The Maldon Institute From a 1993 description at the back of all printed Maldon Institute
reports:
The Maldon Institute was founded in 1985 in support of the concept that
realistic assessments of political, economic, social and environmental
risks, issues and opportunities are essential to responsible decision-making.
Guided by our Advisory Board, Maldon publishes assessments that are read
throughout the world by heads of governments, cabinet ministers, opinion
molders and decision-makers both in and out of government. Maldon Institute
reports go to the United Nations and its agencies, to the White House,
Congress and to many involved with the political and corporate decision-making
process. Maldon's researchers and writers provide information essential
for effective policy-making.
During the past eight years, Maldon's senior staff members have spoken
at many seminars and conferences across the United States and in Europe;
appeared on television and radio programs and provided briefings for overseas
officials visiting Washington on a wide range of subjects. Maldon's publications
are read by state and national agencies here and abroad and by influential
members of the foreign-policy, defense, economic and environmental communities.
No funds come from government sources; Maldon is a nonprofit, tax-exempt
organization funded by a wide range of public-spirited foundations including
the Allegheny Foundation, The Carthage Foundation, the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith and private individuals.
The president of The Maldon Institute, Michael G. Flanagan, a member of
the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, brings
to the position a distinguished career in company and international law.
Members of Maldon's Advisory Board include John Boland, publisher and
author; Paul Busiek, physician; Dr. James Kennedy, pastor of Coral Presbyterian
Church, Fort Lauderdale; Robert Moss, author and former editor of The
Economist's Foreign Report; Dr. Sulayman Nyang, Director, African
Studies, Howard University; Richard A. Sandell, C.E.O. of Aura Technology
Corporation; and Raymond Wannall, past president of the Association of
Former Intelligence Officers and a former assistant director of the FBI.
The director of The Maldon Institute is Martha Powers, a professional
journalist who has specialized in reporting on the Third World, with a
particular emphasis on Africa and the United Nations for the past ten years.
The staff of the Institute are recruited from private industry, government
and academic institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia.
The Maldon Institute publishes The International Reports: Early Warning,
a bi-monthly authoritative newsletter concerned with international politics,
now in its eleventh year of publication.
In 1993, The Maldon Institute commenced an East African Project conducting
field research into the political, environmental and economic problems
of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
Aware of many upcoming global problems, among them the economy, environment,
foreign policy and national security, and anxious to contribute objective
information to the increasingly partisan climate in the establishment and
the media, The Maldon Institute plans to further expand.
Where Did The Maldon Institute Get Its Name?
In the year 991, Viking marauders sailed up the Blackwater river in Essex
and disembarked on a small island near Maldon joined to the mainland by
a narrow ford that was accessible only at low tide. These were professional
fighters facing part-time soldiers - feudal levees of the aged Earl Bryhtnoth.
But the English refused to pay tribute and when the Vikings tried to cross
the ford, they were held off by the defenders. In the words of the anonymous
author of the Old English epic, The Battle of Maldon -- the finest battle
poem in the English language - "the strangers began to dissemble, asked
for permission to make approach, to fare over our ford and take their troops."
The English commander agreed, out of a misplaced sense of fair play, to
let the Vikings cross. As a result, he many of his men were slaughtered
though they made a heroic stand. Their sense of a moral imperative was
immortalized in the closing words of one of the Earl's retainers:
"heart must be braver, courage the greater
thought the keener, as our might fails."
One of the lessons of Maldon is that survival depends on making a realistic
assessment of the political, social, and environmental risks now and in the
21st century. This is the primary objective of The Maldon Institute.
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