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Overview

The Lexington Institute (LI) is a policy institute whose members seek to “inform, educate, and shape the public debate of national priorities in those areas that are of surpassing importance to the future success of democracy, such as national security, education reform, tax reform, immigration, and federal policy concerning science and technology.” (1)

LI advocates limited government involvement in public affairs, which is reflected in the strong libertarian line laid out in its Mission Statement: “The Institute … actively opposes the unnecessary intrusion of the federal government into the commerce and culture of the nation, and strives to find nongovernmental, market-based solutions to public-policy challenges. We believe a dynamic private sector is the greatest engine for social progress and economic prosperity.” (1)

The institute has eight core staff members: James Andrew Courter, Chairman; Merrick Carey, CEO; Loren B. Thompson, Chief Operating Officer; Don Soifer, Executive Vice President; Philip Peters, Vice President; Daniel Gouré, Vice President; Robert Holland, Senior Fellow; and Kerry Finnegan, Program Director.

Trained as a lawyer, Courter was a former congressman for New Jersey in the House of Representatives and is currently CEO and vice chairman of the IDT Corporation. As a representative, Courter was a member of the House Services and Iran-Contra committees. He served under both Presidents George H.W. Bush and Clinton and co-edited a 1986 document entitled “Defending Democracy,” which his bio notes was “a collection of speeches and essays on matters of national security.” Carey was Courter’s and Jack Kemp’s former press secretary while they were in the U.S. Congress, and also served as an Intelligence Officer for the Naval Reserve for 7 years, which included involvement in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. (2)

In addition to being COO at Lexington, Loren Thompson, a frequent media commentator on national security and weapons issues, runs a consulting firm called Source Associates. Thompson “oversees security studies, the institute’s largest project.” Previously he was a professor at Georgetown University for over two decades, teaching military strategy among other topics.

Daniel Gouré has primary responsibility over LI’s national security program. He was part of the transition team for the department of defense after George W. Bush came into office. He has corporate affiliations with Science Applications International Corporation, SRS Technologies, R&D Associates, and System Planning Corporation. Gouré was previously deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ International Security Program. (2)

Soifer’s work responsibilities mostly center on education reform and the charter school movement. He came to LI from the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (Thompson was also a member of this organization). Peters is the Cuba expert at LI and has been with the institution since 1999. He served in the Reagan and Bush administrations at the State Department.

Like Soifer, Holland concentrates on education reform and was awarded the Virginia Liberty Award in 1998 from Concerned Women for America. Finnegan was a former Management Analyst at the Department of Energy and served on the staff of Senator Strom Thurmond. (2)

Origins and History

Merrick Carey and Don Soifer founded LI in 1998. LI’s policy reports concentrate on eight topics: defense, homeland security, alliance relations, education, Cuba, immigration, international economics, and postal reform. (2) (3)

LI’s Thompson and Gouré write extensively on defense issues. Gouré complements his written treatises on weapons systems with his work as a senior analyst for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a company that the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) terms a war profiteer. (4) (5)

Reports CPI: “A lower profile, but potentially lucrative, project the company is working on for the Army is called the Future Combat Systems program. SAIC teamed up with Boeing to win the right to be lead system integrator on that project, which could have a total value of $4 billion. The program is supposed to completely retool and transform the entire Army to better respond to future threats, including everything from weapons systems to troop training.” (6)

Gouré also argues that there should not be an increase in army forces, but that instead the Department of Defense should invest in “new technologies.” This view runs contrary to Rumsfeld’s, who has advocated for an increase. (7)

Both Thompson and Gouré have argued for ending NATO and have embraced the U.S. doctrine of preemption because of how other countries, particularly in Europe, have supposedly different values than Americans do. (8) (9) (10) (11)

Lexington’s Philip Peters defies conservative thinking on the subject with his views on Cuba. Only here do you find LI teaming up with nonpartisan groups such as the Latin America Working Group, the Center for International Policy, and the Washington Office on Latin America. Peters frequently advocates lifting the embargo on Cuba and allowing Americans to freely travel to the country. (12) (13) (14) (15)

Peters has also been the main person advocating a more lenient immigration policy. And although he has some reservations about the United Nations, he thinks the United States is better off going through it to achieve its policy goals. He has criticized the Bush administration for the drop in the number of refugees allowed in the country and argues that the fear that some of these refugees might be future terrorists is unfounded due to the amount of time and bureaucratic hurdles refugees face in order to gain entry. (16)

Funding

LI claims to have an annual revenue of $2.5 million. Media Transparency reports that between 1998 and 2003, the Lexington Institute received a little over $900K from a variety of funders, including Jacquelin Hume, F.M. Kirby, Hickory, Armstrong, Ruth and Lovett Peters, and Smith Richardson. (2) (17)

Because of its work on Cuba, the Arca Foundation granted Lexington a total of $140K in 2002 and $50K in 2003. ExxonMobil gave LI $10K in 2002. (18) (19)