contributions of independent think tanks to the understanding of freedom. This year was the first year that the Young Institute award was offered.

The Prometheus Institute receives the prize for its three "well-designed initiatives to advance liberty in the United States", according to the prize committee: Upgrade Social Security, People for the American Dream, and Do It Yourself Democracy.

The Atlas Economic Research Foundation has been supporting independent think tanks that promote the free society for more than 25 years. Atlas currently works with more than 250 think tanks in 80 countries. More than half of these organizations were assisted in their formative years by Atlas through financial support or advisory services. The Templeton Freedom Awards program was launched in 2003 with funding from the John Templeton Foundation, with more than $1.25 million in prizes and grants distributed. The program utilizes a prestigious panel of independent judges to identify outstanding work by independent research institutes.

The judges wrote a number of kind comments about Prometheus' work, including:

"[Prometheus'] energetic and highly focused use of new media can be appealing across the political spectrum. What they learn – and pass on – from their unique messaging approach will be a value-added to the free market movement. What they may be lacking in size and capacity they make up for in entrepreneurial applications of new media outreach techniques.”

“The methods and instruments used by the Prometheus Institute in order to reach the younger generation are really innovative. They target perfectly this very important group of people, considered a generation with very low interest in political issues and in democracy... The Institute’s programs and initiatives could (should) be copied by other institutions and applied in other countries.”

The Prometheus Institute would like to thank Templeton and Atlas for the generous recognition, and we'd also like to thank all of our fans and supporters for making this honor possible!

Written by Matt Fay | 23 October 2008

I became familiar with the work of Dr. Andrew Bacevich about a year and half ago - not knowing this was after the recent death of his son, First Lt. Andrew Bacevich Jr., while serving in Iraq. Despite his staunch opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Bacevich felt that he and his son were both “doing their duty” to the best of their ability. Dr. Bacevich is a graduate of West Point and a Vietnam veteran. He earned his PhD from Princeton and retired from the army as a Lt. Colonel. He is currently a professor of International Relations at Boston University. His new book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, released just as the current economic crisis was coming into the public view, is more poignant now than anyone could have imagined.

Written by Devon Carr | 20 October 2008