The Trump administration is trying to gut a congressionally funded think tank, that prompted a standoff between the police and the think tank’s board members on Monday.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) along with some of its board members filed a lawsuit alleging they were unlawfully fired from their positions. They are calling for their reinstatement as well as a stop to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the institute.

USIP was created through an act of Congress in 1984, shortly after a nuclear standoff with the-then Soviet Union, in order to study peaceful resolutions to conflict around the world.

Over the last four decades, USIP became an influential repository for studying international affairs and bringing together global experts on conflict resolution and one of the many platforms the U.S. cultivated to spread its soft power globally — until the White House ordered it dismantled last month.

Why was USIP created?

USIP is part of an ecosystem of organizations created by Congress during the Cold War to protect and project American values globally.

The think tank was designed to support research and advise policymaking that avoided violent conflict and to project American influence through programs like training peacekeepers and researching communication channels with geopolitical competitors, such as China.

“It was built as a symbol of the aspiration of the American people to be peace builders in the world,” said George Moose, a former diplomat who says he is USIP’s acting president and contests the Trump administration’s efforts to replace the nonprofit’s leadership.

This ecosystem also includes the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a foundation which annually granted nearly $300 million in funding to pro-democracy work in over 100 countries, and the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan think tank which supported foreign policy research, particularly on Russia and Central Asia. The U.S. also grew its humanitarian aid programs through agencies like USAID, started in the 1960s in part to combat the influence of Communism, and through the State Department.

In the last two months however, the Trump administration effectively closed down USAID; frozen NED funding; cancelled some State Department grants; and ordered the Wilson Center to dramatically downsize.

Why is the Trump administration trying to close USIP down?

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington that helped shape the current overhaul of the federal government, criticized USIP last year for being opaque in its operations and for favoring Democratic-leaning appointments.

In February, President Trump ordered USIP be effectively shuttered, citing a “reduction in elements” of the federal government he deemed “unnecessary.”

Since then, Trump has fired 11 of the USIP’s 15 board members, citing noncompliance with his executive order.

Can the White House dismantle USIP?

USIP staff argue the executive branch has no authority to shut them down or freeze their funding, as the think tank is not a federal agency and is directly funded by Congress.

“We have been talking to them for many weeks now in anticipation of just this possibility and also to remind them that we are a private, nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia and therefore not a federal agency, and therefore, the federal government has no entitlement to come in and take over our building,” Moose told reporters on Monday.

Moose had refused to vacate his office even after the Trump administration fired him and most other board members. USIP staff are planning to file a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s appointment of a new USIP president, because they argue the hirings and firings sidestepped the think tank’s procedures for choosing leadership.

“We do not recognize the illegitimate president,” George Foote, USIP’s lawyer, told NPR.

According to USIP’s own rules, the president of the United States is allowed to appoint and remove board members, but must do so with the consent of a majority of the board or with approval from several Senate subcommittees.

Michele Kelemen contributed reporting.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/19/why-trump-trying-shut-us-institute-of-peace/