| 2019 | Thomas E. Mann |
| 2018 | Condoleezza Rice |
| 2017 | Lloyd Axworthy, University of Manitoba |
| 2016 | Edward Dorn, University of Texas at Austin |
| 2015 | Beverly Scott |
| 2014 | Henry Cuellar, U.S. House of Representatives |
| 2013 | Susan E. Rice, Executive Office of the President |
| 2012 | Louis Fisher, The Constitution Project |
| 2011 | Michael Doyle, Columbia University |
| 2010 | General David Petraeus, Department of Defense |
| 2009 | Catherine McArdle Kelleher, University of Maryland, College Park |
| 2008 | Henry G. Cisneros, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Executive Chairman of CityView |
| 2007 | Congressman David Obey, U.S. House of Representatives, Wisconsin |
| 2006 | William A. Galston, The Brookings Institution |
| 2005 | Richard Solomon, United States Institute of Peace |
| 2004 | David Dreier, U.S. House of Representatives, State of California |
| 2003 | Mark Hatfield, Former Senator, State of Oregon |
| 2002 | Parris N. Glendening, Governor of the State of Maryland |
| 2001 | Dennis Ross, Washington Near East Institute |
| 2000 | John Ruggie, Colubmia University and Assistant Secretary General, United Nations |
| 1999 | Marjorie Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Britain |
| 1998 | Lee Herbert Hamilton, U.S. House of Representatives, State of Indiana |
| 1997 | Paul D. Wellstone, U.S. Senate, State of Minnesota |
| 1996 | Bruce C. Vladeck, Director, Health Care Financing Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services |
| 1995 | Madeleine Albright, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations |
| 1994 | Donna E. Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services |
| 1993 | Richard E. Neustadt, Harvard University |
| 1992 | Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense |
| 1991 | Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic and International Studies C. Payne Lucas, Africare |
| 1990 | David E. Price, U.S. House of Representatives |
| 1989 | Brent Scowcroft, Special Assistant to the President, National Security Affairs |
| 1988 | Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Georgetown University |
| 1987 | Max M. Kampelman, Head, U.S. Delegation, Negotiations on Nuclear and Space Arms |
| 1986 | No award given |
| 1985 | Robert C. Wood, Wesleyan University |
| 1984 | John Brademas, New York University |
| 1983 | Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senate, State of New York |
