Donors         •         Mission

Since its founding in 1978 by Peter Hayes and Lyuba Zarsky, the Nautilus Institute has evolved into a thriving public policy think-tank and community resource. Along the way it has addressed critical security and sustainability issues such as the United States nuclear policy in Korea and the effect of the U.S.-China relationship of environmental insecurity. The Institute has built a reputation not only for innovative research and analysis of critical global problems. It also translates ideas into practical solutions, often with high impact.

The key to reducing global insecurity-in short, to making the world peaceful, equitable, and sustainable-lies in the creation of a global civil society committed to joint problem-solving. The Nautilus community is a global network built around this strategy that serves thousands of people who already use our products every day to improve their own work in over fifty countries.

Over the last decade, the Institute has:

• Reduced the danger of nuclear war and proliferation in Korea by engaging cooperatively the DPRK in projects such as the Unhari wind turbine system that provides villagers with light at night.
• Informed 10,000 readers daily on security developments in East and South Asia and widened policy options by creating an on-line forum to discuss nuclear issues in East Asia.
• Provided a voice of reason for U.S. nuclear policy in Korea with the publication of Pacific Powderkeg and informed media and citizens in South Korea, Japan, and the United States about the risks of nuclear weapons
• Increased the transparency and accountability of American nuclear weapons plans through the use of the Freedom of Information Act.
• Created a dialogue and network of energy experts from China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia, and the U.S. on energy security in the region
• Increased US-Chinese mutual understanding of the array of uncertainty that may affect the future of the US-China relationship by convening Chinese and American security, energy, and environmental experts to generate Scenarios for the Future of United States-China Relations 2001-2010
• Published internationally acclaimed books and standard reference texts including American Lake, Nuclear Peril in the Pacific (1984), Global Greenhouse Gas Regime, Who Pays? (1994), and Human Rights and the Environment: Conflicts and Norms in a Globalizing World (2002).
• Enabled citizens to improve social corporate performance by producing"Whose Business?" and conducting trainings on human rights and the environment, especially in the high technology sector in California, India, Taiwan, and Thailand.
• Convened the first-ever scientific conference on the ecological and public health impacts of trans-Pacific pollution transport from East Asia to North America.
• Informed public opinion by interviews given to CBS Evening News, Lehrer News Hour, CNN, regular commentary on National Public Radio's Morning Edition and All Things Considered and global media including BBC, Australian Broadcasting Commission and Radio Free Asia; written opeds in Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle, Korea Times (Seoul), Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo); and profiles in papers such as LA Times, San Jose Mercury News
• Increased environmental awareness and youth leadership by providing 2000 Bay Area youth with a marine environmental education curriculum and access to the San Francisco marine environment.

Many donors have supported the Nautilus Institute's FOIA research over the 19 years it took to bring this document into the public domain. These include: Ford Foundation; HKH Foundation; MacArthur Foundation; Ploughshares Fund; Rockefeller Foundation; and W. Alton Jones Foundation.

Vision & Mission:

Our shared vision is a peaceful, ethical, and sustainable world for our time and generations to come. To this end, the Mission of the Nautilus Institute is to improve global problem solving by applying and refining the strategic tools of cooperative engagement to fundamental problems undermining global security and sustainability.

Strategic Objective I

To use and improve the tools of cooperative engagement on a high impact symbolic project that demonstrates the possibility of alternative futures. Our current focus is on reducing the danger of nuclear war, moving investors to improve the environmental performance of companies, and increasing the leadership skills and environmental literacy of youth.

Strategic Objective II

To share the improved tools of cooperative engagement with others engaged in global problem solving.

These strategic tools are:

• Information and Knowledge Systems
• Convening/Scenarios Methodology
• Collaborative Research and Analysis
• Increased Transparency and Accountability
• Human Understanding: Networking, Mapping, Training, Partnerships

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