Atlas was very pleased to learn this morning that the John Templeton Foundation was awarded the National Humanities Medal at the White House yesterday. The citation praised the Foundation for “Opening new frontiers in the pursuit of answers to mankind’s oldest questions.”

Read more from the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

As I listened in awe to the courageous stories that were shared during our 2008 Freedom Dinner, I couldn’t help but think of the nexus between sacrifice and freedom. Celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall, was indeed a triumph for freedom and liberty throughout the world. Yet, what we celebrate is not only the triumph, but the sacrifice undertaken by numerous individuals across the globe who contributed to this victory. Whether it’s a young Ziba Ayeen fleeing Afghanistan when the Soviet’s invaded; or a 14-year old Jose Saccheri enduring the loss of his father at the hands of a brutal communist dictator in Argentina; many have had to pay a price for freedom much heftier than what is in their wallets. These hardships are rooted in the notion that freedom isn’t really free.

But what is this freedom that people are dying for, exactly?  John Lenczowski in his inspiring toast talks about self-rule as the main foundation of freedom.  For it is in freeing one’s self from excess passions and misguided desires that one acquires true freedom.

In essence, this was the prevailing theme that arched over the entire evening and as I listened to these inspiring but tragic stories,  I came to understand our Secure Free Society program a bit better. When one person undergoes some sacrifice another gains a bit more freedom. This is not to say that these hardships, like those experienced by Ziba and Jose, are at all warranted. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It is because these hardships are not warranted, that we learn what the real consequences of an unfree society actually are. It leads to rule by corrupt, unruly,  and close minded groups which manifest itself through acts of tyranny, terrorism, subversion and sabotage.  It treats people as tools that can be manipulated, rather than as self-asserting individuals equal with one another.   Learning these lessons from individual stories is what gives us a better appreciation for the sacrifices of others towards our quest for freedom. This is what we came together on Wednesday night to celebrate.

This post includes text from each of the Atlas Freedom Dinner’s Toasts to Freedom, to view them please click on the links above.

Today, Atlas is hosting a special 1/2 conference featuring several of this year’s Templeton Freedom Award winners. This event is taking place at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. prior to the Independent Institute’s event, The Power of Entrepreneurship.

You can view the Templeton Award program here.

This week Atlas’s Regional Managers, Colleen Dyble (North America & Africa), Allegra Hewel (Latin America), Yiqiao Xu (Asia) and Cindy Cerquitella (Europe) share free market news from around the world.

The Atlas Podcast series appears each Friday with a new theme each week of the month:

• Week 1: Network News with Regional Officers
• Week 2: An Interview with Intellectual Entrepreneur
• Week 3: International Thursday
• Week 4: Management Tip

Music by Gold Standard

 

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Beginning in 2008, Atlas is awarding grants of up to $100,000 to promising young think tanks around the world.

The grants are made possible by the generosity of the late Dorian Fisher – the wife of Antony Fisher, who was instrumental in his founding of Atlas in 1981 – and the many current Atlas donors who are inspired by the Fisher legacy.

Dorian and Antony believed that independent think tanks can produce enormous leverage for changing the climate of ideas in a country.   They saw that investments in emerging think tanks could be extremely cost-effective, especially when complimented with mentoring to further improve those think tanks’ prospects for long-term success.

For this reason, Atlas has created the Dorian and Antony Fisher Venture Grants program, which will provide grantees with funding over a period of three years, during which time Atlas will be in frequent contact to help develop plans and to monitor performance.     One part of the grant will be structured as a matching program, providing strong incentive for think tanks to develop a base of local supporters.   Information on eligibility and how to apply is listed below.

In the first year, over 180 different think tanks applied for this honor. The inaugural class of Fisher Venture Grantees were presented at the Atlas Liberty Forum in Atlanta, April 25-27.

The deadline for applications is December 1st, 2008. For further information, and to submit an application visit atlasusa.org.

For his defense of freedom and dedication to liberty, Antony Fisher was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988. Only weeks after this great honor was bestowed upon him, Sir Antony passed away. In 1990, through the generosity of his relatives and many friends, Atlas Economic Research Foundation established the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Awards to commemorate Fisher’s ideals and achievements.This year marks the 20th anniversary of this award.

The Fisher Awards recognize the institutes that published a book, magazine, report, monograph, or study that, in the opinion of the judges, made the greatest contribution to public understanding of the free society.

A panel of judges selects the publications deemed to have made the greatest contributions during the recent two years. Winning institutes receive financial awards for their operating budgets, and awards will be publicly announced at the Atlas Liberty Forum in April 2009.

Separate Awards are given to:

Best Book

• Young Institute (8 years or younger) - USD 10,000 cash prize

• Established Institute (older than 8 years) - USD 5,000 cash prize

Best Magazine/Journal/Newspaper - USD 2,000 cash prize.

The Deadline for applications is December 1st, we look forward to seeing your submissions!

This is the question that the New Economic School (NES) of Georgia has sought to address through it’s most recent seminar lecture series on the Economics of Security.  NES has been conducting lecture seminars since its inception in 2002, and it typically has about 50 - 80 participants for each seminar.  Usually these seminars deal with economic issues such as taxes, state revenues and expenditures, etc. but in light of recent events this particular seminar series focused on security.

Since the Russian military incursion into The Republic of Georgia this past summer, the issue of security has been placed at the forefront of the national agenda. Therefore, to ensure that there is an independent voice on this issue, NES began this theme of security seminars on September 22, 2008.  A month later, they now have successfully conducted 11 seminars on various security themes all with the aim at examining the economic consequences of geopolitical security developments, to see if free markets can help mitigate security risks and promote peace.  Needless to say, addressing the topic of security has become very actual to Georgia right now, and as NES wraps up this series, it is important for all of our think tanks in Europe and elsewhere to continue to examine security issues to ensure that a free market voice is added to discussion.  We applaud NES for taking this initiative!

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 Earlier this month Atlas held an event in San Antonio as part of it’s Teach Freedom Initiative program.  Professors from universities across the United States attended this event to share strategies about building liberty minded academic centers on their campuses. One of the speakers at this event was Adam Kissel, who is a specialist in creating these types of centers. In this article, Adam offers advice to others who are looking to start a Center on their campus.

The John Templeton Foundation has a series of conversations among leading scientists, scholars, and public figures about the “Big Questions“. The fourth issue of this series, “A Templeton Conversation” is particularly interesting to those who care about the free market, and even to those who prefer more government intervention. This latest issue asks,“Does the free market corrode moral character?“.  Read what liberty champions such as Michael Novak, Tyler Cowen,  and Ayaan Hirshi think. Compare their comments with the views from the other authors who think differently.

Economic freedom cannot exist without the rule of law. Free markets certainly do not corrode moral character because it is a system where individuals are rewarded according to the value they create for society. The rule of law gives individuals the incentive to comply with laws because if they don’t, they would not be able to get away with the law.

Free markets allow the best of humans to realize their full potential, while the rule of law keeps the immoral side of humans checked. Free markets enhance moral character, as it brings out the entrepreneurial spirit of humans by encouraging individual initiative, hence adding value, not only to themselves but also to society.

Free market and the rule of law - the two together form a system superior to any other that we know of because they  provide incentives to individuals to care about moral character. Since the free market works only when the rule of law is present,  it would not corrode moral character. The opposite of a free market is a system which introduces opportunities for corruption and the abuse of power, contradicting moral character. This again proves that free market is a better system for moral character building.

Recently, Roger Robinson of the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI - Washington) commented in a Barron’s online article about the implications of the current global economic recession on the arena of security.  The upshot of this short piece is that since the world is going into a recession, many of the nations that are opponents of freedom and liberty (Iran, Russia, North Korea, etc.) will not have enough funds to “bankroll campaigns of international destabilization.”

Mr. Robinson expanded on this point during his presentation at our recent International Thursday event.  In his presentation, Roger pointed out that economic factors played a major role in stopping the Russian invasion from further advancement into Georgia.  Factors such as the fact that Moscow has recently experienced a 65 - 70% drop in its markets, which culminated in at least a 300 billion loss of its reserve structure.  By not factoring this economic reality into the equation, Putin vastly overestimated his own capability to carry out this military incursion.  It is this form of independent analysis that exhibits what we are trying to accomplish with the Secure Free Society initiative at Atlas, and we commend Mr. Robinson, both, for his analysis and his longstanding relationship with our allies in Europe.