The award is given for "notable intellectual or practical contributions to improved public policy and social welfare" and named in honor of Irving Kristol. It replaced the Francis Boyer Award in 2003. The award was named for Kristol as a tribute to his influence on public issues and as an intellectual mentor to several generations of conservatives. According to Christopher DeMuth, "In our sixty years of labors, no one has had a more profound influence on the work of the American Enterprise Institute, or on American political discourse, than Irving Kristol. Combining philosophical depth with intense practicality and constant good cheer, [Kristol] has, as President Bush has put it, 'transformed political debate on every subject he approached, from economics to religion, from social welfare to foreign policy.'"[1]
The Kristol Award is presented at AEI's Annual Dinner, a gala dinner in Washington, D.C., that is well-attended by conservative leaders and is a major event on the Washington social scene.[2][3] President George W. Bush spoke at the first Kristol Award presentation in 2003. Bush's speech, only days before the commencement of the Iraq War, laid out his promise to launch military action even if the United NationsSecurity Council did not authorize it.[4] Former vice president Dick Cheney[5] and former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar[6] have also presented the award.
"To Allan H. Meltzer
Pioneer of political economy and policy reform
Teacher to students, scholars, and statesmen
Intellectual leader in the causes of liberty and progress"
"To Charles Krauthammer
Fearless journalist, wise analyst, and militant democrat
Who has shown that America's interests and ideals are indivisible
And that the promotion of freedom is hard-headed realism"
"To Mario Vargas Llosa
Whose narrative art and political thought
Illumine the universal quest for freedom--
Which the virtues love and the follies require."
"To David Hackett Fischer
Student, teacher, and storyteller
Whose histories revivify the American past
And teach us that her future is a story we are telling"
"To Bernard Lewis
Who has stood at the Bosporus for seventy years
Historian and interpreter across the great divide
Sage of our pasts, presage of our future."
"To Charles Murray
Exemplary social scientist
Whose measurements are means to moral understanding
Engaged Aristotelian
Who teaches of human heritage and pursuit"
