Dr. John P. Clark This is Me

Education

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1. 1. nuvo.net / Not thinking what you think

   www.nuvo.net/archive/2003/08/2 - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/17/2005   Last Visited: 5/17/2005

   Hudson Institute's John Clark defies the think tank's image
   ...
   "If someone had to put me on a continuum, I'd probably be placed on the far left," says Hudson Institute Senior Fellow John Clark.
   ...
   Asked about that image, the host of today's meeting, Hudson Senior Fellow John Clark, sighs. "Oh, yes, the idea that we are all right-wing lunatics. If people just take a look at Hudson, they'll see we are more diverse than they think, and we do different stuff than they think."
   
   Clark himself may be the best example of Hudson defying expectations. The director of Hudson's Center for Central European and Eurasian Studies helped found California's Green Party and is a blunt critic of much of the Bush Administration's foreign policy. He doesn't think much of the war in Iraq, he decries the shunning of international law in the U.S. response to Sept. 11 and he speaks out in opposition to the detention and military tribunals planned for Guantanamo Bay prisoners (see, "Surprising Thoughts Spill from Hudson's Tank" sidebar).
   
   Clark, whose resume includes four books, a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley and a stint in the 1980s as an advisor to the democratic opposition in Poland and Hungary, points out that other Hudson foreign policy analysts opposed the recent invasion of Iraq. By Clark's reckoning, two of the five senior researchers in Hudson's Indianapolis office would be classified as liberal Democrats.
   
   Clark does not include himself in that category, preferring a "none of the above" classification. But pressed, he admits he doesn't fit the Hudson stereotype either. "I try not to be ideological," Clark says. "But if someone had to put me on the continuum, I'd probably be placed on the far left. No other conservative think tank would put up with me."
   
   Clark is also a longtime adjunct professor at Butler University.
   ...
   "By reputation, Hudson is conservative, but John is very open-minded," says Craig Auchter, chair of the department and a researcher in Latin American politics.
   ...
   Clark acknowledges that the institute's Washington office sounds more like a typical conservative think tank. "They are in an environment where you have to shout pretty loud to be heard," he says.
   ...
   Clark says that it is to Hudson's credit that analysts propounding opposite views share the same letterhead. "There is no official Hudson Institute position on anything," he says. "We pay a price for it. Someplace like the Heritage Foundation has thousands of individual donors because it presents an ideologically pure voice, one that Rush Limbaugh can quote all the time."
   
   As an example of Hudson's non-ideological domestic research, Clark points to a restorative justice project in Marion County's juvenile courts. The project, based on a custom of Maori aboriginals in New Zealand, brought together the child, the victim and neighbors to try to fashion a better solution than incarceration. "We watched the people work through the problem and we worked with the community groups wrestling with the problem," Clark says. "We learned a lot that we never could have if we were just sitting in Washington writing papers."
   
   Clark also tries to avoid ideology in his Indianapolis outreach on international relations issues, preferring instead to set out the range of options in foreign policy debate. "What we want to do in Indianapolis is build coalitions, which requires a very different approach than what you see in D.C.," he says.
   
   Clark's approach includes a hectic schedule of regular teaching at IUPUI, Butler, Cathedral High School and senior and community education through OASIS (Older Adult Service and Information Systems) and Mid-North Shepherd Center. In the past year, in addition to his university teaching, Clark spoke to more than 100 groups about various international themes and topics.
   
   Clark describes this outreach as something of an "altar call" for people in the heartland to realize they can impact international debate. He says the foreign policy leadership of Hoosier politicians like Sen.
   ...
   "People here care about international issues, sometimes even more than they know," Clark says. "Our challenge is to tap into that."
   
   Clark has discovered that the interest in international relations interest has become easier to tap into during the past two years. "People say the world changed after Sept. 11. That's not true," he says. "But that is when people started asking me to talk about it."
   
   Surprising thoughts spill from Hudson's tank
   
   John Clark, a Hudson Institute senior fellow and director of the think tank's Center for Central European and Eurasian Studies, takes many foreign policy positions that run counter to Hudson's right-wing reputation.

2. 2. Jasper German Club - February 2003 Newsletter

   www.jaspergermanclub.org/newsl - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/1/2003   Last Visited: 11/12/2007

   John Clark, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute will be the speaker.

3. 3. Official Internet Home of the Pioneer Football League

   www.pioneer-football.org/artic - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/18/2003   Last Visited: 11/1/2007

   Jon Clark, So., Chemistry