Core Values

American Exceptionalism

Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation operates under the idea of American exceptionalism . American exceptionalism is defined as the world view that holds there is a qualitative difference between the United States and other nations. Indeed that there is something special, inherently good about the American system which was founded upon the ideals of liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, populism and laissez-fair economics. Indeed one of the more comprehensive contemporary analyses of what defines American exceptionalism can be found in the presentations by Peter H. Schuck and James Q. Wilson which build upon the Tocqueville's concept of American exceptionalism. (1) It is that contemporary version of the ideals outlined by Tocqueville's concept of American exceptionalism upon which the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation core values in part rest.

Intelligent/Informed

Patriotism

Soldiers to Statesmen was founded on pro American ideals and supports the aggressive pursuit of United States national interests with the caveat that said support is not blind and such pursuit is not reckless. Indeed blind patriotism possess little utility when it comes to addressing the real public policy challenges facing the United States, realizing United States national security / national interests or in honoring United States soldiers who serve and sacrifice in pursuit of those goals. Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation was designed to operate under a higher set of principles and ideals defined in this case as intelligent, informed patriotism. Congruently intelligent / informed patriotism is directly dependent upon individuals and the public in general ability to accurately and objectively analyze the substantive matter that defines issues of national and international importance.

Put another way patriotism is far better served when one taught “how to think” and not “what to think”. Indeed such intellectual freedom is in no insignificant part one of the core freedoms that United States service men and women sacrifice to protect. Within the operational aspects of the Soldiers to Statesmen intelligent informed patriotism is defined as patriotism which operates under the watch word of empiricism that rest upon a sound foundation of objective research derived from primary information sources and raw data.

Moreover Soldiers to Statesmen foundation is designed to increase the qualitative level of civic participation in governance both engaging in objective research / public policy analysis as well as including the general public in foundation events whose presentations operate within the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation operational guidelines.

Techno-Capitalism

Technocapitalism is defined as an evolution of market capitalism that is rooted in technological invention and innovation and focuses on upon intangibles such as creativity and new knowledge. (2) A technocaptialist environment positively selects for research intensive activities. Subsequently entities that are most successful are those entities that are able to maximize research intensity and make new discoveries. Such a definition aptly applies to the postindustrial knowledge based society and increasing competitive globalized economy that the United States operates. Indeed one only has to take a look at the Trade Mark and Patent Office’s web page to observe the increasing role that that innovation plays in the United States economy.

Within the operational aspects of the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation techno-capitalist ideals hold additional significance. Particularly it is convergence between the research intensity, technological development that defines Technocapitalism as a system and the foundations focus on leveraging efficiency, specifically technological efficiency / technological fixes to address public policy challenges that underwrites the Soldiers to Statesmen foundation to include technocapitalism as part of its core values.

Economic Patriotism

From the perspective of the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation economic patriotism could be defined by the watch phrase of “profit for patriotism and not patriotism for profit”. Put another way “profit for patriotism” supports that idea that entities should maximize their marginal personal benefits in a manner that either ideally supports or at a minimum does not undermine the marginal social / public good or United States national goals and interests. Expansion on what define economic patriotism translates into some additional themes.

Economic patriotism defined as investing in American institutions and American firms with the goal of maximizing American competitiveness within an increasing competitive globalized economy. (3)
Economic patriotism defined as investing in American workers so that they possess the skill sets necessary to compete for and successfully obtain higher levels of employment and subsequent higher standards of living based on their own merits.(4)
Economic patriotism exemplified by the pride one feels from seeing something labeled as “Made in America” because such a label has been restored to serve as hallmark of quality.
Economic patriotism defined as supporting strategic approaches towards globalization that facilitate United States national interests and ensuring other state actors play by the rules that they agreed to when said entities entered into trade agreements with the United States. Conversely from the perspective of the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation economic patriotism is not defined as support of the demonstrably suboptimal public policy that centers around wealth redistribution.

Economic patriotism is not defined as support of demonstrably outdated production methodologies and or work mechanics or economic isolationism to insulate said suboptimal methodologies. Within the operational aspects of the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation economic patriotic ideals can be observed in the primary goal of Soldiers to Statesmen that looks to develop United States military veterans so that they possess the skill sets needed to be successful in competitive political endeavors as well as economic sectors whose activity directly impact / facilitate resolving public policy challenges facing the United States. Indeed economic patriotic guidelines are a part and parcel to Soldiers to Statesmen Foundations purchasing strategies for good and services.

Purchasing strategies that when possible select American firms provided said American firms provide the needed goods or services at a cost that does not jeopardize Soldiers to Statesmen Foundations long term operational efficacy and goals. Moreover economic patriotic guidelines are included in the selection process for labor to be utilized in the construction of the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation facility. Particularly a selection process focuses upon drawing from labor pools that where involved in the immediate responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001.

Economic Growth and Stability

Another important core value upon which Soldiers to Statesmen foundation was created is the idea of maximizing economic growth and stability. In a postindustrial knowledge based society and economy maximizing economic growth and stability in no insignificant part depends upon a research intensity / efficacy. Indeed the significant role that research and development plays in the United States economy can be witnessed by the fact that in 2011 intellectual property (IP)-intensive industries represented over 5 trillion dollars to United States gross domestic product and was responsible for 40 + million jobs (5). Moreover research and development intensive economic sectors in general constitute higher level employment within a postindustrial knowledge based economy.

Furthermore from the perspective of positive spillovers research and development quite often has beneficial impact far beyond the primary sector where said research and development occurred. Congruently if one is looking to maximize United States economic growth and stability support for and focus upon research and development based endeavors becomes of primary importance. Within the operational aspects of the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation, primacy on research and development can be readily observed in numerous ways. First and foremost Soldiers to Statesmen seeks to invest in United States military veterans in academic pursuits that directly pertain to both the conduction and management of research and development. Moreover Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation seeks to provide United States military veterans professional assistance when it comes to intellectual property rights. Finally as a origination Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation is designed to be an extremely research intensive throughout all the panned developmental stages.

Free Market Friendly Environmentalism

Environmentalism is defined as “advocacy of the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment; especially: the movement to control pollution”. Put more simply environmentalism could be defined as being good stewards over the environment that you live. Having a clean environment is important for a number of reasons, from United States competitiveness, United States national security and economic vitality to minimizing health care cost and increasing the quality of life for all Americans. Tragically since the 1970s a significant facet of environmentalism has centered on forced austerity –read forcibly reducing consumption. Not surprisingly such approaches have resulted in negative secondary consequences, particularly when it comes to private sector investment in applied research and development and subsequent negative impact on both United States economy as well as realizing long term environments goals.

In realizing environmentalist goals both public and private sectors almost assuredly have a role to play. That said what defines optimality in both the ratio between and more importantly the roles played by both public and private sector is of key importance. Keeping the caveat of optimality surrounding the ration and role between public and private sector in mind free market friendly environmentalism does not eliminate all public sector involvement nor focus on restricting private sector economic activity. Rather free market friendly environmentalism centers on a homogenized strategy which in part seeks to ensure that public sector involvement translates into a positive input for private enterprise or at the very least minimizes potential negative impact on private sector economic activity. Moreover free market friendly environmentalism looks to leverage the efficiency of capitalism specifically in applied research and development to realize technological efficiency defined as getting more outputs for the same or lesser amount of inputs with the goal of reducing negative externalities like pollution.

Congruently Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation supports strategies that center on free market friendly environmentalism as it is defined in the preface in the intelligence report “Global trends 2025”, specifically the quotation that states: “many of these technologies, the infrastructure cost hurdle for individual projects would be lower, enabling many small economic actors to develop their own energy transformation projects that directly serve their interests”. (6) Within the operational aspects of the Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation free market friendly environmentalism can be directly observed in the technologies included in the design of Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation facility, direct research programs and day to day operations. Indeed the very design elements contained within Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation facility is meant to be a medium that both defines as well as transmits the message of free market friendly environmentalism.

Exemplary of the technologies included in the design of Soldiers to Statesmen Foundation facility include autonomous architecture conceptual elements like the extremely energy efficient monolithic dome construction which uses on average 1/3 rd the overall energy for heating and cooling, energy reclamation systems, compressive alternative energy based micro-combined heat and power. For more in-depth definition as to the specific technologies that are incorporated within the Soldiers To Statesmen Foundation facility design as well as rate of return surrounding the incorporation of said technologies feel free to go to the facility section of our website.