Hoover Institution

The Hoover Institution is an American public policy think tank located at Stanford University in California. It is part of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, a library founded in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, Stanford's first student and first alumnus, before he became President of the United States. The library, known as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, houses multiple archives related to Hoover, World War I, World War II, and other world history.

The Hoover Institution is a unit of Stanford University but has its own board of overseers. It is located on the campus. Its mission statement outlines its basic tenets: representative government, private enterprise, peace, personal freedom, and the safeguards of the American system.

The Hoover Institution is influential in the American conservative and libertarian movements. The Institution has long been a place of scholarship for high-profile conservatives with government experience. High-profile conservatives Edwin Meese, Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Amy Zegart are all Hoover Institution fellows. In 2007 retired U.S. Army General John P. Abizaid, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, was named the Institution's first Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow.

The Institute is housed in three buildings on the Stanford campus. The most prominent facility is the landmark Hoover Tower, which is a popular visitor attraction. The tower features an observation deck on the top level that provides visitors with a panaromic view of the Stanford campus and surrounding area.