Outlet profile

The National Interest (Opinion)

U.S. foreign-policy realist (right-of-center, restraint-leaning)

Owned byOwned by the Center for the National Interest, a Washington, D.C. think tank founded by Richard Nixon in 1994 as the Nixon Center. The Center acquired the magazine in 2001.

FundingAdvertising and subscription revenue, plus donations to the parent think tank. The Center does not openly disclose its donors.

On the administrationmixed

Background

The National Interest was founded in 1985 by Irving Kristol as a journal on foreign policy. It published Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History?" in 1989. Conrad Black's Hollinger organization later owned it, and the Nixon Center, now the Center for the National Interest, acquired it in 2001. Under the Center, it became known as a home for foreign-policy realism, which stresses national interests, great-power balance, and limits on military intervention. It has also published neoconservative, hawkish, and restraint-oriented writers. Its Washington-based opinion output includes many outside contributors, so views vary by author. Critics point to the think tank's undisclosed donors and to occasional pieces that echo the Russian or Chinese perspective. Media-bias raters generally place the outlet at the center-right. In 2026, its opinion section has run pieces that are critical of the administration, such as one arguing the administration is eroding the U.S. military edge. It has also run pieces favoring the president's priorities, so its overall posture toward the administration is mixed. This profile rests on limited search results, and I could not verify the current editorial leadership or the exact balance of recent opinion pieces.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-22; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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