National Institute for Public Policy
Non-profit defence and foreign policy research organisation in Fairfax, Virginia, founded in 1981 and led by Keith Payne; focuses on nuclear deterrence, missile defence and arms control
| National Institute for Public Policy
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| Type | 501(c)(3) non-profit; public education organisation |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Founder(s) | Keith Payne (described as co-founder on the Institute's website) |
| Registration ID | EIN 54-1192424 (Internal Revenue Service) |
| Headquarters | 12150 Monument Dr., Suite 125, Fairfax, VA 22033, United States |
| Area served | United States |
| Services | Research and publication on foreign and defence policy; National Institute Press; scholarships |
| Key people | Keith Payne (CEO and president); Amy Joseph (chief operating officer) |
| Website | nipp.org |
The National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP, also called National Institute) is a United States non-profit research organisation in Fairfax, Virginia, that studies defence and foreign policy, with a long-standing focus on nuclear deterrence, strategic forces, arms control and missile defence. It says it was founded in 1981 and describes itself as "a non-profit public education organization that focuses on a wide spectrum of rapidly evolving foreign policy and international issues".[1] Its president and chief executive is Keith Payne, whom the Institute calls its co-founder.[2] Its January 2001 study, Rationale and Requirements for U.S. Nuclear Forces and Arms Control, was followed, according to Arms Control Today, by the Bush administration's adoption of many of its recommendations in its own nuclear posture review.[3] In 2025 the Institute's tax return showed total revenue of $2.2 million and net assets of $23.8 million.[4]
History
The Institute says it was founded in 1981. Its biography of Payne calls him "President and co-founder".[1][2] USA Today wrote in 2013 that Payne, "a longtime defense analyst and former Pentagon official, created the institute in 1981", and that he and the Institute's analysts "have long advocated for a larger U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal". It added that a year before Payne started the Institute, he and Institute analyst Colin Gray had published an article in Foreign Policy arguing that some forms of nuclear war were winnable.[5]
Payne's biography on the Institute's website says he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Forces Policy and later as a senior adviser in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, chaired the Strategy and Policy Panel of the US Strategic Command's Senior Advisory Group, sat on the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States and on the Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board, and took part in the 1998 "Rumsfeld Study" of missile proliferation.[2]
Rationale and Requirements, 2001
In January 2001, as the Bush administration took office, the Institute published Rationale and Requirements for U.S. Nuclear Forces and Arms Control, with Payne as study director. Its preface said the study departed from public proposals for nuclear "abolition" and concluded that "an important priority for the United States is to preserve its capability to adapt U.S. offensive and defensive forces to rapidly changing strategic conditions". It argued that this "weighs heavily against continuation of the traditional bipolar Cold War approach to strategic arms control", and that arms control should rather focus on "close consultation, coordination and transparency" than on "rigid treaties designed to perpetuate" mutual assured destruction.[6]
Norris and Kristensen wrote in Arms Control Today in 2004 that the co-authors of the report were "the most influential group" among thinkers who had been out of power from 1993 to 2001, that the administration "adopted many of the recommendations of the NIPP's report" during its own nuclear posture review, and that Payne "co-chaired a group that advised Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the NPR, and he ended up in the administration".[3]
| Name | Listed role or title |
|---|---|
| Keith Payne | Study director |
| Kathleen Bailey | Participant |
| Linton Brooks | Ambassador |
| Stephen Cambone | Participant |
| Stephen Hadley | Participant |
| Robert Joseph | Ambassador |
| William Van Cleave | Participant |
| Colin Gray | Participant |
| Fred Iklé; Max Kampelman; Ronald F. Lehman II; R. James Woolsey; William Schneider Jr.; Henry Cooper; David Smith; Leon Sloss; and others | Participants (the report lists 27 participants besides the study director) |
Government work and funding
The Institute's website says its programmes "are supported by foundation grants and private donors, including from Dr. John S. Foster, Jr. and the Sarah Scaife Foundation" and that it "accepts no defense industry funding or government contracts for this work or overhead".[1]
USA Today reported in November 2013 that the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment had said it would pay the Institute $184,000 for a study on nuclear deterrence, and that military records showed the office had paid the Institute $883,823 for other research conducted in 2009 and 2010. A Pentagon spokesman said the new study was "a much deeper and more exhaustive examination of deterrence than what was produced in NIPP's initial effort"; the Institute's chief operating officer, Amy Joseph, said the work was "significantly different in depth, scope, comprehensiveness and participants".[5]
The Institute's Form 990 returns report "government grants" within contributions of $78,240 for the year ending 30 November 2021 and $56,400 for the year ending 30 November 2025.[7][4] The returns for 2022 to 2024 report no such line.[8][9][10]
Sarah Scaife Foundation grants
The Sarah Scaife Foundation files Form 990-PF returns listing its grants. They show the following grants to the Institute (program support), by the foundation's calendar tax year:[11][12][13][14]
| Tax year | Purpose stated | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Program support | 415,000 | [11] |
| 2022 | Program support | 400,000 | [12] |
| 2023 | Program support | 360,000 | [13] |
| 2024 | Program support | 375,000 | [14] |
USA Today reported that the foundation gave the Institute $240,000 a year in 2011 and 2012, and that Payne's salary and bonus in 2011 were $423,010.[5]
People
Staff and scholars
The Institute's website lists the following professional staff.[1]
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Dr. Keith B. Payne | CEO and president |
| Amy Joseph | Chief operating officer |
| Kathleen Bailey | Senior associate |
| Gary Geipel | Senior associate |
| Amb. Robert Joseph | Senior scholar |
| David J. Trachtenberg | Senior scholar |
| Steven Lambakis | Director of space studies and editor-in-chief, Comparative Strategy |
| Michaela Dodge | Research scholar |
| Mark Schneider | Senior analyst |
Officers and directors on the tax return
The Form 990 for the year ending 30 November 2025 lists the following officers and directors, with the "reportable compensation from the organization" shown in the return's Part VII.[4]
| Name | Title | Hours per week | Reportable compensation (US$) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keith B. Payne | President | 38 | 445,667 |
| Amy Joseph | Chief operating officer | 40 | 326,152 |
| David Trachtenberg | Vice president through June 2025 | 13 | 80,344 |
| John Wisiackas | Director | 1 | 8,500 |
| Thomas Scheber | Director | 1 | 8,500 |
The same return reports eight employees.[4]
Programmes and publications
The website lists the Institute's publications as books, monographs, information series, occasional papers and a Journal of Policy & Strategy, issued through National Institute Press.[15] Its stated areas of focus include proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction, deterrence theory, the future of NATO and US–Russian relations, arms control regimes, the role of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defence and space policy.[1] It hosts scholarships in honour of Willard Fallon, John S. Foster Jr., Colin S. Gray and William R. Van Cleave for graduate students in defence and strategic studies.[1]
Finances
The Institute's fiscal year ends on 30 November. The IRS data summarised by ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, with the returns for 2024 and 2025 read from the IRS e-file XML, give the following totals.[16][10][4]
| Fiscal year | Total revenue | Contributions and grants | Total expenses | Total assets at year end | Total liabilities at year end | Compensation of current officers and directors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 4,524,984 | 3,977,213 | 3,310,728 | 11,893,910 | 2,236,727 | 823,687 |
| 2012 | 3,958,661 | 3,347,042 | 2,800,881 | 13,464,937 | 2,296,290 | 675,052 |
| 2013 | 3,707,928 | 2,947,560 | 2,619,513 | 15,466,502 | 2,142,420 | 760,120 |
| 2014 | 3,305,789 | 2,103,836 | 2,354,796 | 16,423,964 | 2,105,731 | 757,236 |
| 2015 | 2,519,768 | 2,145,808 | 2,412,208 | 15,911,458 | 2,132,923 | 766,971 |
| 2016 | 2,562,997 | 2,197,027 | 2,344,906 | 16,452,652 | 2,233,550 | 753,076 |
| 2017 | 4,000,572 | 2,878,192 | 2,706,401 | 19,231,088 | 2,510,471 | 756,229 |
| 2018 | 4,672,425 | 2,830,853 | 2,811,434 | 19,440,301 | 1,971,583 | 795,413 |
| 2019 | 3,322,719 | 2,246,136 | 2,470,428 | 20,942,859 | 1,746,711 | 767,283 |
| 2020 | 2,605,430 | 2,194,374 | 2,490,164 | 21,997,719 | 1,378,897 | 828,459 |
| 2021 | 3,392,659 | 1,678,006 | 1,981,627 | 24,407,266 | 624,975 | 969,770 |
| 2022 | 2,579,659 | 872,870 | 1,886,716 | 21,874,719 | 513,270 | 1,014,009 |
| 2023 | 1,894,360 | 586,872 | 1,819,286 | 21,476,583 | 780,793 | 1,007,105 |
| 2024 | 2,374,593 | 693,136 | 1,912,802 | 24,055,725 | 549,014 | 1,027,127 |
| 2025 | 2,207,781 | 551,777 | 2,016,735 | 24,988,002 | 1,159,394 | 1,007,985 |
Total revenue includes investment gains and losses. The 2025 return says the Institute's mission is to work "as a public education organization that focuses on a wide spectrum of rapidly evolving foreign policy and international issues", that its personnel "serve on senior advisory boards for federal offices", and that "fourteen programs are in progress or are completed".[4]
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 National Institute for Public Policy, About Us, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 National Institute for Public Policy, Dr. Keith B. Payne, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, What's Behind Bush's Nuclear Cuts?, Arms Control Today, October 2004, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 National Institute for Public Policy, Form 990 for the year ending 30 November 2025 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202602269349302625, EIN 54-1192424), IRS TEOS archive 2026_TEOS_XML_08A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ray Locker, Is Pentagon paying for study it can get for free?, USA Today, 6 November 2013 (read via an Internet Archive capture of 30 September 2024), accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ National Institute for Public Policy, Rationale and Requirements for U.S. Nuclear Forces and Arms Control, Volume I: Executive Report, January 2001 (PDF hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ National Institute for Public Policy, Form 990 for the year ending 30 November 2021 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202222769349300527, EIN 54-1192424), IRS TEOS archive 2022_TEOS_XML_01A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ National Institute for Public Policy, Form 990 for the year ending 30 November 2022 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202302029349300510, EIN 54-1192424), IRS TEOS archive 2023_TEOS_XML_07A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ National Institute for Public Policy, Form 990 for the year ending 30 November 2023 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202432619349301008, EIN 54-1192424), IRS TEOS archive 2024_TEOS_XML_09A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 National Institute for Public Policy, Form 990 for the year ending 30 November 2024 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202502209349301110, EIN 54-1192424), IRS TEOS archive 2025_TEOS_XML_08A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Sarah Scaife Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2020 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202113169349103251, EIN 25-1113452), IRS TEOS archive 2021_TEOS_XML_01A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Sarah Scaife Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2022 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202323189349101532, EIN 25-1113452), IRS TEOS archive 2023_TEOS_XML_11A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Sarah Scaife Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2023 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202403209349104590, EIN 25-1113452), IRS TEOS archive 2024_TEOS_XML_11A, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Sarah Scaife Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2024 (IRS e-file XML, object ID 202523189349102237, EIN 25-1113452), IRS TEOS archive 2025_TEOS_XML_11C, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ National Institute for Public Policy, Home page, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ ProPublica, National Institute For Public Policy Inc, Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 54-1192424), accessed 11 November 2026.