Chinese Intelligence Posing as Think Tanks to Lure Fired USG Employees

Here is more from the New York Times:

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned on Tuesday that China’s intelligence services were using deceptive efforts to recruit current and former U.S. government employees.

The center, along with the F.B.I. and the Pentagon’s counterintelligence service, said in an advisory that foreign intelligence agencies were posing as consulting firms, corporate think tanks and other organizations to recruit former U.S. officials.

The American government has long said that China uses social networks to secretly recruit people. But former U.S. officials say China now sees an opportunity as the Trump administration shuts down agencies, fires probationary employees and pushes out people who had worked on diversity issues.

The warning advised former officials who have security clearances of their “legal obligation to protect classified data” even after they leave the government. It added that China and other foreign countries were targeting a variety of former officials.

 

Reuters has previously reported on this.

 

 

Heritage Foundation Goes After Prince Harry

Here is more from Newsweek:

Prince Harry's visa papers have been the subject of a now two-year court battle about his past use of drugs—but in reality there may be more private information than that at stake in the case.

New documents released this week referenced the fact a disclosure of the Duke of Sussex's visa status could expose him to harassment or manipulation.

The case, brought by the Heritage Foundation, has always been about whether he lied on his application form about taking drugs or alternatively told the truth and was given favorable treatment.

 

Dr. Nile Gardiner, Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom and Bernard and Barbara Lomas Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has been working to "unlock the truth" about Harry's visa.

Kamala Harris to Start a Think Tank?

Here is more from the New York Times:

Yet some of [Kamala Harris's] closest allies say she is leaning against another White House run in 2028 and, instead, toward a campaign for governor of California in 2026. Her political choice is binary, she has told people: She can run for governor or president, but not both.

Ms. Harris, who jokes to friends that she is unemployed for the first time, has explored options beyond pursuing electoral office, too. She hired the Creative Artists Agency to gauge interest in speaking engagements and a potential book. An aide has held preliminary talks with universities about establishing a policy institute, though some warned that could complicate her political aspirations.

 

Harris is being mocked on social media for her interest in creating a think tank.  Some names those people have suggested for her think tank: The Coconut Tree Institute, The Kamala D. Harris Institute for Examining the Importance of Understanding What Needs to Be Done, and The Kamala Harris Center for the Unburdening of What Has Been.

Think Tank Quickies (#514)

• The Bonn-based IZA Institute of Labour Economics is set to close at the end of December after its main financial backer, Deutsche Post Foundation, a non-profit institution set up by logistics operator DHL Group, announced that it will "discontinue" the IZA's "operations."
• Daniel Davis, a commentator with a record of controversial comments about Israel and a senior fellow at the Koch-backed think tank Defense Priorities, will be the deputy director of national intelligence under Tulsi Gabbard.
  
• Karim Haggag, a professor at the school of global affairs and pubic policy at the American University in Cairo, has been appointed the new director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
• Former Republican Rep. Garrett Graves (LA) and former independent Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) have joined the Bipartisan Policy Center's Energy Advisory Council.
  
• AFL-CIO, together with affiliated unions and the think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI), file emergency lawsuit against DOGE to protect privacy of worker data.
• Onion (satire): Think tank called 'The Himmler Institute' assures nation this is legal. 
• The Economic Security Project is adding Mike Konczal and Adriane Brown, both from the Biden White House.
• As a child, Microsoft founder Bill Gates visited a local think tank owned by Batelle.
  
• Korean policy think tank launches national budget simulation game. 
• Why think tank experts matter less and less for Trump.

Top China Think Tank Shuts Down Research Center After Questions of Party Loyalty

Here is more from the South China Morning Post:

China's top think tank has shut down its public policy research centre amid a new round of ideological reinforcement, with any activities carried out in its name declared "illegal," with immediate effect.

In a statement on Sunday, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said the centre was closed in accordance with an internal regulation and its research projects transferred to the Institute of Economics.

Part-time researchers affiliated with other departments were returning to their original institutions while the remainder had been dismissed, according to the statement on the CASS website.  The centre's social media accounts and website have also been shut down.

The now-defunct centre was once headed by economist Zhu Hengpeng, who was also deputy director of the Institute of Economics.  He was last seen in public at the end of April 2024.

Sources familiar with the matter said that Zhu had been investigated and removed from his post in May for criticizing China's economic policies in a group discussion on WeChat.

 

The report notes that CASS, once home to many liberal academics who were vocal in their criticism of the authorities, is undergoing a major shift towards greater loyalty to the ruling Communist Party.

Hot New Trend at Think Tanks: Trade War Simulations

Here is more from the New York Times:

Last month, two dozen trade experts from the United States and other countries gathered at a Washington think tank to try to simulate what could happen if Mr. Trump moves ahead with his plan to impose punishing tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners.

Teams representing China, Europe, the United States and other governments spent a day running between conference rooms, offering proposals to remove the tariffs and make trade deals to forestall economic collapse.

The game, which took place at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan think tank focused on security issues, included think tank experts and former officials in the Trump and Biden administrations. The exercise was not aimed at predicting the future. Instead, by acting out what might happen, the participants were trying to reveal some of the dynamics that might be at play as Mr. Trump pursues an aggressive trade approach against allies and adversaries alike.

 

Think tanks are well known for holding war game simulations, but this is the first time Think Tank Watch is aware of trade war simulations.

DOGE Works to Shut Down Wilson Center

Here is more from the New York Times:

The head of the Wilson Center, a storied foreign policy think tank, resigned on Tuesday, a day after employees from Elon Musk’s government-overhauling team arrived at the group’s Washington headquarters to dismantle it, according to people familiar with the actions at the center.

The resignation of the president, Mark Green, a Republican, and the visit from Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team, indicated that the Trump administration was carrying out an executive order President Trump signed last month directing that the organization, a nonpartisan policy group, be largely dismantled.

After DOGE team members visited the center on Monday and Tuesday, some of the leadership staff and senior government employees were ousted, including Mr. Green, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution by political appointees in the Trump administration. The center’s dozens of federal employees, about a third of its work force, were also set to be placed on administrative leave.

 

Ms. Natasha Jacome, a senior adviser to Mr. Green, is the center’s new president. 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on Trump's signing of an executive order to dismantle the Wilson Center.

Secret Pentagon Memo Has Heritage Foundation Fingerprints

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reoriented the U.S. military to prioritize deterring China’s seizure of Taiwan and shoring up homeland defense by “assuming risk” in Europe and other parts of the world, according to a secret internal guidance memo that bears the fingerprints of the conservative Heritage Foundation, including some passages that are nearly word-for-word duplications of text published by the think tank last year.

The document, known as the Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance and marked “secret/no foreign national” in most passages, was distributed throughout the Defense Department in mid-March and signed by Hegseth. It outlines, in broad and sometimes partisan detail, the execution of President Donald Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing and defend the United States from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama Canal.

The interim guidance is nine pages. Several passages throughout are similar to a longer 2024 report by the Heritage Foundation, some of which are nearly identical, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of both documents. One of the Heritage report’s co-authors, Alexander Velez-Green, is now in an interim role as the Pentagon’s top policy official.

The Heritage report, published in August, recommends that the Pentagon prioritize three core issues: Taiwan invasion deterrence, homeland defense, and increased burden sharing among allies and partners — which the Hegseth guidance mirrors. The congressional aide said it was readily apparent to Capitol Hill staff that the document bore the influence of the conservative think tank.

 

The article goes on to note that Maj. Gen. Garrick Harmon, the head of strategy and plans at Africa Command, recommended that they read the Heritage report, which has been circulated by at least one official within the command.

Think Tank Quickies (#513)

• Career civil servants and foreign service officers who staffed the State Department's Policy Planning Staff office, which has historically served as the secretary of State's in-house think tank, were all let go and reassigned into limbo without clarity on their next jobs. 
• Despite Trump's past disavowals, many of the individuals involved in drafting Project 2025, such as Russell Vought and Brendan Carr, have been tapped to serve in prominent positions in his Administration.
• Several Cabinet-level officials, including the secretaries of education, agriculture, veterans affairs, and housing, have worked for AFPI. Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, reported earning $520,000 from AFPI in 2024. John Ratcliffe and Kash Patel, Trump's directors of the CIA and FBI, served as members of the group's American Security Team.  All told so far, AFPI doled out nearly $2.6 million to incoming Trump Administration officials in recent years.
• Former acting Labor Secretary Julie Su is joining The Century Foundation as a senior fellow.
• Left-leaning economic policy think tank Groundwork Collaborative has added a pair of former Biden Administration staffers as progressives gear up to try and extract policy wins in this year's tax fight.
• Former Biden economist Jed Kolko has joined JPMorgan's think tank.
  
• National Institute for Deterrence Studies (NIDS), a "think tank" based in Fairborn, Ohio.
• Atlantic Council Global Foresight 2025 survey of hundreds of experts reveals that most believe the world will be worse off in 2035 than it is today.
• The Treasury Department has frozen funding disbursements to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). 
• A fairly new group known as the Ben Franklin Fellowship is helping pick who to place where at the US State Department.

New Zealand Sacks Top Diplomat Over Talk at Think Tank

Here is more from the New York Times:

New Zealand on Thursday recalled its top diplomat in Britain after he made comments questioning President Trump’s understanding of history at a public event, in a sign of the unease and sensitivities around expressing disagreements with the Trump administration.

Phil Goff, New Zealand’s high commissioner to Britain — the equivalent of an ambassador between Commonwealth countries — made the comments in London on Tuesday at an event about the war in Ukraine and peace in Europe.

Mr. Goff spoke up with a question after a speech by Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, at the Chatham House think tank, in which she spoke about the role of Europe in the face of Russian aggression and resolving the war in Ukraine.

 

While so-called Chatham House Rules, which say that the speakers at an event can be quoted but not identified, are often used by the think tank, the institute does hold events that do not adhere to that restriction.

Trump-Aligned Think Tank AFPI Planning 100-Year MAGA Plan

Here is more from Axios:

Well-funded MAGA forces close to the White House are preparing a "100-year plan" to try to sustain Trumpism long after President Trump leaves office.

Why it matters:

Top executives at the America First Policy Institute tell Axios that the group is scaling up as an incubator for the America First movement beyond Jan. 20, 2029 — promising to proselytize its policies for the next century.

The big picture: The institute was launched in 2021 — by now-Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, now-Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Larry Kudlow, a Fox Business host who was a first-term Trump official — to help keep Trump's ideas in the political ether after he left office.

• During the president's Mar-a-Lago exile and through his 2024 comeback bid, the institute became something of an administration in waiting, pumping out policy papers and staffing up with Trump 1.0 alums.

Now AFPI is retooling as a shadow White House policy shop — and training ground for future administration talent.

• The group — along with America First Works, a sister organization focused on political work and policy advocacy — just moved into a posh new office on Pennsylvania Avenue next to the Willard InterContinental, wedged between the White House and Capitol.

 

Axios notes that Greg Sindelar, CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), is interim president and CEO, replacing Rollins.  Also, Chad Wolf, Trump's former acting Homeland Security secretary, will be AFPI's executive vice president and chief strategy officer.

Think Tank Quickies (#512)

• Biden's Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo joins the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) as a distinguished fellow.
  
• An armed man arrested at the US Capitol said he planned to burn down the Heritage Foundation.
  
• Brooke Rollins' disclosures show she made $1 million at AFPI.
• AFPI executive, Heidi Overton, expected to join Trump Domestic Policy Council.
  
• The Cato Institute is launching an external affairs department, led by Chad Davis and with Simone Shenny as director of external affairs.
• A new analysis from FOIAengine, a product developed by online data journalism platform PoliScio Analytics, found that the Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded Project 2025, used more than 7,700 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to research 1,400 federal officials in preparation for implementing the Trump agenda.
• Jessica Chen-Weiss is the inaugural director of the new Johns Hopkins SAIS Institute for America, China and the Future of Global Affairs.
  
• Alexander Velez-Green is now performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.  He was previously named senior adviser to Under Secretary of Defense for Policy nominee Bridge Colby.  He most recently was senior policy adviser at the Heritage Foundation and has worked for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), the RAND Corporation, and the Center for a New American Security (CSAS).
• Mastermind of Iran's US influence effort appointed head of ministry think tank.
  
• Trump tried to destroy USDA's in-house think tank.
  

Defense Department's In-House Think Tank to Be Cut

Here is more from Breaking Defense:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “disestablishing” the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, a key office responsible for high-level strategic analysis, according to a memo obtained by Breaking Defense.

The memo, dated today and signed by Hegseth, directs the Pentagon’s Performance Improvement Officer and Director of Administration and Management to reassign all civilian employees to other “mission critical positions” inside the department, while military personnel will return to their service to receive new billets.

Simultaneously, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official is directed to “ensure that the necessary steps are taken” by department contracting authorities to terminate “all ONA contracts awarded for ONA and ONA-related requirements.” A number of DC think tanks and research organizations will likely be impacted by these cancelled contracts.

 

ONA is often described as the in-house think tank for the US Defense Department.

DOGE "Breaks Into" US Institute of Peace

Just days after Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) officials, accompanied by the FBI, tried to enter the US Institute of Peace (USIP), the (now former) Acting President and CEO George Moose said that DOGE "broke into" the think tank.

Here are more details from the New York Times: 

A simmering dispute between the Department of Government Efficiency and an independent agency dedicated to promoting peace broke into an open standoff involving the police on Monday, as Elon Musk’s government cutters marched into the agency’s headquarters and evicted its officials.

The dramatic scene played out in Washington on Monday afternoon as Mr. Musk’s team was rebuffed from the U.S. Institute of Peace, an agency that President Trump has ordered dismantled, then entered it with law enforcement officers. Agency officials say that because the institute is a congressionally chartered nonprofit that is not part of the executive branch, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk do not have the authority to gut its operations.

“DOGE just came into the building — they’re inside the building — they’re bringing the F.B.I. and brought a bunch of D.C. police,” Sophia Lin, a lawyer for the institute, said by telephone as she and other officials were being escorted out.

George Moose, who was fired as the institute’s acting president last week but is challenging his dismissal, accused Mr. Musk’s team of breaking in. “Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,” he told reporters. “So what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation.”

A spokesman for Mr. Musk’s team directed an inquiry to the White House. An administration official blamed the institute for not complying with an executive order signed by Mr. Trump in February, which listed the institute as one of four governmental entities to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” and directed them to “reduce the performance” to the minimum required by law within 14 days.

 

On Friday, DOGE sent all but three of USIP's board members an email telling them they have been terminated. 

The remaining board members — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Peter Garvin, the president of the National Defense University — later replaced Mr. Moose as acting president with Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official who was involved in the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

USIP lawyers said the think tank is preparing to sue the Trump Administration over the removal of the board. 

Update: USIP staffers reportedly removed locks and disabled internet and phone lines to try to stop the takeover, according to the Daily Caller.

Think Tank Quickies (#511)

• The Heritage Foundation made a $200,000 ad buy supporting Trump's Cabinet nominations. 
• The Heritage Foundation erected a 30-by-60-foot banner on the side of its Capitol Hill building congratulating Donald Trump.
  
• Asian companies asking which think tanks will rise under Trump.
• Dark Money is tainting Washington think tanks.
• Hanwha launches Korea Chair at UK think tank IISS.
  
• Former head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, named the new co-chair of the Bilderberg Group.
• Michael Anton, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute going into the Trump Administration, recorded a podcast in 2021 with "dark enlightenment" blogger Curtis Yarvin.
• As China's think tanks seek wider influence, is more autonomy the answer?
  
• "Hosted annually by the Tax Foundation, a think tank that generally favors lower taxes, and sponsored by major corporations, Tax Prom is Washington networking par excellence." 
• Why are Hong Kong think tanks facing a bleak future?
• American Compass has launched a new online magazine, Commonplace, aiming to be the "intellectual home of the new right-of-center" with a focus on political, economic, and cultural concerns.
  

DOGE, FBI Try to Enter Think Tank on Trump's Chopping Block

Here is more from The Hill:

U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the building after being approached by their counsel.

“They were met at the door by the Institute’s outside counsel who informed them of USIP’s private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency.  Following that discussion, the DOGE representatives departed,” Gonzo Gallegos, USIP’s director of communications, said in a statement to The Hill.

 

 Here is a statement from USIP about the incident.

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order that will significantly shrink the size and scope of USIP.

Trump Signs Executive Order to Dismantle the Wilson Center

Here is more from The Hill:

President Trump on Friday signed an executive order that aims to eliminate seven federal agencies, including ones that focus on media, libraries, museums and ending homelessness.

The president directed the government entities “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” insisting they “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel.” It ordered the heads of each entity submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget confirming full compliance within seven days.

The president targeted the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is the parent company of Voice of America’s (VOA), as well as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, which is a think tank, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is an agency that supports libraries, archives and museums in every state.

 

Here is a link to the executive order.

Last month, Trump signed a similar executive order that will significantly shrink the size and scope of the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

Brookings May Become a Lobbying Shop

Here is more from Politico:

MORE DISCONTENT AT BROOKINGS: Employees of the Brookings Institution have sent another anonymous letter to the think tank’s trustees complaining about the management of the organization by its President Cecilia Rouse, Daniel reports.

— “After one year of her tenure, Brookings does not have a clear direction nor guidance from Dr. Rouse on where we are headed as an organization nor how to navigate the current political climate,” the letter asserts. The letter, sent last week, also argues that Rouse, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden White House, hasn’t given any guidance on how Brookings is handling federal freezes on grants.

— It requests that the board send out an independent anonymous survey to ask Brookings staffers to assess Rouse’s performance and a town hall meeting with co-chairs of the board for employees to express their concerns.

— It also says that there’s been a brain drain of employees from the think tank last year and alleges that 25 percent of Brookings’ full-time employees have left the think tank since Rouse started.

— The letter goes on to say that Brookings scholars and researchers have been told to avoid topics like DEI that are being criticized by the Trump administration and that the message was “perceived as a form of censorship and a violation of scholar independence.”  

— The letter, which is signed by “The Brookings community,” also says that there has been no search for a replacement for its chief development officer and that Rouse has relied on a consulting firm to handle fundraising instead. A recent internal presentation about fundraising shows that Brookings only “partially met” a $2 million annual fundraising goal for the “President’s Special Initiative Funds.”

— Brookings is also considering moving itself from a 501(c)(3) to a 501(h), which would allow the think tank to do lobbying to have more impact, according to internal slides of a recent executive leadership meeting. But an employee of Brookings said the potential move is making some scholars nervous because it could weaken the nonpartisan nature of Brookings.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about the discontent at Brookings.

Think Tank Document Prepared for Kremlin Demands Hardball for Ukraine Negotiatoins

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Russia should work to weaken the U.S. negotiating position on Ukraine by stoking tensions between the Trump administration and other countries while pushing ahead with Moscow’s efforts to dismantle the Ukrainian state, according to a document prepared for the Kremlin.

The document, written in February by an influential Moscow-based think tank close to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), lays out Russia’s maximalist demands for any end to the conflict in Ukraine. It dismisses President Donald Trump’s preliminary plans for a peace deal within 100 days as “impossible to realize” and says that “a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis cannot happen before 2026.”

The document also rejects any plan to dispatch peacekeepers to Ukraine, as some in Europe have proposed, and insists on recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over the Ukrainian territories it has seized. It also calls for a further carve-up through the creation of a buffer zone in Ukraine’s northeast on the border with Russian regions such as Bryansk and Belgorod, as well as a demilitarized zone in southern Ukraine near Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. The latter would affect the Odessa region.

The document, which was obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, highlights the challenges still facing Trump in reaching any agreement with Russia for a peace deal, now that Kyiv has endorsed Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, appearing to bridge a divide between the two countries.

 

The think tank was not named by the newspaper, but it says the think tank works closely with the FSB's Fifth Service, the division that oversees operations in Ukraine.

Think Tank Quickies (#510)

• President Biden delivers major speech at Brookings, his last think tank speech as president.
• National security officials in Biden Administration trying to land coveted senior fellow posts at think tanks.
  
• Brooke Rollins, co-founder of think tank AFPI, confirmed as Trump's Agriculture Secretary.
• Think tank funders are also part of the 150-member Rockbridge Network, a secretary group of MAGA donors.
• Fred Smith, founder and longtime president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), passed away.
• American Sunlight Project: "A think tank that researches disinformation and advocates for policies that promote democracy."
• Heritage lobbying arm alum Michael Needham, who currently holds a top post at the conservative policy groups American Compass and American 2100, will be counselor to the State Department.
  
• Heritage Foundation's Robert Greenway is on the landing team for the CIA.
• The Heritage Foundation is going to spend $1 million on a campaign to pressure Republican senators into backing Pete Hegseth for SecDef.
  
• China chides CSIS' Cuba report.
  

Federal Funding Freeze Hits Think Tanks Hard

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

The Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, has received notification from the State Department formally terminating grants for several China-focused projects, including research on how Beijing tries to use international institutions to advance its interests, and a program to train Latin American journalists on how to monitor Chinese influence operations in that region.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, said the U.S. funding halt has prompted it to stop work on China-related research and data projects—worth about $1.2 million—that focused on cybersecurity and technology issues. The think tank’s China work has often been cited by members of the U.S. Congress.

To help finance its work, ASPI is planning to charge access fees for some of its more popular research, particularly on China-related projects that require significant resources to produce and maintain, Cave said. “In an ideal world, we want it to be free-for-all public good, but in this situation, we don’t have much of a choice.”

U.S. government grants have accounted for roughly 10% to 12% of ASPI’s funding and financed roughly 70% of its China research since 2019, which included studies on Chinese disinformation and data-harvesting operations, according to the institute. In its latest annual report, ASPI said it received nearly 3 million Australian dollars—about $1.9 million at current rates—in U.S. State Department grants during the 2022-2023 financial year, which supported work on issues including disinformation and protection against intellectual property theft.

 

A number of think tanks have lost funding or are likely to lose significant sources of funding due to cuts from the Trump Administration.

Think Tank Quickies (#509)

• Project 2025 leader back in the fold.
• Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), the GOP think tank stocked with former staffers and allies of Trump, had steep drop in revenue in 2023.
  
• Trump gives speech at AFPI gala.
• In recent days, Trump has tapped nearly a half-dozen Project 2025 authors and contributors for roles in his administration. 
• Pam Bondi, who Trump picked for his Attorney General, was chairwoman of AFPI.
  
• The Hudson Institute announced that Palantir CTO and EVP Shyam Sankar will join its board of trustees. 
• The prospect of a new foreign policy has attracted some relatively newer think tanks to Mar-a-Lago.
• Counselor to the Ukrainian Embassy Kateryna Smagliy and senior adviser to the German Marshall Fund Heather Conley traveled to Kentucky to make the case for Ukraine aid.  Ukrainian officials have traveled to Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, and Iowa as part of a tour of the American heartland organized by GMF.
  
• Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) launches new tech and innovation institute.
• Ember: "A global energy think think tank and go-to organization for open-source data about the clean-energy transition."
  

Neera Tanden Returing to Helm Think Tank CAP

Here is more from the New York Times:

Neera Tanden, a longtime fixture of Democratic politics in Washington, is taking back her old post leading the party’s top think tank, where she served as one of President Trump’s most energetic and vocal antagonists during his first term.

The group, the Center for American Progress, announced on Thursday that Ms. Tanden would return as its chief executive. Since its founding more than two decades ago, the center, which is based in Washington, has served as a locus of Democratic opposition whenever Republicans have held the White House.

She is returning to C.A.P. alongside its founder, John Podesta, who was Mr. Biden’s global representative on climate. Mr. Podesta was recently named chairman of the group’s board. Patrick Gaspard, who has been serving as the organization’s president, will shift to a senior adviser position.

C.A.P. is one of several liberal groups plagued by financial troubles in the early days of the Trump administration. This month, the center laid off 22 employees, a cut of about 8 percent of its staff. Ms. Tanden said she was confident that there would not be additional layoffs.

 

Democratic donors have said they would withhold funds from think tanks until the groups generate a coherent strategy for the party. 

Some have suggested that CAP could build a "Project 2029," a Democratic version of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.

Chinese Companies Threatening Think Tankers Over Unflattering Research

An increasing number of Chinese businesses are threatening think tanks and universities with legal action in an attempt to stop damaging research.

Here is more from the New York Times:

Chinese companies have sued or sent threatening legal letters to researchers in the United States, Europe and Australia close to a dozen times in recent years in an attempt to quash negative information, with half of those coming in the past two years. The unusual tactic borrows from a playbook used by corporations and celebrities to discourage damaging news coverage in the media.

The budding legal tactic by Chinese firms could silence critics who shed light on problematic business practices inside one of the most powerful countries in the world, researchers warn. The legal action is having a chilling effect on their work, they say, and in many cases straining the finances of their organizations.

One of the first examples occurred in 2019 when Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, threatened to sue the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an Australian think tank. ASPI had released a report containing allegations that servers provided by Huawei to a coalition of African nations were sending data to Shanghai. 

Eric Sayers, who focuses on U.S.-Chinese technology policy at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, received a letter in September from lawyers demanding that he take down an opinion article he co-wrote about a Chinese drone company, Autel Robotics. The article, which was published by Defense News, a trade publication, said Chinese-made drones posed a national security risk because they could map American infrastructure.

In May, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University published a report by Anna Puglisi, a researcher who had recently departed. The report said the Chinese government was most likely involved in funding the growth of BGI, a Chinese biotechnology company.

In a June letter, BGI accused Ms. Puglisi of making defamatory claims and demanded that she retract the report.

 

For years, the Chinese government has used sanctions against Western think tanks and think tank experts.

Think Tank Quickies (#508)

• Tom Jones' Heritage Foundation-funded DHS Bureaucrat Watch List names 51 federal policy experts and high-ranking leaders to fire.
  
• Some 80% of Hill "experts" take money from arms makers, foreign interests. 
• CSIS analysts gamed out a "climate club."  The outcomes weren't great.
  
• With an "epic name," this conservative think tank (Economic Policy Innovation Center) sees opening.
• One person's think tank is another's propaganda organ.
• FT: "Inside the radical Trump-backing group behind Project 2025."
• Jeff Bezos's Amazon donates to Tony Blair's influential think tank.
• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCFA) changes name and mission.
• Telegram channel Rybar, a popular military blog tracking the war in Ukraine, has been defined as a think tank "defending the nation's information borders."
• Heritage is back. 
  

USIP on the Chopping Block with New Executive Order

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order (EO) that will significantly shrink the size and scope of the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

The EO calls for the "non-statutory components and functions of [USIP to] be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law," and calling for it to "reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law."

Within 14 days, the head of USIP must submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirming compliance with the order.

Established in 1984 by the US Congress (during the Reagan Administration), it has an annual budget of around $55 million and employs some 300 people. 

The secretaries of State and Defense and the president of the National Defense University (NDU) serve on USIP’s Board of Directors, with 12 distinguished Democratic and Republican leaders nominated by the US president and confirmed by the Senate.

The think tank, which has an established presence in 15+ countries, asked the federal government for around $55 million for FY2025.

Trying to cut USIP funding is nothing new.

Here is a 2024 Heritage Foundation piece entitled "The US Institute of Peace is Politicized and Unaccountable."

Much more coming soon...

Trump Wields Army of MAGA Think Tanks

Here is more from Politico:

President Donald Trump took office eight years ago as the ultimate outsider whose rhetoric often shocked Washington but was seldom taken seriously by the policy shops that have long helped administrations transform their agenda into action.

Now, he has an army of think tanks and other advocacy groups behind him, reverse-engineering even his off-the-cuff statements into white papers, training legions of his acolytes — and jockeying for influence.

There are now MAGA-specific think tanks, like the Center for Renewing America and the America First Policy Institute; MAGA recruiting and training organizations, like American Moment; and MAGA incubators, like the Conservative Partnership Institute, all aimed at not only bolstering the Trump cause but strategizing how to sustain it with just four years until his successor is named, according to interviews with more than a dozen Trump allies, former administration officials and other conservatives who work for think tanks or other outside groups, many of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly about dynamics between the organizations.

Democrats have long leaned on the Center for American Progress, the Urban Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, among other groups, for progressive brain power. For Republicans, that intellectual heft has for decades come from think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. But the massive political realignment Trump ushered in has knocked many of those onetime mainstays from their vaunted position, with the MAGA movement dismissing some of them as liberal.

 

Among other things, that article notes that the Center for Renewing America (CRA) is positioning itself to fill the void as a nimbler, more MAGA Heritage Foundation.

Think Tank Quickies (#507)

• Knives are out for AFPI's Brooke Rollins.  [New NYT article on AFPI: "The Group at the Center of Trump's Planning for a Second Term is One You Haven't Heard of."]
  
• Pinpoint Policy Institute: "An organization dedicated to promoting and defending the essential pillars of America's economic growth and prosperity."
• Former Project 2025 chief Paul Dans condemning what he sees as "violent rhetoric" from Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and calling on JD Vance to retract the foreword he wrote for Roberts's book.
  
• Think Tank American Compass charts path for China tariffs.
• Pakistani think tank, The Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), has hired Team Eagle Consulting, a US lobbying firm, for $1.5 million.
  
• Michael Pettis: The think tanker (American Compass) and former punk-music-club and record-label owner who has gotten the attention of the Trump and Biden camps.
• Fujitsu Future Studies Center (FFSC): "A think tank bolstering the formulation and execution of the Fujitsu Group's medium and long-term strategies."
• Grantham Institute: "A think tank at the London School of Economics."
• Since 2012, a company linked to the UAE government has paid Camstoll Group more than $75 million.  In its annual disclosures, the firm says it advises the UAE on issues of illicit financial activity and developing and implementing strategies to combat illicit financial activity.  Its most recent filing mentions that it has "conducted outreach to think tanks, business interests, and government officials."
  
• Flashback: The late Joseph Overton, of Overton Window fame, played a key role in growing the Mackinac Center.
  

Trump Fires Wilson Center Board Member

President Donald Trump just fired his own former top Iran envoy, Brian Hook, from the board of directors of the Wilson Center.

Members of the board are appointed to six-year terms by the US president.  The think tank, chartered by the US Congress, receives a significant amount of government funding.

Think Tank Quickies (#506)

• Trump's transition operation compiled lists of names of people deemed unworthy of serving in a 2nd Trump Administration, including conservatives linked to Project 2025.
  
• Conservative think tank targeting NASA employees' communications about Musk, Trump.
• Conservative war of words erupts over Project 2025, with Trump transition team vowing not to tap "radioactive" recruits.
• Porn industry targets Project 2025.
  
• Heritage Foundation's record requests rattle feds.
• Steve Yates is returning to Heritage Foundation after a stint at AFPI.
• Project 2025 director did not resign - he was fired. 
• Ngor Luong joined the State Department as the CSET Fellow to work on tech and China policy in the Office of the Chief Economist.
• Former Trump national security aides, including think tankers, endorse him.
• The Saratoga Foundation: "A new non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, dedicated to conducting research and analysis on conflict and instability in Eurasia."  Glen Howard, former president of The Jamestown Foundation, is the president and chairman.
  

New Report on Think Tank Funding in America

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has a new report on think tank funding in America.  Here is more from Politico:

Among other things, the paper says that the top 50 think tanks took in some $110 million over the past five years from foreign governments and related entities, including nearly $17 million from the United Arab Emirates, the largest single foreign donor. Leading Pentagon contractors, meanwhile, kicked in nearly $35 million over the same period.

The Atlantic Council and the Brookings Institution topped the list of foreign-government beneficiaries, taking in nearly $21 million and over $17 million, respectively. All in all, 54 different governments contributed to the industry, a list largely made up of pro-western democracies but also including fantastically wealthy authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Most disturbingly, the report makes clear that the numbers it cites may only be partial: Unlike traditional PACs or registered foreign agents, think tanks don’t have to disclose where their money comes from. Researching the study, co-authors Ben Freeman and Nick Cleveland-Stout told me, meant poring through the organizations’ annual reports in hopes that information would be voluntarily shared.

 

Along with the report, the Quincy Institute launched a publicly available repository of think tank funding, the Think Tank Funding Tracker. 

Ben Freeman spoke about the report on C-SPAN.

Here is a piece that Freeman and Cleveland-Stout wrote for The Hill.

Think Tank Quickies (#505)

• Trump-aligned think tank AFPI merges with Senate Working Group.
• CAP's answer to Project 2025.
  
• How Sue Mi Terry became the poster child for think tank corruption.
• Why Australia's think tanks are a growing source of covert power.
  
• House Democrats plan multimedia Project 2025 hearing.
  
• Former Project 2025 leader accuses Trump campaign advisers of malpractice.
• Project 2025, the 922-page playbook, become quite possibly the first think tank paper in American history to appear in TV spots during NFL games, naturally via a scathing negative ad.
• 100+ Republican national security figures, including think tankers, endorse Kamala Harris.
• Project 2025 mastermind allegedly told colleagues he killed a dog with a shovel.
• Walmart's think tank: Heartland Forward.
  

Drama at Brookings to Pave Way for Biden Role?

Here is more from Politico:

Board members of the Brookings Institution recently received an anonymous email titled “Brookings Leadership Concerns” that called for a “no confidence” vote on Brookings president Cecilia Rouse, according to an email sent by the board chairs and obtained by Daniel.

— It also noted that a petition asking for the same action had been posted on Change.org but was quickly taken down. “As of now there have been no news reports, or anything public as far as we can determine,” Brookings co-chairs Glenn Hutchins and Suzanne Nora Johnson wrote in the email, noting they were “monitoring the situation closely” and would discuss the matter at their next board meeting. Sadly, PI has been unable to obtain the initial email detailing the concerns about Rouse, but one board member said she was “not the warmest and cuddliest person in the world so I’m sure she has rubbed some people the wrong way.”

— The head of fundraising, Tamara O’Neil, also quietly left the think tank over the summer. O’Neil had worked as a VP and chief development officer at Brookings for a little over two years before departing in late July, according to her LinkedIn profile; a departure memo from Rouse obtained by PI said that O’Neil and Brookings had “parted ways,” thanking her for her service. She is now founder and CEO of fundraising firm Capital Catalyst Solutions.

— A former Brookings employee who had worked with O’Neil said that she had told them that she wasn’t happy at the organization in the months before she left and that her relationship with Rouse was not strong. The person also said that people who worked for O’Neil had complained about the strength of her management style to colleagues throughout most of her tenure “and got particularly bad this year.”

 

This week, President Biden gave a major speech at Brookings, likely his last think tank speech as US president.  Even if Dr. Rouse is eventually axed from Brookings, it is highly unlikely Biden would become its new president.

Additional reporting from Politico on Dec. 19 notes that Rouse was accused, among other things, of foisting a return-to-office policy on employees without proper consultations and being dismissive toward colleagues.

In October 2024, Brookings announced that it would require most employees to work from the office at least three days a week beginning in March 2025.  To help support her decision, Rouse noted that employees at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) are already expected to go to the office five days a week.

Woman Who Frequented US Think Tanks Arrested for Ties to Russian Intelligence

Here is more from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

A Russian national, Nomma Zarubina, has been arrested on possible charges of providing false information to U.S. law enforcement and maintaining connections with Russian intelligence services, linking her to another suspected spy who fled the United States while being pursued by authorities.

According to FBI allegations presented in a New York Southern District Court hearing in late November, Zarubina was recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2020 and operated under the codename "Alyssa."

She allegedly worked to build a network of contacts among journalists and experts while carrying out tasks for an FSB officer from her native city of Tomsk in Siberia.

 

Zarubina visited many US think tanks, and she was an "International Fellow" at the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy (AILA) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the fall of 2022.

People pay to join this 5-day program, with the current tuition at $5,000.

Since 2003, CSIS has had more than 400 AILA International Fellows from 62 countries.

One person on X said that the story of Zarubina is "straight out of Showtime's Homeland Season 7 when the Russians planted a female FSB agent inside an NGO who seduces the President's chief of staff and recruits a former FBI agent in an active measures plot to weaken and remove the American President."

Think Tank Quickies (#504)

• Russian hackers targeted former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at Brookings.
• Hidden camera video shows Project 2025 co-author discussing his secret work preparing for a second Trump term.
• Russia adds over 30 British think tank experts to its sanctions list.
• Hottest meeting for a lobbyist in DC: With think tank AFPI.
• The fake spy (Gaurav Srivastava) who dazzled DC and duped the Atlantic Council.
• Right-wing operatives from Washington, including the Heritage Foundation, are sharing pointers with German conservatives in Berlin.
  
• Conservative think tanks' embrace of Hungary's Viktor Orban.
• JD Vance championed 2017 report from the Heritage Foundation that proposed a sweeping conservative agenda to restrict sexual and reproductive freedoms and remake American families.
• NYT: Heritage spreads "deceptive" videos about non-citizen voters.
• Think tanks in China are the mainstay of "neican."  From 2018 to 2020, think tanks in China nearly tripled in number, from 507 to 1,413.  By the end of 2023 there were only 1,096.