Middle East Institute

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Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1946 by Middle East scholar George Camp Keiser and former Secretary of State Christian Herter. The Institute is located in Washington, D.C., near Dupont Circle. Its mission is to "promote knowledge of the Middle East in America and strengthen understanding of the United States by the people and governments of the region." The organization initially began as part of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Early MEI initiatives included seminars; biannual newsletters with country reports from Morocco to Iran; and annual conferences, which offered constructive public dialogue about the Middle East on key issues including the Middle East energy crisis, Soviet policy toward the region, violence and dialogue in the Middle East, and the changing US-Middle East relationship. The Institute continues to organize seminars and conferences, and also hosts a team of experts on topics covering the full range of contemporary and historical issues relevant to the region. These Adjunct Scholars conduct research, publish, and lecture in venues around the globe as part of MEI’s educational mission. Much of their research is conducted at the Institute’s George Camp Keiser Library, which holds the largest English-language collection of materials on the Middle East outside of the Library of Congress. Since 1947, The Institute has also published the The Middle East Journal, a prestigious quarterly publication of contemporary scholarship concerning Middle Eastern politics, culture, and history.

The MEI also offers classes to the public in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish, and is launching a pilot program for the training and certification of Arabic teachers in the United States.

The Institute has a paying membership of about 2,000.^{[citation needed]}

Ambassador Wendy J. Chamberlin is MEI's President. She is a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.