CENTRE FOR STATECRAFT results from the journey of Dr. Gary Allen and his wife Elaine.
From our vantage point at the United Nations over the past 40 years, it has been our privilege to hear the hearts of outstanding leaders and to walk alongside them, learning from them about the challenges they face and attempting to support them in finding solutions together. Our goal has been to serve these as friends. In the process, the quality of leadership and governance has arisen continually. We have never met an official who did not desire to be the best official he/she could be. In parallel, over the past three centuries, we have heard voices challenging us as a human race to improve leadership.
The great difference between the real statesman and the pretender is that the one sees into the future, while the other regards only the present; the one lives by the day, and acts on expediency; the other acts on enduring principles and for immortality.
Edmund Burke, eighteenth century
A politician thinks of the next election, a statesman of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.
James Freeman Clarke, nineteenth century
The difference between a politician and a statesman is that the politician sees which way the people are going and tries to stay ahead of them, whereas the statesman sees what is best and right and does that even if no one follows.
Ord L. Morrow, twentieth century
We have never met a leader who did not wish to be a good leader. There is something in the human heart that confirms that this is what is intended.
In parallel, as we have attempted to understand Government through the revealed intentions of our Creator, it seems clear that He intends for every governing official to be a Statesman as the secular writers quoted above have expressed. The goal of the Centre for Statecraft is to integrate the secular with knowledge from our Creator. In our own exploration of our Creator’s solution to these issues, we recognized that our Creator designed Government as one of the institutions to bring blessing to His creation (along with Family and Religious Institution). One interesting traveler in this human journey has been Dr. Abraham Kuyper, who was a prominent theologian but also the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He concluded:
All statecraft flows from the Christ.
It is this issue that we wish to explore with you. At issue is the motivations and intentions on the part of governors, but, just as importantly, where they obtain their direction for their decisions. As we began to study this topic, focusing on the lives of those generally recognized as especially good leaders, we noticed one common denominator in the lives of many but not clearly all cases: faith. As a scientist, which the principal is by professional background, he is part of a school of thought influenced by the philosopher of science, Sir Karl Popper, who argued that one should state one’s conclusions and hypotheses so strongly that they invite further investigation, including efforts to refute them, all in an attempt to arrive collectively at the truth. What we are sharing reflects this approach. We challenge you to explore with us the hypothesis that partnering with God, our Creator, is an effective step in becoming a statesman.
We begin with the conviction that there is a Creator who has designed the world, plus every person who lives in it, and several institutions for the healthy running of this system. He has revealed His intents and instructions to us as a human race in the Bible. Even if you disagree with our understanding, we challenge you to explore the implications with us. What do you have to lose? We are convinced there is much to gain, and nothing to lose. Our hope is that you will embark on this journey with us and that it will be as revolutionary for you as it has been for us.