Maldon Institute


 * From a 1993 description at the back of all printed Maldon Institute reports:

The Maldon Institute was founded in 1985 in support of the concept that realistic assessments of political, economic, social and environmental risks, issues and opportunities are essential to responsible decision-making. Guided by our Advisory Board, Maldon publishes assessments that are read throughout the world by heads of governments, cabinet ministers, opinion molders and decision-makers both in and out of government. Maldon Institute reports go to the United Nations and its agencies, to the White House, Congress and to many involved with the political and corporate decision-making process. Maldon's researchers and writers provide information essential for effective policy-making.

During the past eight years, Maldon's senior staff members have spoken at many seminars and conferences across the United States and in Europe; appeared on television and radio programs and provided briefings for overseas officials visiting Washington on a wide range of subjects. Maldon's publications are read by state and national agencies here and abroad and by influential members of the foreign-policy, defense, economic and environmental communities. No funds come from government sources; Maldon is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization funded by a wide range of public-spirited foundations including the Allegheny Foundation, The Carthage Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and private individuals.

The president of The Maldon Institute, Michael G. Flanagan, a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, brings to the position a distinguished career in company and international law.

Members of Maldon's Advisory Board include John Boland, publisher and author; Paul Busiek, physician; Dr. James Kennedy, pastor of Coral Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale; Robert Moss, author and former editor of The Economist's Foreign Report; Dr. Sulayman Nyang, Director, African Studies, Howard University; Richard A. Sandell, C.E.O. of Aura Technology Corporation; and Raymond Wannall, past president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and a former assistant director of the FBI.

The director of The Maldon Institute is Martha Powers, a professional journalist who has specialized in reporting on the Third World, with a particular emphasis on Africa and the United Nations for the past ten years. The staff of the Institute are recruited from private industry, government and academic institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia.

The Maldon Institute publishes The International Reports: Early Warning, a bi-monthly authoritative newsletter concerned with international politics, now in its eleventh year of publication.

In 1993, The Maldon Institute commenced an East African Project conducting field research into the political, environmental and economic problems of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.

Aware of many upcoming global problems, among them the economy, environment, foreign policy and national security, and anxious to contribute objective information to the increasingly partisan climate in the establishment and the media, The Maldon Institute plans to further expand.


 * Where Did The Maldon Institute Get Its Name?

In the year 991, Viking marauders sailed up the Blackwater river in Essex and disembarked on a small island near Maldon joined to the mainland by a narrow ford that was accessible only at low tide. These were professional fighters facing part-time soldiers - feudal levees of the aged Earl Bryhtnoth. But the English refused to pay tribute and when the Vikings tried to cross the ford, they were held off by the defenders. In the words of the anonymous author of the Old English epic, The Battle of Maldon -- the finest battle poem in the English language - "the strangers began to dissemble, asked for permission to make approach, to fare over our ford and take their troops."

The English commander agreed, out of a misplaced sense of fair play, to let the Vikings cross. As a result, he many of his men were slaughtered though they made a heroic stand. Their sense of a moral imperative was immortalized in the closing words of one of the Earl's retainers:

"heart must be braver, courage the greater   thought the keener, as our might fails."

One of the lessons of Maldon is that survival depends on making a realistic assessment of the political, social, and environmental risks now and in the 21st century. This is the primary objective of The Maldon Institute.