The Atlas Economic Research Foundation  is pleased to announce that the New Economic School (NES) of Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia has won the 2006 Freda Utley Prize for Advancing Liberty.  A leading voice to strengthen freedom and prosperity throughout the Southern Caucasus, the NES focuses on teaching high school and university students about the benefits of peace, open borders, free trade, and the freedom of movement and investment. (For more photos of the prize announcement in Tbilisi, click here ).

Named for the late Freda Utley, an outspoken writer and commentator against totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union and China, this $10,000 prize rewards the efforts of think tanks in difficult parts of the world that are most effective in disseminating the ideas of freedom or have a substantial impact on opinion-makers, so that concepts relating to freedom become better understood.  

Founded in 2001, NES spreads free-market ideas and public policy solutions in a region fraught with constant ethnic conflicts, excessive bureaucracy, high informal barriers for trade, little economic freedom, and weak rule of law.  In announcing the award at an NES event in Tbilisi on October 26th, Atlas Executive Vice President Brad Lips remarked, “The NES recognizes that the long-term health of Georgia depends on cultivating leaders who respect the principles of individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited government constrained by the rule of law.  The organization has played a heroic role in building a network of bright young people in Georgia and the Southern Caucasus who are dedicated to these fundamental ideals.” 

Marc Miles, former editor of the Index of Economic Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, noted after giving a lecture, “The NES has identified young people who are eager to learn about open markets, the rule of law and the way other countries have achieved wealth. Their insightful questions reflected the depth of liberty concepts the NES had taught them. These are the future entrepreneurs and government officials that hold out the hope of achieving economic freedom. I remain impressed that a relatively new and small think tank could have such significant and visible impact on a country.”  

Krassen Stanchev, the executive director of the Institute for Market Economics in Bulgaria, who serves as a guest lecturer for these courses, commented, “For me, the Caucasus resembles the Balkans: tensions between the countries, a rich and powerful neighbor to the North, and numerous interethnic conflicts fuelled and aggravated by the past Soviet policies. . . As a result of NES courses in economic freedom, countries (governments, businesses, students) look at each one’s performance and compete in promoting better policies; there is already something like “Caucasus Regional Economic Freedom Movement”.”   

The Freda Utley Foundation decided to establish this prize program at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation because, in the words of Jon Utley, “Atlas’s core beliefs are very much in tune with Freda Utley’s: namely, concern for human poverty and misery, and the belief that peoples of all nations have similar aspirations and can learn the universal lessons of freedom and prosperity.” The Atlas Economic Research Foundation is a U.S. non-profit organization that works as an international hub for think tanks advancing the ideas of freedom.            

The New Economic School was selected as this year’s prize winner by a panel of judges, based upon the institute’s demonstration of excellent achievement in reaching and persuading new audiences of the merits of the ideas of freedom.   

The formal presentation of the Utley Prize will occur at Atlas’s Freedom Dinner event in Washington DC on November 16, 2006.  For more information about New Economic School, please visit http://www.nesgeorgia.org. The 2006 Freda Utley Prize attracted 81 applications from 40 countries this year.

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