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Atlas Network, one of the largest classical liberal nonprofit organizations with a network of over 500 think tanks around the world, just announced a new partnership with the Centro Ricardo B. Salinas Pliego (CRBSP) and the Universidad de la Libertad (UL), a new Mexican higher education institution based on free-market principles.
“We chose to work with the CRBSP because they have a wonderful track record. We cooperated on an event in Mexico City last year that showed us there was a potential working relationship in the future,” Brad Lips, CEO of Atlas Network told El American.
“When we learned about the new university and that they would be open to exploring different ways to collaborate with one another, it was sort of a no-brainer to raise our hand and get involved. Hopefully, we’ll be able to provide some value because their undertaking is both very ambitious and much needed. We believe that there’s been a lack of innovation in higher education for a long time, so we’re excited to support promising projects such as Universidad de la Libertad.”
“In recent decades, Atlas Network has been a true champion of freedom in Latin America, and we look forward to carrying on that tradition,” said Ricardo B. Salinas, founder of the CRBSP and the UL. “With strong support from Atlas Network, the Universidad de la Libertad will revolutionize academia and shape the next generation of liberty advocates. It is important that we leave behind our fears and gather the courage to commit ourselves to building a freer society.”
The alliance is based on a Memorandum of Understanding between the parties based on seven main points: 1) That Atlas Network will provide guest lectures on issues that fit with UL’s values, 2) That Atlas Network may set up a grant structure to allow UL students and faculty to create projects for low-income populations, 3) To set up a new generation of freedom ideas influencers in Latin America, 4) To expand Atlas Network’s Lights, Camera, Liberty program, 5) to be present at each other’s events, 6) That UL may host Atlas Network’s first Decentralizing Technologies Summit and 7) To offer international internship opportunities.
The signed MOU can be accessed here.
“I believe the partnership has tremendous potential, but it’s still to be defined in some aspects. We signed a good faith agreement that shows we are on board and want to see the Universidad de la Libertad flourish,” Lips said to El American.
“Higher education is an area where we think there’s been a lot of backsliding and inattentiveness to the ideas of liberalism, so it’s great to see a university committed to being innovative to serve students and attentive to these topics that have been neglected. We’re still brainstorming about the different ways we can be a good partner, but we think that our assets, the global network of independent think tanks that cooperate with us, can be a tremendous resource to the university,” Lips added.
“Atlas Network couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Centro Ricardo B. Salinas Pliego and Universidad de la Libertad, helping to make Latin America a freer and more prosperous region for decades to come,” said Lips in a press release. “Through our new partnership, Latin American students will gain a deeper understanding of classical liberal values and fight back against illiberal ideologies that have taken hold in much of the region. By working together like this, we can build the foundations for a new era of freedom and inclusive prosperity.”
The CRBSP and UL join a group of over 100 Atlas Network partners in Latin America. Lips believes that Latin America is the perfect place to spread freedom ideas today.
“Sometimes you need to hit bottom before you can recover. In Latin America, we’ve seen a lot of countries head down the wrong path, especially with Covid. It also made clear how stark the choices are when it comes to trusting centralized government experts to run our lives or heeding the wisdom of the great classical liberal tradition that is skeptical of centralized power and that understands that there’s so much productivity to be unleashed when you get out of the way of normal people and give a framework for them to be able to create wealth and use their talents,” Lips added.
“Most of our partners in Latin America are independent think tanks that focus on educational efforts or policy reform. In the past year, we were really happy to partner with a lot of groups in Chile concerned about the proposed constitutional changes, which could have wrecked the institutions that helped Chile become a prosperous country,” he said.
We’ve been proud to partner with organizations like CEDICE in Venezuela that provides basic education about the alternative path that Venezuela could’ve taken. We love that the Uruguayan government listened to some of the advice that one of our partners offered to steer a sound ship in macroeconomics,” Lips added.
Edgar is political scientist and philosopher. He defends the Catholic intellectual tradition. Edgar writes about religion, ideology, culture, US politics, abortion, and the Supreme Court. Twitter: @edgarjbb_ // Edgar es politólogo y filósofo. Defiende la tradición intelectual católica. Edgar escribe sobre religión, ideología, cultura, política doméstica, aborto y la Corte Suprema. Twitter: @edgarjbb_