Charles Krauthammer

AEI's Council of Academic Advisers has selected eminent political essayist Charles Krauthammer to receive the Institute's Irving Kristol Award for 2004. Mr. Krauthammer will accept this award and deliver the Irving Kristol Lecture at AEI's annual dinner on February 10, 2004, at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Krauthammer has profoundly influenced both American foreign policy doctrine and debate. Highlights of his writing in this area include identifying and explaining the significance of the Reagan Doctrine (Time, April 1985); defining the structure of the post-Cold War world in "The Unipolar Movement" (Foreign Affairs, 1990-1991); criticizing liberal internationalism in "A World Imagined" (New Republic, March 1999); and outlining a new path for American foreign policy in "The Bush Doctrine: ABM, Kyoto, and the New American Unilateralism" (Weekly Standard, June 2001).

Krauthammer is a weekly columnist for the Washington Post, a monthly essayist for Time magazine, a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and the New Republic, and an editorial board member for the National Interest and the Public Interest. His columns are syndicated in more than 125 newspapers worldwide. In addition, he serves as a weekly panelist on Inside Washington and a regular contributor to the Fox News Channel.

His distinguished awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary, the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism, the Champion/Tuck Award for Economic Understanding, People for the American Way's First Amendment Award, the Center for Security Policy's Mightier Pen Award, the American Jewish Committee's Mass Media Award, and the Bradley Prize awarded by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

After earning an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, Krauthammer served as chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he published numerous scientific papers, including one that detailed his codiscovery of a form of bipolar disease. His work in this field continues to be cited in psychiatric literature.

In 1978, Krauthammer left medical practice and moved to Washington, D.C., to direct planning in psychiatric research in the Carter administration. He also began contributing articles to the New Republic. He served as a speechwriter to Vice President Walter Mondale during the 1980 presidential campaign. In 1981, he officially joined the New Republic as a writer and editor. In 2001, he was named a member of the President's Council on Bioethics.

Krauthammer follows noted economist and AEI visiting scholar Allan H. Meltzer as a recipient of the Irving Kristol Award, AEI's highest honor, which recognizes individuals who have made extraordinary intellectual or practical contributions to improved government policy, social welfare, or political understanding.