The Center for International Affairs

Established in 1999, The Rockford Institute’s Center for International Affairs promotes an American foreign policy informed by the belief that America is not an ever-expanding empire but a republic with definable borders and interests rooted in its history and traditions. As the Center champions the security and independence of the United States, it rejects today’s two dominant foreign-policy models: the borderless model of the one-world globalists and the imperial model of the neoconservative interventionists. Both are contrary to the cultural and political traditions of the American republic, to its interests, and to the will of the American people.Since its inception, the Center has worked to recover the art of realist decision-making, free from ideological and special-interest pressures. The Center has hosted conferences in London, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Serbia and Montenegro, Chicago, and northern California. Trifkovic and Center associates have addressed academic audiences in Australia, Israel, and all over Europe and North America.

Recently, the Center has devoted its energies to two critical matters of American foreign policy: peace in Israel-Palestine and the “War on Terror.”

In February 2005, the Center hosted a conference entitled, “Rethinking Peace in Israel-Palestine: A Realist Scenario” on Capitol Hill. Representing views from both sides of the conflict, panelists considered the ancient and recent history of the region, the interests of other world powers, and the successes and failures of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, thereby setting the stage for a point-by-point presentation by Rockford Institute Board Chairman David Hartman on the essential elements of a genuine and lasting peace. The conference, which represented two years of research, writing, and travel by Center associates, addressed the conflict in the Middle East in the way that every American policy group should but has not: by asking, “What is the American interest in the region?” Longer versions of the papers became chapters in a book published by the Institute, Peace in the Promised Land: A Realist Scenario.

Although The Rockford Institute addressed the problem of Islam years before the attacks of September 11, the Center has intensified its focus on the problem of Islamic terrorism, considering the threat itself and the related issue of immigration. The Center’s focus on Islam is comprehensive, addressing the moral, political, psychological, social, legal, religious, economic, and demographic factors that define and inspire Islamic terrorism.

To offer the American public a better understanding of the true nature of Islam, the Center produced an audio lecture series, Islam: The Score. These four, one-hour lectures presented by Srdja Trifkovic explain how the reach and operational capability of Islamic terror cells remain strong around the world. Their decentralized pattern makes countermeasures difficult, especially with motivated young terrorists deeply embedded in Western societies. Neither the liberal nor conservative wings of the political spectrum have acknowledged the significant threat of the Muslim population growth in America.

In the spirit of more candid debate about Islam—the true enemy in the War on Terror—the Institute hosted a conference in Chicago in April 2005 evaluating America’s progress in the war. The conference considered such topics as: the European community’s failure to confront Turkey’s human-rights violations, the sincerity of American claims of fighting terrorism, the extent to which American law restricts or permits effective antiterrorism policies, the alarming growth of Islamic primary and secondary schools in America’s heartland and curricula designed to form the next generation of jihadists, terrorists crossing our border with Mexico, and the consequences of Canada’s appallingly lax citizenship laws for all of North America.