Leadership Memo: Spotlight on the Institute of World Politics
Dr. John Lenczowski founded the Institute of World Politics (IWP), an independent graduate school, in 1990 to teach what no one else did: statecraft.

Statecraft, as Dr. Lenczowski explained, consists of different "arts": military power and political warfare, political action and information programs, and peace-making and law enforcement. In concert, these arts are the “instruments of national power."

Yet many American officials are unaware of them.

After work for the State Department and the National Security Council, Dr. Lenczowski perceived that people "were inadequately intellectually and professionally prepared" for their jobs in government.

He founded IWP to provide that missing intellectual and professional preparation in foreign affairs, defense, and intelligence.

Today IWP, located in Washington, DC, offers three Master's programs, eight Certificate of Graduate Study programs, and an internship for college students.


Its faculty is composed of “scholar-practitioners,” people with work experience in places like the CIA, the FBI, the Department of Defense, and the military.

Many students are mid-career professionals in related fields.  Some are sent to study at IWP by intelligence agencies or military branches.

IWP has been successful in working with what Dr. Lenczowski calls the "permanent bureaucracy" and the armed forces. He credits it to the Institute’s integrated study of statecraft, and then provides an example. 

Today’s Army officers must integrate traditional military power with counterinsurgency and stability operations, Dr. Lenczowksi said. The Army has sent officers to IWP because it “educates them in related, complementary arts” necessary to fulfill those duties.

But an IWP degree is in more than just strategy.  IWP offers courses on America’s founding principles, the Western moral tradition, and the use of power. This prepares graduates for an important struggle: the battle of ideas.

The Cold War, Dr. Lencowski explains, was a war between “two different philosophies of life and of government.”  But foreign policy professionals -- who did not understand the American founding -- were not ready to study and wage intellectual war against Marxism and Leninism.   

IWP does not intend to repeat that error.

Dr. Lencowski explained IWP welcomes the public and LI graduates to learn more about IWP and its programs.

You may apply to take an individual IWP course or for admission to a graduate study program.  You may also attend one of its many lectures, special events, and annual dinners -- all of which feature prominent speakers.

Dr. Lencowski is both Leadership Institute faculty and graduate, having attended the Direct Mail School.  He advised Institute staff on founding the Foreign Service Opportunity School and has lectured at several LI campaign trainings on foreign policy issues.

You may learn more about Dr. Lencowski’s IWP online at IWP.edu or by calling (888) KNOW-IWP.

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