The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center was established in 1986 to pay tribute to Maureen and Mike Mansfield and to recognize their important contributions to U.S. Asian relations and public policy. The Center is an academic unit within the University of Montana and receives core funding from an endowment managed by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation. Mansfield Center faculty offer classroom instruction, conduct research, provide training for Asian and U.S. government personnel, and organize various types of conferences, all with a focus on East Asia. The Center faculty collaborate with the University's Asian studies programs and several other campus units.

The Mansfield Center's Ethics and Public Affairs Program (formerly known as the Center for Ethics) focuses upon the relationship of values to public institutions and affairs. Its courses, seminars, lectures, conferences, and internships examine the role that ethical values can and should play in public life, moral quandaries faced by those who govern philosophical and practical dimensions of political ethics, and issues of leadership and character in public service.