About The Eisenhower Center for
American Studies

The mission of the Eisenhower Center is the study of the causes, conduct, and consequences of American national security policy and the use of force as an instrument of policy in the twentieth century.

This period coincides with the life (1890-1969) and public career (1911-1961) of General-President Dwight D. Eisenhower and includes three major historical epochs: the extension of American power beyond North America, 1898-1916; the collapse of European hegemony, 1914-1945, and the two world wars; and the US-USSR rivalry of the Cold War and the process of global decolonization.

The Center will increase our understanding of the political culture of the twentieth century United Sates, reflected in the issues of national security.

The Mission Statement:

1. Ties the Center to the legacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Eisenhower ideal of public service, civic leadership, and public education is the foundation of the Center’s existence.

2. Clarifies the Center’s educational mission as a component of the University of New Orleans’s mission of research, education, and public service focused on the development
   of a democratic, pluralistic, productive society shaped in part by the nation’s wars and “expeditions beyond the seas” in the past century.

3. Provides a specific intellectual focus for a variety of disciplines to the study of war
   and peace issues.

4. Provides a specific tie of common interest with the National World War II Museum.