THE FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, a Philadelphia-based think tank, has a stable of scholars including a former aide to three U.S. secretaries of state, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and two former staff members of the National Security Council. They research pressing geopolitical issues such as the war on terrorism, developments in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation in South Asia, relations with China, Russia, and Japan.

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY'S HISTORY DEPARTMENT has a scholar who is Director of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy and Vice President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. (He will begin his term as President in January 2007.)

THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY DEPARTMENT has a particular strength in diplomatic history. One of its scholars is author of "Blind Oracles: Intellectuals and War From Kennan to Kissinger" and teaches "War and Diplomacy in 20th Century America."

THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT has faculty who focus on international security and U.S. foreign policy. One has written on "the effects of technological change on the future conduct of war, the effects of war on the globalized economy, and U.S. foreign policy alternatives."

THE LAWYERS ALLIANCE FOR WORLD SECURITY is a nonpartisan organization of judges, lawyers, and legal professionals "committed to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, reducing the threat of war, and ways and means to abolish weapons of mass destruction." Members of its Philadelphia Chapter could explain how LAWS promotes the rule of law throughout the world and has worked on democracy-building in the states formerly part of the Soviet Union.

THE SOLOMON ASCH CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF ETHNOPOLITICAL CONFLICT,  based at the University of Pennsylvania, aims to "enhance the efforts of social scientists to identify the origins, trajectory and impact of violent intergroup struggles."  Through original research and findings, its scholars devises public policy strategies addressing the world's most intractable conflicts.

THE MIDDLE EAST FORUM is a think tank headed by the outspoken, often-controversial scholar Daniel Pipes. Pipes says the forum aims to define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining interests to include "fighting radical Islam (rather than terrorism), working for Palestinian acceptance of Israel, urging the Bush administration to better manage its democracy efforts, reducing funds going to the Middle East for energy purchases, more robustly asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and containing the Iranian threat."