The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is a conservative think tank, founded in 1943. According to the institute its mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism — limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate."^[1] AEI is an independent, non-profit organization. It is supported primarily by grants and contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. It is located in Washington, D.C.

AEI emerged as one of the leading architects of the second Bush administration's public policy.^[2] More than twenty AEI alumni and visiting scholars and fellows served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions.^[3]

Among the prominent former government officials now affiliated with AEI are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now an AEI senior fellow; former United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, now an AEI visiting scholar; former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, now an AEI senior fellow; and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (and wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney) Lynne Cheney, a longtime AEI senior fellow.^[4]