Libertarian International Organization

(Photo) Liberals and Libertarians meet in the Phillippines to start new civic think tank in  this later 2008 photo, advised by Libertarians from India.

Prague, Czech Republic, July 2006--The myth is that Libertarian-oriented think tanks aren't spreading. Change your paradigm.

(Updated article) Libertarian and Liberal think tanks are spreading across the globe, paving the way for libertarian networks, civic action groups, more liberal and eventual  hard-line Libertarian parties, and giving people conceptual tools to fight poverty and corruption improve their lives. So says Vince Miller, head of the non-partisan International Society for Individual Liberty (www.isil.org) which is monitoring the process, in an e-mail from Prague where Libertarians are holding their annual conference in a country with a libertarian president, Vaclav Klaus.

"The US Libertarian Party was essentially founded as a convenience to ISIL members who wanted a means of political action," said Miller. "It immediately set up a variety of projects to create think tanks and undermine extremism, especially in countries with few human rights., along with political activity such as legislative campaigns and candidacies.. These projects were blessed by the LP but were intended to be autonomous. Among the most successful were a series of meetings in 1979 and 1980 co-chaired by LIO head M.Gilson-De Lemos and former US Secretary of State William Rogers, who advised LIO, that encouraged important work that has changed the world. These included the eventual union of SIL and LI that became ISIL with meetings in countries as they were 'on the brink' to help them move in the right direction, spread of Libertarian concepts to key persons in the dictatorships, and long term creation of think tanks particularly by means of the Atlas foundation. In a now-it-can-be-told story, it was  one of the US LP's most successful and discreetly carried out initiatives."

Czech President Klaus has said on several occasions that the fall of the Iron Curtain was in large part due to Libertarian input and activism 'tipping the scales.'

Miller noted that the think tankl movement arose in a series of meetings chaired by LIO in the late '70's and early '80's that created CATO, the Atlas Group, and others to develop interest in primarily freeer economic approaches, and were instrumental in the downfall of the Iron Curtain. Today there is a growing roster of groups created by Libertarians or with a libertarian sub-group. "We don't endorse everything they say, but these are study groups. Several are doing basic work on voting rights, transparency and so on in emrging economies. Many are more market freedom oriented.  I'm confident we'll see more personal freedom networks in the next few years, and  I encourage people to see for themselves. We're working on developing clubs with an additional focus on personal freedoms and non-authoritarian approaches, local 'citizen think tanks' in every country."

2008 RESOURCE UPDATE (Libertarian-interest; most are economic freedom oriented):

Atlas Directory: http://thefreedomnetwork.org/

Cato International: http://www.catooncampus.org/tag/show/650.html

IPN Directory: http://www.policynetwork.net/main/organizations.php

US: http://www.spn.org/directory/

NOTABLE RECENT EFFORTS...

CIIMA-ESEADE, Argentina
http://www.eseade.edu.ar/ciima/ciima.asp

CIEN, Guatemala
http://www.cien.org.gt

CORE, USA
http://www.core-online.org

European Center for Economic Growth, Austria
http://e-growth.eu

Federazione Ambiente Agricoltura, Italy
http://www.faaitalia.it

Free Market Foundation, South Africa
http://www.freemarketfoundation.com

Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Canada
http://www.fcpp.org

Fundacion Atlas 1853, Argentina
http://www.atlas.org.ar

Fundacion Libertad, Panama
http://www.libertad.org.ar

Hayek Institute, Austria
http://www.hayek-institute.at

IEEP, Ecuador
http://www.ieep.org.ec

Imani: The Centre for Humane Education, Ghana
http://www.imanighana.com

Initiative of Public Policy Analysis, Nigeria
http://ippanigeria.org

INLAP, Costa Rica
http://www.inlap.org

Institut Constant de Rebecque, Switzerland
http://www.institutconstant.ch

Institute for Free Enterprise, Germany
http://www.iuf-berlin.org

Institute for Market Economics, Bulgaria
http://www.ime-bg.org

Institute of Economic Analysis, Russia
http://www.iea.ru

Institute of Public Affairs, Australia
http://www.ipa.org.au

Instituto de Libre Empresa, Peru
http://www.ileperu.org

Instituto Liberdade, Brazil
http://www.il-rs.com.br

Instituto Veritas, Honduras
http://www.institutoveritas.org

International Policy Network, UK
http://www.policynetwork.net

Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
http://www.brunoleoni.it

Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, Israel
http://www.jims-israel.org

John Locke Foundation, USA
http://www.johnlocke.org

Liberales Institut, Switzerland
http://www.libinst.ch  

Liberalni Institute, Czech Republic
http://libinst.cz

Libertad y Desarrollo, Chile
http://www.lyd.org

Liberty Institute, India
http://www.libertyindia.org

Lion Rock Institute, Hong Kong
http://www.lionrockinstitute.org

Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Lithuania
http://www.lrinka.lt

Minimal Government Thinkers, The Philippines
http://www.minimalgovernment.net

New Economic School, Georgia
http://www.nesgeorgia.org

New Zealand Business Roundtable, New Zealand
http://www.nzbr.org.nz

Tennessee Center for Policy Research, USA
http://www.tennesseepolicy.org

Also...

The TaxPayer's Alliance, UK
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com

Washington Policy Center, USA
http://www.washingtonpolicy.org