The Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford is the foremost academic institution for teaching and research in US culture, history and politics beyond America's shores. The Institute was opened by President Bill Clinton in 2001 and every year hosts more than 100 seminars, workshops, conferences and lectures which attract leading scholars, students, policy-makers and public figures from around the world to debate and study the United States. The Vere Harmsworth Library, housed within the Institute, has the finest academic collections in American history, politics and government outside the US.