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.
  

Georgian Government Raids Homes of Atlantic Council Experts

Here is more from The Hill:

Georgian government officials raided the homes of local staff of an American think tank who work on tracking Russian disinformation, raising alarm among pro-democracy activists, civil society groups and some U.S. officials ahead of Georgia’s Oct. 26 parliamentary elections. 

Investigators targeted local staff in Tbilisi of the Atlantic Council, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., that is known for promoting democratic values and institutions, particularly in Eastern Europe.

The investigations unit of Georgia’s Finance Ministry searched the homes of Sopo Gelava and Eto Buziashvili, both staff members with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab, known also as DFRLab. The two have authored reports on how Russia is carrying out overt and covert influence operations to sway the upcoming elections in favor of the ruling Georgian Dream party. 

 

Here is a statement from the Atlantic Council.

Think Tank Quickies (#503)

• More than 200 people appear on JD Vance's Venmo "friends" list.  Among them is Amalia Halikias, government relations director at the Heritage Foundation, as well as people affiliated with other conservative think tanks like the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  Another one is Gladden Pappin, president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. 
• The Chinese Embassy in Washington has a team of 20 policy staffers responsible for election analysis, interacting with experts, think tanks, and journalists.
  
• Can a conservative think tank help save the Great Salt Lake?
• Bill Gates-led think tank (Breakthrough Energy) urges DOE revamp to boost clean tech.
• Role of think tanks in powering policy.
• The Peter G. Peterson asked 7 think tanks (AAF, AEI, BPC, CAP, EPI, PPI, and Manhattan Institute) to submit detailed plans for putting US debt back on a sustainable trajectory.
• Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and the founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), died.
• Heritage Foundation is pushing the next US president to go all-in on deterring China in the Pacific.
• Some of JD Vance's strongest relationships in DC are with conservative think tanks and organizations influential on the so-called New Right, like the populist think tank American Compass and its chief economist Oren Cass; the nonprofit public service group American Moment; and the Heritage Foundation.
• What the government and think tanks are planning and why.
  

Top Think Tank Economsit in China Vanishes After Private WeChat Comments

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

A prominent economist at one of China’s top think tanks was placed under investigation, detained and removed from his posts after he allegedly criticized leader Xi Jinping’s management of the world’s second-largest economy in a private chat group, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation of Zhu Hengpeng, who for the past decade was deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, comes as the Communist Party ramps up efforts to suppress negative commentary about China’s economic health.

It couldn’t be determined which alleged offenses were the focus of the investigation. Zhu has since been removed from his positions at the CASS Institute of Economics, where he was also deputy party secretary. Also, his name has disappeared from the online list of personnel at a think tank affiliated with Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University.

CASS, a ministerial-level think tank directly subordinate to the State Council, as China’s cabinet is known, advises the party and government leadership on policymaking.

 

CASS, established in 1977, is made up of 31 research institutes and 45 research centers, along with 4,200+ staff members.

Atlantic Council Receives Blowback Over Musk-Meloni Event

Here is more from Politico:

Internal discontent is brewing at the Atlantic Council over the Washington think tank's decision to honor Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at an upcoming gala in New York and invite controversial tech mogul Elon Musk to introduce her.

The Atlantic Council will give Meloni its Global Citizen Award on Sept. 22 at a gala on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in recognition of "her groundbreaking role as Italy's first female prime minister, her strong support of the European Union and the transatlantic alliance, and her 2024 chairmanship of the Group of Seven."

Meloni's inclusion was grounds alone for some staffers at the prominent Washington policy shop to grouse, owing to her past coziness with Russia and her political party's anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.  But former and current Atlantic Council staffers...[said] anger reached a boiling point when the think tank announced that at Meloni's request, she would be introduced by Musk.

 

Atlantic Council, like many Washington think tanks over the years, has seen its reputation take a hit over various foreign funding and disclosure issues.

Think Tank Quickies (#502)

• Heritage Foundation suggests Biden may try to hold the White House "by force" if he loses the November election; says "zero percent chance of free and fair election."
• Heritage Foundation hosts "Policy Fest" at Republican National Convention.
  
• Defense Priorities: "A restraint-oriented think tank."
• The pro-Israel activist waging legal war against Washington think tanks. 
• Ziklag has donated $600,000 to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which in turn funds Cleta Mitchell's election integrity work.
• Former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos launches think tank ahead of mayoral bid.
• Much of the effort to turn out for the January 6th protest took place at the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI).
• A New Yorker piece entitled "Inside the Trump Plan for 2025," with lots of discussion about think tanks.
• How think tanks drive polarization and policy.
  
• The think tank shaping Britain's new government.
  

Think Tank Chief to be Extradicted on China Agent Charges

Here is more from Reuters:

The leader of a U.S. think tank who was indicted last year on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of China has been arrested and will be extradited in the coming weeks or months, prosecutors said on Monday.

In July 2023, federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Gal Luft of paying a former high-ranking U.S. government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, as well as seeking to broker the sale of weapons and Iranian oil.

Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was arrested in Cyprus last February but fled while released on bail, prosecutors said in a court filing. He has since been re-arrested, prosecutors said, without specifying when or where.

Luft, the co-director of the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, said in posts on X last year that he had never been an arms dealer and that the charges were "politically motivated."

The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security describes itself as a think tank focused on energy, security and economic trends. The group last year said it was convinced of Luft's innocence.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about Gal Luft.

Crypto Think Tank Chief Charged With Breaking Campaign Finance Rules

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged crypto lobbyist Michelle Bond with conspiring with her romantic partner, former FTX executive Ryan Salame, to illegally fund her failed 2022 congressional bid.

Bond, a lawyer who previously worked as an executive at a digital-assets trade group, faces four campaign-finance offenses, including conspiring to cause unlawful political contributions.  

Bond, 45 years old, now runs a crypto think tank called Digital Future. At the time she entered the congressional primary, she was serving as chief executive of the Association for Digital Asset Markets, a trade group for the digital-assets space. 

 

Digital Future describes itself as "a public policy and advocacy think tank dedicated to promoting the development of the next generation of the financial services industry."

FBI Raids Home of Former Think Tank Chief

Here is more:

Agents of the FBI have raided and searched the Virginia home of Dmitri Simes, a prominent political commentator and author who hosts a current-affairs program on Russia’s state-run Channel One television, the newspaper Rappahannock News reported on August 16.

The FBI told the paper the search began on August 13 but declined to comment further, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported.

Simes told the paper he is currently out of the country, but was "puzzled and concerned" by the FBI's action. He told the Russian state news agency TASS on August 16 that the reports that FBI agents were at his home were true, although he had not been officially notified.

Simes was born in Moscow in 1947 and emigrated to the United States in 1973. He served as an informal adviser to former U.S. President Richard Nixon and regularly traveled with Nixon to Russia and other former Soviet countries.

In 1994, Nixon named him to head the Center for the National Interest, which at the time was called the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom. Simes retired from the position in 2022.

Simes also advised the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump and arranged an important 2016 foreign-policy speech in which Trump outlined a vision for greater cooperation with Russia.

 

Earlier this month, the FBI raided the home of Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector and convicted sex predator who has collaborated with isolationist organizations such as the Ron Paul Institute and the Quincy Institute.

Think Tank Quickies (#501)

• Trump 2024 vs. Project 2025, via NY Mag.
• Heritage Foundation signs on as RNC convention sponsor.
  
• 4 think tanks influencing Trump's energy agenda (Heritage Foundation, CEI, IER, and TPPF). 
• Heritage Foundation recommends punishing China for Covid.
  
• New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI): "A think tank dedicated to the study of complex systems."
• Flashback: Inside a Trump-era purge of military scientists at a legendary think tank.
• Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said that the rising right wing is "in the process of the second American Resolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."
• Mark Meadows' Conservative Partnership Institute was accused of improperly paying his legal bills.
• Boutique investment bank Centerview recently hired Richard Haass, former head of CFR, as a senior counselor. 
• The US Air Force recently asked the RAND Corporation to assess whether AI tools could provide options to a "space warfighter" dealing with an incoming threat to a satellite.

Project 2025 Director Steps Down

Here is more from the Associated Press:

The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 vision for a complete overhaul of the federal government stepped down Tuesday after blowback from Donald Trump’s campaign, which has tried to disavow the program created by many of the former president’s allies and former aides.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said Paul Dans’ exit comes after the project “completed exactly what it set out to do.” Roberts, who has emerged as a chief spokesman for the effort, plans to lead Project 2025 going forward.

The Heritage Foundation said Dans left voluntarily and it was not under pressure from the Trump campaign. Dans didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

It was almost certain than Trump’s campaign forced the shakeup, said one former Heritage aide.

Project 2025’s website will remain live and the group will continue vetting resumes for its nearly 20,000-person database of potential officials eager to execute its vision for government, the Heritage Foundation said Tuesday. 

 

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board had harsh words for Mr. Roberts. 

Politico wrote a major piece saying that Project 2025 was a "mirage" all along.

Pro Publica has also written a major piece about Paul Dans.

The Associated Press has a new piece on Russell Vought and Project 2025, including the so-called 180-Day Transition Playbook.

Update: At least 38 Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to the Kevin Roberts of Heritage to request a meeting to discuss Project 2025 and release the so-called 180-Day Playbook.

And now, Kevin Roberts will reportedly delay the publication of his new book "Dawn's Early Light" after the Project 2025 firestorm.

The Washington Post is reporting that Trump took a private flight in 2022 with Kevin Roberts, chartered by Heritage, where they apparently discussed proposals for 2025.

Larry Hogan, a Republican running for the US Senate, now has ad attacking "the extreme Project 2025."

Here is a ProPublica piece entitled "Inside Project 2025's Secret Training Videos."

WaPo has another story entitled "He found a Project 2025 duffel bag. Then policy showed up at his house."

NOTUS reports that the internal atmosphere inside Heritage is uneasy.

Think Tanker Used Think Tanks to Help Spy for South Korea

Here is more from the New York Times:

Sue Mi Terry, a prominent voice on American foreign policy, had a refined palate, a love for top-shelf sushi and a taste for designer labels. She liked coats by Christian Dior, handbags by Bottega Veneta and Louis Vuitton, and Michelin-starred restaurants.

And, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, she accepted such luxury goods and other gifts in exchange for serving the South Korean government in Seoul.

Ms. Terry, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, is accused in a 31-page indictment released Tuesday of a yearslong effort to assist South Korean spies. The indictment says she even introduced the spies to congressional staff members, an action that she described as “bringing the wolf in.”

In April 2023, Ms. Terry hosted an event at a think tank where she invited congressional staff members and worked to study South Korea’s alliance with the United States at the request of the South Korean National Intelligence Service. Ms. Terry then invited the staff members to a happy hour where South Korean intelligence officers were present, allowing the officers to “spot and assess” potential recruits, according to the indictment.

 

Before her current position as a Senior Fellow for Korea Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Terry worked at the Wilson Center and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

CFR has reportedly put Terry on unpaid administrative leave.

Terry's husband, Max Boot, a Russian-born naturalized American, has not been charged with any crime.  Boot is also a Senior Fellow at CFR.

Boot, who co-wrote a series of opinion pieces with Terry,  has signed a $500,000 "appearance bond" using the couple's Manhattan residence as collateral to keep Terri out of prison until her trial begins.

Update: Terry was suspended from her senior fellow position at CFR, and then resigned.  If convicted, she faces 10 years in prison.  No trial date has been set.

Think Tank Quickies (#500)

• CFR launches new China program.  It will pore through Chinese-language material for better-informed policy.
  
• Joshua Wright, a law professor who seduced his students and was considered Big Tech's proudest ally, had a $250,000 contract with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
  
• Oren Cass will become chief economist at American Compass and is launching a new Substack, Understanding America.  Abigail Ball is taking over as executive director of the think tank, which is also relaunching its publication The Commons. 
• Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissel, who danced with Vladimir Putin at her 2018 wedding, moved to Russia in 2023 where she runs a think tank.  The Russian air force helped mover her household, including her ponies.
  
• Heritage Foundation gave American Accountability Foundation a $100,000 grant to post 100 names of government workers to a website to show a potential Trump administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump.
  
• New CSIS report: China's military could isolate Taiwan, cripple its economy, and make the democratic island succumb to the will of Beijing’s ruling Communist Party without ever firing a shot.
• Jennifer Harris, the "Queen Bee of Bidenomics," now works at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she helps fund people who are proposing new solutions to economic problems, including the think tank American Compass.
• Paul Manafort used think tanks to shape the image of Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, according to new book on lobbying The Wolves of K Street.
• The Pacific Institute: "A global water think tank."
• AEI has been a client of Echelon Insights.
  

Project 2025 Reported to IRS

Here is more from Newsweek:

TikTokers are urging people to report the conservative think tank behind Project 2025 to the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly violating the rules of its tax-exempt status.

Project 2025 is spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation with input from dozens of conservative-leaning groups and ex-officials from former president Donald Trump's administration. It has published a 900-page road map for a new Republican administration that includes plans to overhaul the federal government and oust thousands of government workers so that loyalists can be installed in their place.

Some TikTok creators have suggested that publishing the document, as well as engaging in political activity, is a violation of the IRS code for tax-exempt organizations.

The IRS website states that 501(c)(3) organizations "may not publish or distribute printed statements or make oral statements on behalf of, or in opposition to, a candidate for public office. Consequently, a written or oral endorsement of a candidate is strictly forbidden."

 

Meanwhile, Heritage has been backing a bill banning TikTok.

Heritage's Project 2025 Gets Hacked

Here is more from Newsweek:

A group of "gay furry hackers" has targeted right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation—which is behind Project 2025—by releasing the passwords, usernames, and user logs of its users.

The activists, known as SiegedSec, posted approximately two gigabytes of data online that it says was retrieved from the foundation's servers.

The Saturday hacking of the influential policy group came after it made headlines with its controversial Project 2025 document, which seeks to guide a future conservative administration to radically transform the federal government with a far reaching right-wing agenda.

In a Telegram post on Tuesday by SiegedSec, the group of self-described "gay furry hackers" wrote: "Project 2025 threatens the rights of abortion health care and LGBTQ+ communities in particular. so of course, we won't stand for that! ^-^"

SiegedSec is an established cyber-activist group that has previously targeted anti-abortion states. This is the second time it has targeted The Heritage Foundation this year.

 

The Heritage Foundation was also hit by a cyberattack in April. 

Update: The "gay furry hackers" have reportedly been feuding with Heritage Foundation executive Mike Howell.

New Conservative Brain Trust Resettling Across America

Here is more from the New York Times:

The Claremont Institute has been located in Southern California since its founding in the late 1970s. From its perch in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, it has become a leading intellectual center of the pro-Trump right.

Without fanfare, however, some of Claremont’s key figures have been leaving California to find ideologically friendlier climes. Ryan P. Williams, the think tank’s president, moved to a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in early April.

His friend and Claremont colleague Michael Anton — a California native who played a major role in 2016 to convince conservative intellectuals to vote for Mr. Trump — moved to the Dallas area two years ago. The institute’s vice president for operations and administration has moved there, too. Others are following. Mr. Williams opened a small office in another Dallas-Fort Worth suburb in May, and said he expects to shrink Claremont’s California headquarters.

 

Here is more about the Claremont Institute from the Washington Post.

Heritage Foundation May Try to Use Litigation to Keep Biden as Democatic Nominee

President Joe Biden's biggest ally as he tries to remain the Democratic presidential nominee after an abysmal debate performance may surprisingly be the Heritage Foundation.

Here is more from NOTUS:

President Joe Biden’s Democratic allies could get a boost to keep him on the ticket from some unlikely partners: Republicans.

Led by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, Republicans are currently looking to guarantee that Biden will be the Democratic nominee — and to make it so that, if Biden withdraws, it won’t be easy to replace him on ballots.

About four months ago, after special counsel Robert Hur’s report raised more concerns about Biden’s health, staffers at Heritage’s Oversight Project started researching laws in states across the country for replacing a nominee. They laid out just how difficult it would be for Democrats to replace Biden in key swing states in a memo that was compiled in early April and released last week ahead of the debate.

“If the Biden family decides that President Biden will not run for re-election, the mechanisms for replacing him on ballots vary by state,” reads the memo. “There is the potential for pre-election litigation in some states that would make the process difficult and perhaps unsuccessful.”

The upshot was that replacing Biden on the ticket would be “extraordinarily difficult” and that “we would make it extraordinarily difficult,” Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell, who authored the memo, told NOTUS this week.

With Biden’s odds of winning looking longer by the minute, organizations like Heritage are pledging litigation to make replacing Biden close to impossible. They suggested they — or their allies — would challenge efforts to replace Biden on the ballot, which would already be difficult given the timing.

 

Mr. Howell previously served as the Heritage Foundation's liaison to the Trump Administration.

In other Heritage Foundation news, former President Donald Trump has been distancing himself from the think tank's Project 2025 plan.

And Heritage President Kevin Roberts has been making waves with his comment about an ongoing second American revolution that will "remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."

The Rise of the Manhattan Institute

Here is more from Bloomberg:

Over the past decade, business figures led by hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer have poured nearly $200 million into a New York think tank that’s now projecting its own vision for Trump’s America. Powered by wealthy donors, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research has become an intellectual staging ground for the American right.

One head-spinning result: a growing number of Republican statehouses are effectively outsourcing the job of drafting laws about race and gender to policy wonks centered in Manhattan, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10:1. 

Over the years, the Manhattan Institute has counted among its well-heeled backers hedge-fund managers Cliff Asness, Dan Loeb and John Paulson. Others include Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and Breitbart super-conservatives Robert and Rebekah Mercer. 

By the institute’s own count, 11 states – Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming – have codified into law ideas from “model” legislation the institute has drafted since January 2023. In all, more than 60 separate bills touching on those anti-DEI proposals for universities have been introduced in 25 states.

 

Reihan Salam has been president of the think tank since 2019.

Think Tank Quickies (#499)

• New report from ETZ Zurich's Center for Security Studies: China is targeting the US with hacking contests.
  
• The Chinese Embassy in Washington dispatches officials to almost all of the key DC think tank seminars that cover foreign affairs these days.
  
• The Heritage Foundation celebrated its newly-renovated Barb Van Andel-Gaby building with a ribbon-cutting.  The think tank now has office space for 400+ employees.
• Why Chinese think tanks' reports will only escalate South China Sea tensions.
  
• Tony Jonson, currently special assistance and intelligence adviser to the deputy secretary of Defense, will be president and CEO of The Truman National Security Project and Truman Center.
• Africa Center for Strategic Studies: "A think tank funded by America's defense department."
• New Argentine President Javier Milei served as a financial analyst for think tanks, banks, and private companies. 
• ECFR: Imagining 6 Trump 2.0 scenarios.
• Flashback: The issue attention cycle was described in 1972 by Brookings economist Anthony Downs.  The 5 phases of the cycle mark the rise, peak, and decline in public salience of major environmental (and other) problems.
  
• David Boaz, senior fellow and EVP of Cato Institute, dies.
  

Think Tank Gets Donation from Heiress Giving Away Her Money

Here is more from Time:

Marlene Engelhorn, an Austrian heiress who inherited tens of millions of euros from her grandmother, opted to let strangers decide where to give away €25 million ($27 million)—at least 90% of her fortune—over the past six weeks. Engelhorn has long criticized the Austrian policy of not placing any taxes for inheritances, since she feels being born into a wealthy family is a matter of luck and she did not earn the money.

In an attempt to give away her fortune in as democratic of a way as possible, Engelhorn sent out emails to approximately 10,000 randomly selected Austrians, and chose 50 people who were designed to be as representative as possible of Austria’s demographics in terms of gender, ethnicity, and income. 

The group was developed into an organization called the Good Council for Redistribution, and chose 77 different organizations, revealed on Tuesday, to which Engelhorn’s wealth would be distributed. 

The largest distribution of cash went to the Austrian society for nature conservation, which received the equivalent of $1.7 million. The second largest distribution of $1.6 million went to an organization called Neunerhaus, which offers aid to homeless people. Other organizations that received money included climate charities, the left-wing think tank Momentum Institute, and religious organizations. 

 

The Momentum Institute, based in Vienna, Austria, was founded in 2019.

Former House Candidate Launches Crypto Think Tank

Here is more from Punchbowl News:

A prominent D.C. crypto advocate and one-time Republican House candidate in New York is launching a think tank focused on crypto policy.

Michelle Bond, who lost a Republican primary to Rep. Nick LaLota (N.Y.) in 2022, will lead Digital Future. The think tank will focus on “promoting the development of the next generation of the financial services industry,” per a news release.

Prior to this launch, Bond led a crypto advocacy organization called the Association for Digital Asset Markets.

Here is a press release about the Digital Future launch.

Canadian Report Warns of US Civil War

Here is more from Politico:

When Justin Trudeau meets Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Italy this week, Trudeau will probably not ask whether the United States is at risk of erupting in civil war in the next few years.

A think tank housed within Trudeau’s government is already pondering that question.

In a spring report titled “Disruptions on the Horizon,” a quiet office known as Policy Horizons Canada proposed American civil war as a scenario that Ottawa should consider preparing for.

This hypothetical was tucked into the middle of the 37-page document, which sketched the possibility in 15 spare words: “U.S. ideological divisions, democratic erosion, and domestic unrest escalate, plunging the country into civil war.”

 

Dr. John McArthur, a Canadian citizen and Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution, sits on the Policy Horizons steering committee and is the only US think tanker to do so.

Think Tank Quickies (#498)

• Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) is joining the Hudson Institute as a distinguished fellow; Nikki Halley makes her inaugural appearance as Walter P. Stern Chair at Hudson. 
• Brian Deese (formerly at CAP), Richard Bush (Brookings), Laura Rosenberger (CNAS and GMF), and Richard Armitage (CSIS) sent as delegation to Taiwan's presidential inauguration.
  
• A "startling new study" by RAND that was commissioned by the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment.
  
• Those attending the McCain Institute's annual Sedona Forum include: Antony Blinken, Janet Yellen, Mitt Romney, and Dasha Navalnaya. 
• Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who served as chief of staff to VP Dick Cheney and as senior vice president at the Hudson Institute, is joining the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) as a distinguished fellow.
  
• "The Zachor Legal Institute, a legal think tank representing StopAntisemitism."
• The role of think tanks under China's Xi Jinping, via MERICS.
  
• Why foundations that back progressives are funding a leading conservative think tank.
• Jennifer Gould named VP of Communications and External Affairs at RAND Corp.
• The think tank laying the groundwork for a Labour government in the UK.
  

Pro-Trump Think Tank Paid Millions to Companies Tied to Its Own Leaders

Here is more from the New York Times:

The Conservative Partnership Institute, a nonprofit whose funding skyrocketed after it became a nerve center for President Donald J. Trump’s allies in Washington, has paid at least $3.2 million since the start of 2021 to corporations led by its own leaders or their relatives, records show.

One was led by the institute’s president, Edward Corrigan, and another by its chief operating officer. At a third contractor, the board members included the group’s senior legal fellow Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who supported Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

 

The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) was founded in 2017 by former US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), after he was ousted as President of the Heritage Foundation.

Think Tanks Targeted in Latest North Korean Email-Based Cyberattacks

Here is more from UPI:

North Korean hackers are exploiting an email security flaw in attacks used to gather sensitive intelligence and information, a new U.S. cybersecurity advisory warned.

The advisory, issued Thursday by the FBI, State Department and National Security Agency, said that members of the Pyongyang-backed hacking collective Kimsuky are sending spearphishing emails to individuals at think tanks, academic institutions and media organizations.

In one example, a hacker pretending to be a think tank staffer invited a U.S. government official to give a keynote address at a conference on North Korea. In another, a Kimsuky agent posed as a journalist seeking comment on geopolitical issues related to North Korea. 

Kimsuky is believed to operate under the North's premier military intelligence organization, the Reconnaissance General Bureau. The hacker group is also known as Emerald Sleet, Thallium and Velvet Chollima by private-sector cybersecurity researchers.

 

There is no word yet on which think tanks have been impacted. 

Also, Iranian-backed cyber spies are are continuing to impersonate think tanks.

Think Tank Accidentally Exposes Personal Info. From Job Applicants

Here is more from the Washington Free Beacon:

The right-wing group that leads a recruitment effort for Capitol Hill offices and allied nonprofits, the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), has for months left exposed the sensitive personal information of applicants to its online "jobs bank," the Washington Free Beacon found, including members of the U.S. intelligence community, congressional aides, former Trump administration officials, and campaign operatives.

Led by former Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint and one of his former aides, Ed Corrigan, as well as by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, who the New York Times reported is paid $847,000 to serve as the organization's "senior partner," the Conservative Partnership Institute has exposed the social security numbers, home addresses, private client names, and other personal details of over 1,500 job applicants, including several who hold the highest level security clearance—known as a top secret/sensitive compartmented information (TS/SCI) clearance—in a public online storage system on an Amazon cloud. With basic web-scraping software, the records can be viewed by anyone, including America’s foreign adversaries.

 

The news site notes that the records were stored in open Amazon S3 buckets, which are publicly accessible unless the owner takes steps to make them private.

New Think Tank Quickies (#497)

• Eric Schmidt-backed pro-America "think tank" (America's Frontier Fund) has launched a VC firm.
• New report from Special Competitive Studies Project, an Eric Schmidt-backed think tank, says the US intelligence community "risks surprise, intelligence failure, and even attrition of its importance" unless it embraces AI's capacity to process huge amounts of data. 
• Donald Abelson: Rethinking the Role and Influence of US Defense and Foreign Policy Think Tanks.
• Steven Bennett, previously the COO of Brookings, will be CFR's new EVP and chief administrative officer.
• Luxe membership club Ned to open within a six-building DC complex owned by the Milken Institute, which plans to open the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream next year.
  
• "A new global think tank - the merger of the International House of Japan (I-House) established by John D. Rockefeller III to repair US-Japan ties after WWII and the Asia Pacific Initiative, set up by Yoichi Funabashi, the former newspaper editor, author and national security expert."
• Gordon Gray is launching the Pinpoint Policy Institute to advocate for free markets and policies that promote economic growth.  He was most recently VP for economic policy at the American Action Forum (AAF). 
• The Roosevelt Institute has hired Elly Kugler as managing director for government relations and Hannah Groch-Begley to serve as director of the think tank.
• Did China just go after a powerful Aussie think tank?
  
• The man (Mohammed Soliman) whispering the Middle East's future into Washington's ear.
  

Third Way's Secret Battle to Stop No Labels

Here is more from NBC:

Once upon a time, before the multimillion-dollar negative campaigns and allegations of running “a conspiracy to commit extortion, voter intimidation, and other criminal behavior,” they were friends. Good friends.

The people who run No Labels and Third Way, two of the most prominent centrist organizations in Washington, had all come up together in the small world of Clinton-era center-left politics.

Nancy Jacobson, an early Bill Clinton hire and the founder of No Labels, helped raise the initial money and secure the necessary political blessings to start Third Way. The think tank was co-founded by Jon Cowan, whom Jacobson viewed as something of a mentee. Cowan, now Third Way's president, even signed the ketubah (the Jewish wedding contract) at Jacobson's wedding to Mark Penn, whose firm conducts No Labels’ polls.

Then came the 2024 election — and No Labels’ decision to try to field a bipartisan “unity ticket” against both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, backed by a reported budget of $70 million. Third Way, which may be centrist but is firmly Democratic, viewed this as a misguided, no-hope effort that could only spoil the election for Biden and help to re-elect Trump, with potentially disastrous consequences.

 

The article notes that No Labels was so incensed by the anti-No Labels campaign that the group lodged a complaint the the US Justice Department, accusing them of violating anti-racketeering laws.

It also says that Third Way lost a board member who sided with No Labels, and its leaders received word from several unhappy donors that they should not expect any more funding.

"Alpha Male" Nick Adams Creating Awkward Moment for Wilson Center Board

Here is more from the Washington Post about conservative political commentator and author Nick Adams:

He [Nick Adams] is a presidential appointee to the board of Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Center, which, according to its website, “provides nonpartisan counsel and insights on global affairs to policymakers.” Donald Trump, who bestowed him with that honor during his last term, has recently made Adams an official campaign surrogate as the former president attempts to regain control of the White House.

At the Wilson Center, Adams is known as a quiet presence, attending board meetings regularly but speaking so little that some people didn’t even know he had an Australian accent. He is an active member, even traveling on a Wilson Center trip to Israel last year, where he participated in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There are members of the center’s staff, “especially young women,” who think his presence on the board is an “embarrassment” and “may be also be damaging our reputation,” according to a Wilson Center employee who would speak openly about a current board member only on the condition of anonymity.

After I started making inquiries about Adams with people who worked at the Wilson Center, the director, Mark Green, tried to allay any concerns among the staff about the Alpha Male in their midst.

A lot of politics can be performative, Green told other staffers during a regularly scheduled meeting, according to multiple people present. The center’s official response to my interest in Adams was prim: “Nick is a member of the board in good standing and regularly attends board meetings,” it said in a statement. “Beyond that, the Wilson Center’s policy is to not comment on board members and their activities.”

The Wilson Center may have good reason to want to remain in good standing with Adams. Because the center needs Congress and the president to approve federal funding to support operating costs, he may be its best ally if Trump’s GOP takes control of Washington next year.

 

Here is a full list of the Wilson Center's board of trustees, and here is Adams' official appointment announcement by Mr. Trump.

Adani Group to Fund Public Policy Think Tank

Here is more from The Economic Times:

Gautam Adani-led Adani Group plans to set up a think tank that will aid policy thinking in three critical areas - energy transition and climate change, economics and trade, and geopolitics and strategic affairs, according to people familiar with the development, who said the unit might be kicked off as early as May.  The think tank will be called Chintan Research Foundation and will be incubated with an initial funding of ₹100 crore.

The move pitches the infrastructure conglomerate in direct competition with RIL-backed Observer Research Foundation, or ORF, a think tank that took shape in 1990.  ORF, based in New Delhi, has emerged in recent years as one of India's most high-profile think tanks.

In collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, ORF organizes the Raisina Dialogue, India's flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics.

Screening and interviews are underway for a chairperson, members of advisory board, and research staff for the foundation, which will be headquartered in New Delhi.  Outposts in Washington and London are part of the plan.

 

Gautam Adani is currently worth $103 billion, while Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani is worth $113 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Gautam Adani-led Adani Group plans to set up a think tank that will aid policy thinking in three critical areas - energy transition and climate change, economics and trade, and geopolitics and strategic affairs, according to people familiar with the development, who said the unit might be kicked off as early as May. The think tank will be called Chintan Research Foundation and will be incubated with an initial funding of ₹100 crore.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/after-museum-gallery-adani-group-to-fund-policy-thinktank/articleshow/109205076.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

 

Gautam Adani-led Adani Group plans to set up a think tank that will aid policy thinking in three critical areas - energy transition and climate change, economics and trade, and geopolitics and strategic affairs, according to people familiar with the development, who said the unit might be kicked off as early as May. The think tank will be called Chintan Research Foundation and will be incubated with an initial funding of ₹100 crore.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/after-museum-gallery-adani-group-to-fund-policy-thinktank/articleshow/109205076.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Gautam Adani-led Adani Group plans to set up a think tank that will aid policy thinking in three critical areas - energy transition and climate change, economics and trade, and geopolitics and strategic affairs, according to people familiar with the development, who said the unit might be kicked off as early as May. The think tank will be called Chintan Research Foundation and will be incubated with an initial funding of ₹100 crore.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/after-museum-gallery-adani-group-to-fund-policy-thinktank/articleshow/109205076.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Heritage Foundation Handpicked by NATO Chief for Major Speech

Here is more from CNN:

When NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Washington in January, he gave a speech on the future of NATO at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that is a bastion of the Republican foreign policy establish in Washington.

The location was handpicked by Stoltenberg’s team, an effort to reach out to Republicans given the possibility of Trump winning in November and amid concerns about his commitment to NATO, explained sources familiar with the planning.

The speech, which emphasized the collective strength of NATO ahead of its 75^th anniversary this summer, was well-received, the sources said.

“The logic of doing it at Heritage was not lost on us,” said Victoria Coates, a deputy national security advisor to former President Trump who is now a vice president at the think tank.

 

Here is a full transcript of the Heritage speech.

Think Tank Quickes (#496)

• House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) asks NGOs, including Open Markets Institute, New America, and the Center for Digital Democracy, to preserve communications with USTR related to the agency's decision to rethink its digital trade stance.
  
• The Hewlett Foundation and Omidyar Network, a pair of left-leaning philanthropies that aim to see a "post-neoliberal" economic consensus, have collectively invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the think tank American Compass. 
• The Palantir Foundation for Defense Policies & International Affairs to hold inaugural conference in Washington, DC on May 16.
  
• CFR launches RealEcon to reimagine American economic leadership.
  
• Liberal watchdog group Accountable.US launches new campaign to target Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. 
• Quincy Institute on FDD: "Why No One Should Take This Hawkish Think Tank Seriously."
• Capital Research Center: "A right-wing investigative think tank that has portrayed American Compass as a puppet of progressive philanthropists."
• The People's Policy Project, a left-wing think tank founded by Matt Bruenig. [The only think tank funded by tiny monthly donations.]
  
• CFR tapped Millie Tran, previously at Conde Nast, as vice president and chief digital content officer.
• Meredith Sumpter, wife of Brookings China scholar Ryan Hass, to become President and CEO of FairVote.

Nikki Haley Joins Hudson Institute

Here is more from a Hudson press release:

Hudson Institute today announced that Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations, will be the next Walter P. Stern Chair.

Hudson inaugurated the Walter P. Stern Chair in 2020 to commemorate the achievements of former Chairman Walter “Wally” Stern, who was instrumental in making Hudson one of Washington’s most respected research organizations.

Haley received Hudson’s Global Leadership Award in 2018.

 

Hudson had revenues of around $22 million in 2022, with 39% coming from individuals, 38% from foundations, 14% from corporations, and 9% from governments.  

Major donors that give $100,000 or more to the think tank include: All Nippon Airways (ANA), American Petroleum Institute (API), Amway, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, META Platforms, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Northrup Grumman, Qualcomm, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), and Walmart.

Heritage Foundation Hit With Cyberattack

Here is more from TechCrunch:

Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation said on Friday that it experienced a cyberattack earlier this week.

A person with knowledge of the cyberattack told TechCrunch that efforts at Heritage were underway to remediate the cyberattack, but said that it wasn’t immediately known what, if any, data was taken.

Politico, which first reported the news of the cyberattack on Friday, cited a Heritage official as saying the organization “shut down its network to prevent any further malicious activity while we investigate the incident.”

The news outlet quoted the Heritage official as saying that the cyberattack likely came from nation-state hackers, but did not provide evidence of the claim.

 

TechCrunch notes that the Heritage Foundation was hit by a cyberattack in 2015 in which hackers stole internal emails and and the personal information of its donors.

Little-Known Australian Think Tanker is "The China Whisperer"

Here is s short clip from The Wire China:

Garnaut Global is, in many ways, a typical “strategic consultancy” firm: For decades, former government officials like Pottinger and Garnaut have cashed in by serving as political or regulatory advisors for the private sector. Attempting to read the tea leaves of open-source Chinese Communist Party (CCP) texts, meanwhile, is commonplace in think tanks and academia. But Garnaut has married the two approaches in a kind of Moneyball style, and his clients praise his unique ability to translate deep readings of Marxist ideology into actionable advice.

Garnaut also enjoys special status in the current moment of Western-China relations, because he is one of the men most responsible for bringing the current moment about. Although he was very much a child of the “engagement” era, Garnaut, 49, was one of the first “China watchers” to call foul and argue that a new era was upon us.

 

The firm was founded by John Garnaut, a former journalist-cum-Australian official.  Garnaut was a Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

Matthew Pottinger, a former US deputy national security advisor, is also a part of the firm.  He is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).  He's also a Senior Advisor at The Marathon Initiative.