The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

is located in Washington, D.C. and is named for the 46th

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

, Joe Biden. A

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...

, the Penn Biden Center is, per its mission statement, "founded on the principle that a democratic, open, secure, tolerant, and interconnected world benefits all Americans." The Penn Center engages

foreign policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...

leaders as well as members of the Penn community on issues which are critical to sustaining the principles of American leadership on the global stage into the 21st century.

History

The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement officially opened on February 8, 2018. The Center opened offices in Washington, D.C. The inaugural ceremony was attended by Biden and the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Amy Gutmann. It featured a discussion on global affairs featuring, Biden and veteran

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...

journalist and Penn alumna,

Andrea Mitchell Andrea Mitchell (born October 30, 1946) is an American television journalist, anchor and commentator for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C. She is NBC News' chief foreign affairs & chief Washington correspondent, reporting on the 2008 presi ...

. Guests also included former U.S. Secretary of State

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...

, former

U.S. National Security Advisor The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor (NSA),The National Security Advisor and Staff: p. 1. is a senior aide in the Executive Office of the President, based at t ...

Dr. Susan Rice, former U.S. Attorneys General

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African Amer ...

and

Loretta Lynch Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the Un ...

and current and former members of Congress. The managing director of the Penn Biden Center is Michael Carpenter.

Discovery of classified documents

On January 9, 2023,

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

reported that the a set of approximately 10 documents marked classified were found in the office Biden used when he had been vice president. According to Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, the documents were discovered by Biden's personal attorneys when they were vacating office space on November 2, 2022; on that same day, the White House counsel's office informed the National Archives of this development, and on the next day, the National Archives obtained the documents. Sauber added that the documents had not been "the subject of any previous request or inquiry" by the National Archives at the time of the discovery. Sources told CBS News that the classified documents were mixed with unclassified materials, and unrelated to nuclear secrets. Upon being notified of the documents, United States Attorney General

Merrick Garland Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since March 2021 as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of ...

assigned John Lausch, the United States Attorney for the

Northern District of Illinois The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (in case citations, N.D. Ill.) is the federal trial-level court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois. Appeals from the Northern District of Illinois a ...

, to review how the documents made it to the Penn Biden Center. This incident has been contrasted with the FBI's seizure of classified documents from Mar-a-lago, the residence of former president Donald Trump. On January 11, a second set of classified documents were discovered at Biden's residence in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

. Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the Virginia-based National Legal and Policy Center said: "The Penn Biden Center is a dark-money, revolving-door nightmare where foreign competitors like China donated millions of dollars to the University of Pennsylvania so that they could have access to future high-ranking officials.,” https://nypost.com/2023/01/11/penn-biden-center-is-dark-money-nightmare-patronage-mill/

Biden presidency

Following the victory of Joe Biden in the

2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Ha ...

, the Center issued the following statement:

The Penn Biden Center will carry on its mission of conducting original research, analysis, and commentary on America’s place in the world and the global forces that impact our national security, democratic institutions, and foreign policy. As a research unit within the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Biden Center will remain completely independent of the Biden administration, and the analysis and opinions of its staff and affiliated scholars will reflect their personal views alone, and not necessarily those of the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn Biden Center does not accept any contributions or gifts.

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Washington, D.C. 2018 establishments in the United States 2018 establishments in Washington, D.C. Joe Biden University of Pennsylvania Public administration schools in the United States Public policy schools Schools of international relations in the United States