Guiding philosophy

We believe that war, terrorism, spread of deadly weapons, national armies and even national debts are mere symptoms of the pandemic disease called authoritarianism—a dysfunction of state institutions. The best medicine against authoritarianism, in our view, is a justly written constitution—one that eradicates conflicts within and among institutions: legislature, executive, judiciary, departments of defense, state—you name it.

We define a functional institution as one that is:

1. created through secular law not inspired by religious texts;
2. occupied by rational and competitively (s)elected agent(s); and
3. meant to serve the public more than state agents.

We believe that the key to world peace lies with designing and keeping accountable institutions globally.

Too often U.S. policies are either country-specific (e.g., Iran, North Korea) or issue-specific (e.g., terrorism, nonproliferation). They rarely target individuals responsible for inspiring, designing, and keeping dysfunctional states, institutions and laws. Ironically, these individuals enjoy safe havens in the Western World while promoting dysfunctional/theocratic institutions in home countries only to threaten peace globally.

As a think-tank, we identify dysfunctional states, institutions and laws—all through a market-centered approach. As an advocacy organization, we collaborate with policymakers and citizens to bring to justice those responsible for creating, inspiring and sustaining dysfunctional states, institutions and laws.