Friday, August 31, 2012

A Look at Heritage Foundation by the Numbers

Have you ever wondered how much think tanks "produce" and communicate.  Following is a look at one of Washington's largest think tanks, the Heritage Foundation.  The following figures are based on the think tanks 2011 annual report.

Heritage Foundation 2011 Production:
  • 188 public lectures
  • 346 WebMemos
  • 131 Backgrounders
  • 14 Legal Memoranda
  • 3 White Papers
  • 5 moot court sessions for Supreme Court advocates
  • 30 Issue Briefings for candidates
  • 47 congressional testimonies
  • 1 GOP presidential candidate debate

Heritage Foundation 2011 Communications:
  • 9.6 million visitors to Heritage.org
  • 3,508 radio interviews
  • 1,339 television interviews
  • 1,400+ commentaries in major print outlets
  • 6.1 million visitors to "The Foundry" blog
  • 225,000 "Morning Bell" e-newsletter subscribers
  • 400,000 Heritage Facebook friends
  • 162,000 Heritage Twitter followers

On its website, Heritage says it currently has a staff of 275 and an annual expense budget of $82.4 million.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has released similar information in a document called "CSIS in Numbers" which can be found here.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Fact of the Day: Chelsea Clinton Joins Think Tank

According to the latest membership list, Chelsea Clinton is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  Her father, former President Bill Clinton, is also a current CFR member.  [Last year the Democratic Leadership Council, or DLC, which was closely aligned with Bill Clinton, closed.]

Chelsea earned a Master of Philosophy in international relations from the University of Oxford in 2003, and she has some serious foreign relations "street cred" with her mom as Secretary of State.

Chelsea is a special correspondent for NBC News.  Perhaps her good friends in the media who are members of CFR (there are dozens) convinced her to join the think tank.  In addition, plenty of former Clinton Administration officials are CFR members.

Hillary Clinton is not a current CFR member, but she said back in 2009 that the State Department "gets lots of advice" from CFR.

As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is a Public Member of the Wilson Center.  Also, you can read a previous Think Tank Watch post about Hillary Clinton's think tank here.

Think Tank-Media Connections

Following are several examples of media folks who are affiliated with various think tanks and think tankers who are affiliated with various media outlets.
  • David Bradley: He is the Chairman and Owner of Atlantic Media Company.  He is on the Board of Directors of the New America Foundation (NAF).
  • Francis Fukuyama: He is Chairman of the Editorial Board of The American Interest.  He is on the Board of Directors at NAF.  He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP).  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
  • Walter Russell Mead: He is Editor-at-Large of The American Interest.  He is on the Board of Directors at NAF.
  • Michael Lind: He is a columnist for Salon magazine and has been an editor or staff writer for numerous other publications; he is a co-founder at NAF and is the Policy Director of NAF's Economic Growth Program.
  • James Fallows: He is a National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and formerly Editor of US News & World Report.  He is a Founding Chairman of NAF's Board of Directors.
  • Steve Clemons: He is Editor-in-Chief of AtlanticLive and Washington Editor-at-Large of The Atlantic; he helped launch NAF and remains a senior fellow there.
  • Sherle Schwenninger: He was a founding Editor of World Policy Journal; he co-founded NAF and directs its Economic Growth and American Strategy Program.
  • Peter Bergen: He is a national security analyst for CNN.  He is the Director of the National Security Studies Program at NAF.  He is also a panel member of the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) Homeland Security Project.
  • Liza Mundy: She is a staffer writer at the Washington Post; she is on leave as a fellow at NAF; now a contributing editor at Politico and back at NAF
  • Amy Goldstein: She is on a reporter for the Washington Post's national staff; she is on leave as a public policy scholar at the Wilson Center.
  • Fareed Zakaria: He is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN and Editor-at-Large at Time; he is a co-chair of New America Foundation's (NAF) National Security Advisory Council; he is on the Board of Directors at CFR.
  • Matt Yglesias: He used to write for The Atlantic, then worked at Center for American Progress (CAP), and is now at Slate.
  • Yochi Dreazen: He is a senior national security correspondent for National Journal; he is a writer in residence at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). 
  • Thomas Ricks: He is a former writer for the Washington Post and writes an online blog for ForeignPolicy.com.  He is a Senior Fellow at CNAS.
  • E.J. Dionne: He is an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post; he is a senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. 
  • Robert Kagan: He is a monthly columnist for the Washington Post; he is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
  • Steve Forbes: He is the head of Forbes, Inc.; he is a Trustee at the Heritage Foundation.
  • Judith Miller: She is a contributing writer at NewsMax; she is a Director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (ACUS). 
  • Margaret Carlson: She is a columnist for Bloomberg News; she is on the Board of Trustees of the German Marshall Fund (GMF). 
  • John Harris: He is the Editor-in-Chief of Politico; he is on the Board of Trustees of GMF.
  • David Ignatius: He is a columnist for the Washington Post; he is on the Board of Trustees of GMF.
  • Laura Blumenfeld: She was a writer at the Washington Post; she is a Senior Fellow at GMF. 
  • Jonah Goldberg: He is editor at large of the National Review Online and a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors; he is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
  • Marc Thiessen: He writes a weekly online column for the Washington Post; he is a fellow at AEI.
  • Jonathan Rauch: He is a contributing editor of National Journal and The Atlantic; he is a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution.
  • Tucker Carlson: He is Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Caller and a commentator for the Fox News Channel.  He is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.
  • P.J. O'Rourke: He is a correspondent for The Atlantic.  He is the H.L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute. 
  • Ronald Balko: He is a senior writer and investigative reporter for the Huffington Post.  He is a Media Fellow at the Cato Institute.
  • Ronald Bailey: He is the science correspondent for Reason magazine.  He is a Media Fellow at the Cato Institute. 
  • Richard Rahn: He is a weekly economic columnist for The Washington Times.  He is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.
  • Cathy Young: She is a columnist for the Boston Globe.  She is a Media Fellow at the Cato Institute.
  • Bill Schneider: He was a Senior Political Analyst at CNN as is a contributor to the Al Jazeera English network.  He is a Distinguished Resident Fellow and Resident Scholar at Third Way. 
  • Moses Naim: He is the Chief International Columnist for El Pais.  He is a Senior Associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's (CEIP) International Economics Program. 
  • Michael Adler: He is a Foreign Correspondent for Agence France-Presse.  He is a Public Policy Scholar, Middle East Program, at the Wilson Center.
  • Mark Mazzetti: He is a National Security Correspondent for the New York Times.  He is a Public Policy Scholar, History and Public Policy Program, at the Wilson Center.
  • Lawrence Altman: He is a writer for the New York Times.  He is a Senior Scholar at the Wilson Center. 
  • Ramesh Ponnuru: He is a Senior Editor for National Review.  He is a Visiting Fellow at AEI.
  • Noah Shachtman: He is a Contributing Editor to Wired magazine.  He is a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. 
  • Chris Hayes: He is Editor-at-Large of The Nation and hosts All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC.  He was a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation (NAF).
  • Michael Barone: He is the Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner.  He is a Resident Fellow at AEI. 
  • Jared Bernstein: He is a contributor to CNBC and MSBNC.  He is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).
  • Sebastian Mallaby: He is a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, where he previously served as a staff columnist and editorial board member.  He is a Senior Fellow at CFR.
  • Barbara Slavin: She is a Washington correspondent for Al-Monitor.com.  She is Acting Director of Atlantic Council's Future of Iran Initiative.
  • Franklin Foer: He is the previous Editor of the New Republican magazine, and a former writer for Slate and New York magazine.  He is a Fellow at New America.

The following media-connected people are all members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  Please note that this is by no means a complete list.
  • Mika Brzezinski: She is a co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe; She is a member of CFR.
  • Tom Brokaw: He is a special correspondent for NBC News; he is a member of CFR and serves on its Board of Directors.
  • David Bradley: He is Chairman of The Atlantic Media Company.  He is on the Board of Directors at CFR.
  • Erin Burnett: The former CNBC host now has her own show on CNN called Erin Burnett OutFront; she is a member of CFR.
  • Katie Couric: She is a special correspondent for ABC News; she is a member of CFR.
  • Rana Foroohar: She is a writer for Time; she is a member of CFR. 
  • Sanjay Gupta: He is CNN's chief medical correspondent; he is a member of CFR.
  • David Ignatius: He is a writer for the Washington Post; he is a member of CFR.
  • Glenn Kessler: He is a writer for the Washington Post; he is a member of CFR.
  • Charles Krauthammer: He is a syndicated columnist and contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and The New Republic, among other things; he is a member of CFR.
  • Nicholas Kristof: He is a writer for The New York Times; he is a member of CFR.
  • Jon Meacham: He is a contributing editor to Time, among other things; he is a member of CFR.
  • Rupert Murdock: He is founder, chairman, and CEO of News Corp.; he is a member of CFR.
  • Moises Naim: He writes columns for a variety of publications; he is a member of CFR. 
  • Dan Rather: He is the managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports; he is a member of CFR.
  • David Stanger: He is a correspondent for the New York Times; he is a member of CFR.
  • Leslie Stahl: She is a 60 Minutes correspondent; she is a member of CFR.
  • Bruce Stokes: He is a columnist for the National Journal; he is a member of CFR as well as a Senior Transatlantic Fellow for Economics at the German Marshall Fund (GMF).
  • Jeffrey Toobin: He is a legal analyst at CNN; he is a member of CFR.
  • Barbara Walters: She is a contributing editor to ABC News; she is a member of CFR.
  • Brian Williams: He is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News; he is a member of CFR.
  • Judy Woodruff: She works at PBS Newshour; she is a member of CFR.  She is also on the Board of Trustees of the Urban Institute.
  • Bob Woodruff: He is an ABC News reporter; he is a member of CFR.
  • Margaret Warner: She is a Senior Correspondent at PBS NewsHour.  She is on the Board of Directors at CFR.
  • Mort Zuckerman: He is editor-in-chief of US News & World Report; he is a member of CFR.
  • Tim Carney: He is the commentary editor at the Washington Examiner and serves concurrently as a Visiting Fellow at AEI.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Think Tank Quickies #12

  • CICIR-CSIS proxy talks on cyberweapons.  (Scroll down for English.)
  • On the rise of think tanks in Turkey.
  • Liberal group American Bridge launching new initiative to monitor conservative think tanks.
  • The role of think tanks in American discourse on Japanese security.
  • David Frum: "Shouldn't almost $200 million a year of investment in conservative think tanks buy something new?"
  • USIP recruiting from Syrian dissident community.

New Book: Think Tanks in America


A new 344-page book called Think Tanks in America, authored by Thomas Medvetz, has just been published.  Medvetz is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego.

Here is the Amazon.com description:
Over the past half-century, think tanks have become fixtures of American politics, supplying advice to presidents and policymakers, expert testimony on Capitol Hill, and convenient facts and figures to journalists and media specialists. But what are think tanks? Who funds them? And just how influential have they become? 
In Think Tanks in America, Thomas Medvetz argues that the unsettling ambiguity of the think tank is less an accidental feature of its existence than the very key to its impact. By combining elements of more established sources of public knowledge—universities, government agencies, businesses, and the media—think tanks exert a tremendous amount of influence on the way citizens and lawmakers perceive the world, unbound by the more clearly defined roles of those other institutions. In the process, they transform the government of this country, the press, and the political role of intellectuals. Timely, succinct, and instructive, this provocative book will force us to rethink our understanding of the drivers of political debate in the United States.

Think Tanks Spar Over Romney's Budget

It's a battle of the the think tank budget wonks, albeit a battle not quite as high-profile as the now-decided Koch vs. Cato battle.

Weighing in on the left is the joint Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center (TPC) which recently released an analysis of Mitt Romney's tax plan.  Weighing on the right is American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which has blasted much of the report's analysis.

This week an editorial in the Wall Street Journal attacked the joint Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center (TPC) for its analysis of Mitt Romney's tax plan and touted AEI's "corrected" version:
It isn't easy being the intellectual frontmen for President Obama's re-election campaign, as the boys at the Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center are discovering. Their ballyhooed study of Mitt Romney's tax plan looks worse with each new examination.
Mr. Romney's tax plan would cut income tax rates across the board by 20%, while cutting loopholes that mostly benefit those in the highest income classes. The Tax Policy Center claims it is "mathematically impossible" to finance the rate cut without jacking up taxes by $86 billion on the middle class and poor. Mr. Obama has jumped on the study to support his claims that Mr. Romney would raise taxes, though the Republican has proposed no such thing. (See "The Romney Hood Fairy Tale," August 8.)
The study's biggest distortion is its raw assertion that Mr. Romney would refuse to close certain loopholes. In the appendix, the Tax Policy Center lists, among others, two giant tax deductions that it says would go untouched: the exclusion of interest on tax-exempt municipal bonds, and the exclusion of interest on life insurance savings. The study claims that Mr. Romney won't close these because they are incentives for saving and investment.
One problem: Nowhere do Mitt Romney or his advisers say that these deductions can't be touched. Senior economic adviser Glenn Hubbard says these deductions are definitely "on the table." And by the way, the municipal bond interest exclusion mainly serves to encourage states and cities to borrow and spend more, which is the opposite of a saving incentive. Many reform plans dating to Dick Armey's flat tax in 1995 have recommended eliminating both of these exemptions.
Scholars at the American Enterprise Institute examined what happens to the Tax Policy Center math when this error is corrected. AEI economic research associate Matt Jensen found that "Both of these exclusions largely benefit the wealthy, and, according to the Treasury Department, added together their repeal would net upwards of $90 billion that could be redistributed to lower-income individuals. That would go a long way towards balancing the supposed $86 billion windfall for the rich and tax hike on the middle class and poor, and it could make the impossible suddenly possible."
The AEI analysis warns that these numbers change from year to year, but it concludes that by eliminating these two deductions and a few other smaller ones, Mr. Romney can make his math add up. In other words, poof, no tax hike on the middle class.
This won't stop the Obama campaign from making its false claims, but it ought to at least embarrass the media into questioning them. It should also embarrass the analysts at the Tax Policy Center who claim to be nonpartisan, above-the-fray economists but somehow always seem to provide analysis that serves those who want to raise tax rates.
After this and other objections (such as the one from AEI's Matt Jensen), the TPC reportedly issued a new report on Thursday (August 16, 2012) which made some changes to the study.

Here is what AEI's Matt Jensen had to say after the new report was released.  Here is what MSNBC contributor Steve Benen had to say.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the study "garbage."

The study has been cited by President Obama, who called the plan "Romneyhood," saying that it would take from the poor and give to the rich.

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin has said that TPC has been "banged up pretty badly" for its tax study.

Here is the New York Times' take on TPC's revised report.

The TPC study's authors were Samuel Brown, William Gale, and Adam Looney.  Looney was a senior economist for public finance and tax policy with President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA).  Gale was a senior staff economist under George H.W. Bush's CEA.

Here is what USA Today had to say about the political leanings of the authors.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Paul Ryan = Darling of Conservative Think Tanks

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Mitt Romney's pick for his vice presidential running mate, has had strong ties to conservative Washington think tanks for nearly two decades.

From 1993-1995, Ryan was a speechwriter for Empower America, a conservative think tank founded by the late US Rep. Jack Kemp (R-NY) and Reagan Education Secretary William Bennett, who used to be a Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.  Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) merged with Empower America in 2004 and was renamed FreedomWorks.

William Bennett describes the now defunct Empower America as a "conservative, free-market Washington think tank."

Donald Abelson's book "Do Think Tanks Matter?" labels Empower America as a "vanity" or legacy-based think tank that essentially helps advance the legacies of their founders.  Here is more:
Vanity think tanks are particularly interested in generating, or at the very least repackaging, ideas that will help lend intellectual credibility to the political platforms of politicians, a function no longer performed adequately by mainstream political parties.
Vanity think tanks are also established, some have claimed, to circumvent spending limits imposed on presidential candidates by federal campaign finance laws.  Examples of these types of think tanks include...Empower America, founded in 1993 by an impressive band of neoconservatives, including the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, William Benett, and former Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp.
Recently, Rep. Ryan has used the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) as a platform to launch some of his policy ideas, including his budget plan.  For instance, he spoke March 20, 2012 at AEI in an event titled "A Blue print for American Renewal: An Address by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan."  Ryan also gave a budget speech at AEI on April 5, 2011 in an event titled "The Case for Real Security and a Path to Prosperity."

The day of the Romney-Ryan announcement, AEI released a statement saying that AEI experts were available to address the issue of what Romney's VP pick means.

The Heritage Foundation is another Ryan favorite.  On April 18, 2012 he spoke at the Heritage Foundation. He also spoke there on March 22, 2012 and on October 26, 2011.  Other Heritage events he has spoken at or attended include this one on July 31, 2008, this one on June 6, 2006, and this one on November 17, 2004.

Ryan has spoken at other think tanks as well.  Here is one example that New Yorker details:
In 2005, Ryan paid fealty to [Ayn] Rand in a speech he gave to the Atlas Society, the Washington-based think tank devoted to keeping Rand’s “objectivist” philosophy alive. He credited her with inspiring his interest in public service, saying, “[T]he reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand. And the fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of individualism versus collectivism.”
Here is another New Yorker article mentioning the fondness conservative think tanks have for Ryan's policies:
Nearly every important conservative opinion-maker and think tank has rallied around his [Paul Ryan's] policies.
Here is what New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait has to say about Ryan's participation in the Washington think tank scene:
But the thing to keep in mind about Ryan is that he was trained in the world of Washington Republican think tanks. These were created out of a belief that mainstream economists were hopelessly biased to the left, and crafted an alternative intellectual ecosystem in which conservative beliefs—the planet is not getting warmer, the economy is not growing more unequal—can flourish, undisturbed by skepticism. Ryan is intimately versed in the blend of fact, pseudo-fact, and pure imagination inhabiting this realm.
Here is audio of Rep. Ryan speaking on Ayn Rand at The Atlas Society.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Obama Officials Flee to Think Tanks

The revolving door of Washington is alive and well.

Now that President Obama has been in office nearly four years, there has been plenty of time for Obama Administration officials to step down and head to local think tanks for some reflection time.

Following is a look at what some former Obama officials are up to in the think tank world:

  • Peter Orszag, who was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  He is also a Member of the Board of the Peterson Institute of International Economics (PIIE).
  • Neera Tanden, former Senior Advisor for Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Counselor to the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF). 
  • Ezekiel Emanuel, former Special Advisor for Health Policy to Peter Orszag, is a Senior Fellow at CAP.  He is the brother of former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
  • Larry Summers, who was director of the National Economic Council (NEC), is a Member of the Board of PIIE.  He is also a Senior Distinguished Fellow at CAP.
  • Ben Scott, former Policy Advisor for Innovation to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is joining the New America Foundation's (NAF) Open Technology Institute (OTI) as a Senior Advisor.
  • Bob Butler, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, has joined the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as a Nonresident Senior Fellow.
  • Jon Huntsman, former US Ambassador to China, joined the Brookings Institution as a Distinguished Fellow.
  • Dennis Ross, former Special Advisor for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has re-joined the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) as a Counselor.
  • Matthew Goodman, former National Security Council (NSC) Director for International Economic Affairs, is now the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
  • Nicole Goldin, former Senior Adviser for Policy at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is joining CSIS to lead its new initiative on global youth wellness.
  • Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, rejoined the Board of Directors at the New America Foundation (NAF); also a Director of the International Advisory Board at the Atlantic Council of the United States (ACUS).
  • Jim Jones, former National Security Advisor, rejoined the CSIS Board of Trustees.  He is also a Director at ACUS.
  • Phillip Carter, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at CNAS.
  • Colin Kahl, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, is now a Senior Fellow at CNAS. 
  • Jeffrey Bader, former Senior Director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), is now the John C. Whitehead Senior Fellow in International Diplomacy at the Brookings Institution. 
  • Nancy Ann DeParle, Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, will become a Guest Scholar in Economic Studies at Brookings Institution.
  • Tamara Cofman Wittes, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, rejoined Brookings as the Director of its Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
  • Richard Verma, former Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, is a Senior Fellow at CAP and on the Board at CNAS.
  • Michael Bromwich, former Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) for the Department of the Interior, joined CSIS as a Nonresident Senior Advisor. 
  • Donald Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is a Senior Fellow at CAP.  
  • Carol Browner, former Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, is now a Senior Fellow at CAP. 
  • Ron Bloom, former Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy, is now a Fellow at CAP.
  • Jim Steinberg, former Deputy Secretary of State, is a Director on the International Advisory Board at ACUS.  He used to worked at Brookings and was a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation.
  • George Mitchell, former Special Envoy for the Middle East under President Obama, is a founder at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). 
  • Michele Flournoy, former Undersecretary for Defense Policy, is on the Board of Directors at CNAS.
  • William Daley, former Chief of Staff to President Obama, is a member of the Board of Trustees at Third Way. 
  • Ronald Klain, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Joe Biden, is  a member of the Board of Trustees at Third Way. 
  • Ellen Tauscher, former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and Security, is a Co-Chair at Third Way, as well as the Vice Chair of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at Atlantic Council.
  • James Schoff, former Senior Advisor for East Asia Policy at the Department of Defense, is now a Senior Associate at CEIP specializing in Japan.  He was formerly the Director of Asia Pacific Studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA).
  • Cathleen Kelly, former Deputy Associate Director for Climate Change Adaptation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), is the Director of the Climate & Energy Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS). 
  • S. Enders Wimbush, former Governor of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, is a Senior Director for Foreign Policy and Civil Society at GMFUS.  He was also the Senior Vice President of the Hudson Institute.
  • Shawn Brimley, former Director of Strategic Planning at the National Security Council (NSC), is now a Senior Fellow at CNAS. 
  • Jared Bernstein, former Chief Economist and Economic Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, is now a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).  He was formerly a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
  • Richard Kogan, former Senior Advisor at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is now a Senior Fellow at CBPP. 
  • Barbara Sard, former Senior Advisor on Rental Assistance to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, is now Vice President for Housing Policy at CBPP. 
  • Sharon Parrott, former Counselor for Human Services Policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is now Vice President for Budget Policy and Economic Opportunity at CBPP.
  • John Bryson, former Commerce Secretary, is now a Distinguished Senior Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center. 
  • Shawn Brimley, former Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council (NSC) staff, is now a Senior Fellow at CNAS.  He will soon become Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS. 
  • Gary Samore, Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism, is leaving to become the Executive Director of Harvard's Belfer Center. 
  • Timothy Geithner, former Treasury Secretary, has joined CFR as a Distinguished Fellow.
  • Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has left to become the Chairman of the Board at CNAS; in August 2013 he was named as Distinguished International Fellow of the Lowy Institute.
  • Carmel Martin, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the Department of Education, has joined CAP as Executive Vice President for Policy. 
  • David Bergeron, Acting Assistant Secretary of Postsecondary Education and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Policy, Planning, and Innovation at the Department of Education, has joined CAP as Vice President for Higher Education. 
  • Robert Gordon, Acting OMB Deputy Director, has joined the Brookings Institution. 
  • Amy Hawthorne, a former State Department official, is now a Senior Fellow with the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council (ACUS). 
  • Princeton Lyman, former Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, has joined USIP as a Senior Advisor. 
  • Robert Einhorn, the State Department's Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, is joining the Brookings Institution as a Senior Fellow in its Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence. 
  • Dan Restrepo, the former Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), is now a Senior Fellow at CAP.
  • Tom Donilon, the former National Security Adviser to President Obama, is now a Distinguished Fellow at CFR.
  • Matt Lee-Ashley, former Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of the Interior, is now a Senior Fellow at CAP. 
  • Thomas Nides, former Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources,will become the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilson Center.
  • Mark Patterson, former Chief of Staff at the Department of Treasury, is now a Senior Fellow at CAP. 
  • Edwin Truman, former Treasury Department official, is a Senior Fellow at PIIE. 
  • Rosa Brooks, former Counselor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, is a Senior Fellow at NAF. 
  • Elizabeth Rosenberg, former Senior Advisor at the Department of Treasury, is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Environment and Security Program at CNAS.
  • Derek Chollet, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, is a Counselor and and Senior Advisor for Security and Defense policy at GMF.
  • Bina Venkataraman, former senior advisor for climate change in the Obama Administration, is a Carnegie fellow at New America.

Of course, not everyone is taking the Administration to think tank route.  For example, Michael McFaul, the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, recently became the US Ambassador to Russia.  He is currently on leave from the Hoover Institution.  In addition, Meredith Broadbent, a former Assistant US Trade Representative (USTR) in the Bush Administration, and the Scholl Chair in International Business at CSIS, has recently been appointed to the International Trade Commission (ITC).  She will be replaced by Scott Miller.  In addition, F. Scott Kieff, Director of the Project on Commercializing Innovation at Stanford's Hoover Institution, has been nominated to serve as a member of the International Trade Commission.  Also, Antony Blinken, a former Senior Fellow at CNAS, has become the Deputy National Security Adviser to President Obama.  Jennifer Palmieri, who was the President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF), has become the White House Director of Communications.  RAND Corp.'s James Dobbins has been appointed as President Obama's new Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.  And Martin Indyk, former Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, has become the US's Middle East Peace Envoy.

Then, there are those who are still at think tanks but are advising the Obama Administration, such as GMF President Karen Donfried, who was appointed in late 2014 to the Secretary of State's Advisory Board.
Here is an interesting article about think tanks and the revolving door written by Christopher Preble of the Cato Institute.

[Please note that I plan to keep adding to the list above as more people from the Obama Administration leave for think tanks.]

Monday, August 6, 2012

Think Tank Quickies #11

  • The role of think tanks in the South Korean elections.
  • Israeli think tank Shalem Center promoting crop of writers in the US.
  • List of think tanks led by women. 
  • Think tanks: Influential or Inconsequential? 
  • Romney's flip-flop on joint Urban Institute/Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center?

Think Tank Draws Up War Plans For China

Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post wrote an article last week on the so-called Air-Sea Battle concept which essentially focuses on a possible war with China.  He highlights the involvement of a defense think tank called Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).  Here are some excerpts:
[Andrew] Marshall’s small office in the Pentagon has spent the past two decades planning for a war against an angry, aggressive and heavily armed China.
A former nuclear strategist, Marshall has spent the past 40 years running the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, searching for potential threats to American dominance. In the process, he has built a network of allies in Congress, in the defense industry, at think tanks and at the Pentagon that amounts to a permanent Washington bureaucracy.
Most of Marshall’s writings over the past four decades are classified. He almost never speaks in public and even in private meetings is known for his long stretches of silence.
His influence grows largely out of his study budget, which in recent years has floated between $13 million and $19 million and is frequently allocated to think tanks, defense consultants and academics with close ties to his office. More than half the money typically goes to six firms.
Among the largest recipients is the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a defense think tank run by retired Lt. Col. Andrew Krepinevich, the Harvard graduate who wrote the first papers for Marshall on the revolution in military affairs.
In the past 15 years, CSBA has run more than two dozen China war games for Marshall’s office and written dozens of studies. The think tank typically collects about $2.75 million to $3 million a year, about 40 percent of its annual revenue, from Marshall’s office, according to Pentagon statistics and CSBA’s most recent financial filings.
Krepinevich makes about $865,000 in salary and benefits, or almost double the compensation paid out to the heads of other nonpartisan think tanks such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Brookings Institution. CSBA said its board sets executive compensation based on a review of salaries at other organizations doing similar work.
The war games run by CSBA are set 20 years in the future and cast China as a hegemonic and aggressive enemy. Guided anti-ship missiles sink U.S. aircraft carriers and other surface ships. Simultaneous Chinese strikes destroy American air bases, making it impossible for the U.S. military to launch its fighter jets. The outnumbered American force fights back with conventional strikes on China’s mainland, knocking out long-range precision missiles and radar.
 Here is more about Air-Sea Battle and CSBA's involvement:
Although the Pentagon has struggled to talk publicly about Air-Sea Battle, CSBA has not been similarly restrained. In 2010, it published a 125-page paper outlining how the concept could be used to fight a war with China.
The paper contains less detail than the classified Pentagon version. Shortly after its publication, U.S. allies in Asia, frustrated by the Pentagon’s silence on the subject, began looking to CSBA for answers.
“We started to get a parade of senior people, particularly from Japan, though also Taiwan and to a lesser extent China, saying, ‘So, this is what Air-Sea Battle is,’ ” Krepinevich said this year at an event at another think tank.
Soon, U.S. officials began to hear complaints.
“The PLA went nuts,” said a U.S. official who recently returned from Beijing.
Told that Air-Sea Battle was not aimed at China, one PLA general replied that the CSBA report mentioned the PLA 190 times, the official said. (The actual count is closer to 400.)
Inside the Pentagon, the Army and Marine Corps have mounted offensives against the concept, which could lead to less spending on ground combat.
There was certainly some push-back from the Washington Post story.  This post from Aviation Week calls the WPost article "controversial" and suggests that the WPost is essentially labeling Marshall and CSBA as "neo-Strangeloves."

The site Information Dissemination calls Jaffe's article a "timid hit-piece."

Here is some praise for the WPost article from Thomas Barnett.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Terminator's New Think Tank


Here is what the Washington Post reports:
The former California governor, actor, and body builder has co-founded a think tank and become a professor at the University of Southern California with the establishment of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, where he will be the Governor Downey Professor of State and Global Policy. He will also serve as the chairman of its board of advisers.
With an eye toward leadership responsibility and transcending partisanship, the institute will focus on five core research areas: education, energy and environment, fiscal and economic policy, health and human wellness and political reform.
 Schwarzenegger has committed $20 million from his personal funds as well as future fundraising to support the institute.
The first public event will be a one-day symposium on Sept. 24 that will focus on the importance of post-partisanship in the modern policymaking world.
Here is the annoucement from USC.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Former Bushies' Favorite Think Tanks?

Many former George W. Bush officials work at think tanks.  So what are the Bush Administration's favorite think tanks?

Although the following list gives only a few examples, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) probably house the most former Bush officials.

As was noted in a recent Think Tank Watch post, Condoleezza Rice is affiliated with a variety of think tanks.  I have not listed her here but you can go to the link to see her various think tank affiliations.
  • James Glassman was Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and he was tapped as Executive Director of George W. Bush's think tank, the George W. Bush Institute.  Glassman was a former scholar at American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
  • Robert Zoellick, previous World Bank President, was Undersecretary of State and US Trade Representative (USTR) and is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center.
  • John Bolton was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security as well as US Permanent Representative to the UN.  He is now a Senior Fellow at AEI.
  • Marc Thiessen served as chief speechwriter to President Bush and to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  He is now a Fellow at AEI.
  • Dick Cheney was the Vice President of the United States and is on the Board of Trustees at AEI.  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
  • Lynne Cheney, wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, although not technically in the Bush Administration, is a Senior Fellow at AEI.
  • R. Glenn Hubbard was a former Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA).  He is now at Adjunct Scholar at AEI.
  • Lawrence Lindsey was Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council (NEC).  He is now an Adjunct Scholar at AEI. 
  • Eliot Cohen served as Counselor to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.  He is on AEI's Council of Academic Advisors.
  • Phillip Swagel was Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department.  He is now a Visiting Scholar at AEI.  He is also a co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative.
  • Paul Wolfowitz, former World Bank President, was Deputy Secretary of Defense.  He is now a Scholar at AEI.
  • John Yoo served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice.  He is now a Visiting Scholar at AEI. 
  • Paul Atkins was a Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  He is now a Visiting Scholar at AEI.
  • Andrew Biggs worked in the Social Security Administration (SSA) as well as the National Economic Council (NEC).  He is now a Resident Scholar at AEI.
  • James Capretta was an Associate Director at the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  He is a Visiting Scholar at AEI. 
  • Dan Blumenthal was Senior Country Director for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia at the Department of Defense.  He is a Resident Fellow at AEI.  He is also on the Board of Advisors at Project 2049 Institute.
  • David Addington was Chief of Staff and Counsel to former Vice President Dick Cheney.  He is now senior vice president and deputy chief operating officer of the Heritage Foundation. 
  • J.D. Foster was Associate Director for Economic Policy at the OMB.  He is now the Norman B. Ture Senior Fellow in the Economics of Fiscal Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
  • Peter Brookes was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs.  He is now a Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs and Chung Ju-Yung Fellow for Policy Studies at Heritage.
  • Elaine Chao was the former Secretary of Labor.  She is now a distinguished fellow at Heritage. 
  • Richard Armitage was Deputy Secretary of State.  He is now a trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).  He is also a Director at ACUS.
  • Henrietta Fore was the former Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).  She is a CSIS Trustee.
  • Michael Green was Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council.  He is senior advisor and Japan Chair at CSIS; he is also on the board of advisors of CNAS.
  • Victor Cha was Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council.  He is now senior advisor and Korea Chair at CSIS; he is also on the board of advisors of CNAS.
  • Tim Adams was Undersecretary of Treasury for International Affairs.  He is now a non-resident senior advisor at CSIS.  He is also a Director on the International Advisory Board at ACUS.
  • Grant Aldonas was Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade.  He is a non-resident senior advisor at CSIS. 
  • Meredith Broadbent was an Assistant US Trade Representative (USTR) in the Bush Administration.  She is a Senior Advisor and holds the William M. Scholl Chair in International Business at CSIS.
  • Guy Caruso was Administrator of the Energy Information Agency (EIA).  He is now a senior advisor at CSIS.
  • Jon Alterman was on the Policy and Planning Staff at the State Department and served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.  He is director of the Middle East program at CSIS. 
  • Richard Fontaine served as Associate Director for Near Eastern Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC).  He is the new President of CNAS.
  • Mitchell Reiss was Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the State Department.  He is now on the board of directors at CNAS. 
  • Paula Dobriansky was Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.  She is now on the board of advisors of CNAS.  She is also a Director of the International Advisory Board at ACUS.  She is also on the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) Foreign Policy Project.
  • Randy Schriver was Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.  He is on the board of advisors at CNAS.  He is the President and CEO of Project 2049 Institute.  
  • Ian Brzezinski was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe an NATO Policy.  He is a Senior Fellow in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council and is on the Strategic Advisors Group (SAG) at ACUS.  He is also on the Board of Directors at Project 2049 Institute.
  • Douglas Feith was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.  He is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
  • Lewis Libby was Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.  He is now senior vice president of the Hudson Institution.  He is also a member of CFR.
  • Edward Lazear was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA).  He is now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. 
  • Evan Feigenbaum was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia.  He has a variety of think tank positions, including as a Senior Fellow at CFR, a Nonresident Senior Associate at CEIP, and Executive Director of the Paulson Institute. 
  • Carlos Gutierrez was a former Secretary of Commerce.  He is a Private Citizen Member of the Wilson Center. 
  • Barry Jackson served as a Deputy to Karl Rove in the Bush Administration.  He is a Private Citizen Member of the Wilson Center. 
  • R. Nicholas Burns served as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs.  He is a Director of the International Advisory Board at ACUS.  He is also a member of the board at Harvard's Belfer Center.  He was previously a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center.
  • Stephen Hadley was President Bush's National Security Advisor.  He is a Director of the International Advisory Board at ACUS.  He is also a Senior Advisor for International Affairs at the US Institute of Peace (USIP).
  • Robert Kimmitt was a former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.  He is a Director of the International Advisory Board at ACUS. 
  • Brent Scowcroft was Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under George W. Bush.  He is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board at ACUS.  He is also Counselor and on the Board of Trustees at CSIS.
  • Zalmay Khalilzad was a former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations.  He is an ACUS Board Director as well as a Counselor at CSIS. 
  • Michelle Dunne served in the Bush White House on the National Security Council.  She is Director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at ACUS.  She was previously a Senior Associate at CEIP.
  • John Danforth was the former US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) in the Bush Administration.  He is a Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Senior Fellow. 
  • Frances Fragos Townsend was the former Homeland Security Advisor to President Bush.  She is now on the Board of Directors at BPC. 
  • Michael Makovsky was the Special Assistant for Iraqi Energy Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  He is the Foreign Policy Director at BPC.
  • Stephen Krazner was Director of Policy and Planning at the State Department.  He is now a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.  He is on on the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). 
  • Eric Edelman was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.  He is now a Member of the Board of Directors of USIP.  He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), and a Senior Associate at Harvard's Belfer Center.
  • Judy Ansley served as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor at the National Security Council (NSC).  She is a Member of the Board of Directors at USIP. 
  • Lincoln Bloomfield was US Special Envoy for Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) Threat Reduction.  He is Chairman of the Board of the Stimson Center. 
  • Daniel Price was Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs.  He is on an Advisory Board at GMF and is a Member of Business and Economics Advisor Group at ACUS.  He is also a member of CFR. 
  • John Taylor was Undersecretary  of the Treasury for International Affairs.  He is now the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at Stanford's Hoover Institution.
  • Kevin Hassett, although not in the George W. Bush Administration, he served as an economic advisor to Bush during his 2004 presidential campaign.  
  • Richard Haass was the Director of Policy Planning for the State Department.  He is now the President of CFR.
  • Elliott Abrams was Bush's Deputy National Security Advisor.  He is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at CFR.
  • Paul Lettow was a State Department Senior Advisor for democracy and global affairs.  He is a former Adjunct Senior Fellow at CFR.
  • Donald Marron was a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA).  He is now the director of the Tax Policy Center (TPC), a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.
  • Dan Twining was a member of the Secretary of State's Policy and Planning Staff.  He is now a Senior Fellow for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS).
  • Daniel Fata was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO policy.  He is a Transatlantic Fellow at GMFUS. 
  • Aaron Friedberg was Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President.  He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow for Asia at GMF.  He has also been a fellow at the Wilson Center. 
  • Kristen Silverberg was US Ambassador to the European Union.  She is now a Senior Transatlantic Fellow at GMF. 
  • Mackenzie Eaglen was a Presidential Management Fellow at the Department of Defense.  She is now a resident fellow at the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at AEI.  She used to be a Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. 
  • Douglas Holtz-Eakin was the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  He is the President of The American Action Forum (AAF).
  • Carlos Bonilla was a Special Assistant for Economic Policy.  He is an Economic Expert at AAF.
  • Bill Hansen was the Deputy Secretary of Education.  He is an Education Expert at AAF.
  • Lauren Maddox was Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach at the Department of Education.  She is an Education Expert at AAF.
  • Harvey Rosen served on the President's Council of Economic Advisers.  He is an Economic Expert at AAF. 
  • Molly Kuzmich served as the Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Congressional Affairs and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Programs at the Department of Education.  She is an Education Expert at AAF.
  • Joseph Kennedy served a Chief Economist at the Department of Commerce.  He is a Taxes and Economics expert at AAF.
  • Tevi Troy was the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  He is a Healthcare Expert at AAF.  He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.
  • Sally Lovejoy served as the Education Attaché to the US Mission to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  She is an Education Expert at AAF.
  • Michelle Davis served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Director of Policy and Planning at the Treasury Department.  She is an Economic Expert at AAF. 
  • Michael Singh, a former National Security Council (NSC) official, is the managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 
  • Kurt Volker was US Ambassador to NATO.  He is now Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University and a Senior Advisor to ACUS.
  • Colin Powell served as Secretary of State.  He is on the Board of Directors of CFR. 
  • Stephen Rademaker served as an Assistant Secretary of State.  He is now a National Security Project Advisor at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). 
  • Juan Carlos Zarate served as Deputy National Security Adviser.  He is now Senior Adviser, Transnational Threats Project and Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program, at CSIS. 
  • Steven Pifer served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.  He is now a Senior Fellow at Brookings.
  • Damon Wilson served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC).  He is now Executive Vice President at ACUS.
  • Ted Gayer served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy.  He is now Vice President and Director of Economic Studies at Brookings.  [He is also a former Visiting Scholar at AEI.]
Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post with a chart of Bush alumni connections to think tanks.

Although generally not included in this post, many former Bush Administration officials are members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Can Brookings Be Dethroned?

Can the Brookings Institution, which is considered the world's #1 think tank, ever be dethroned from its top position?  It seems that there are several scenarios where that could happen, although most currently seem unlikely.
  • Brookings loses funding or seriously mismanages its finances.  [The latest publicly available data shows Brookings with around $410 million in assets and $100+ million in total revenue for the most recent year.]
  • A well-established think tank (domestic or international) catches up with Brookings.  [Chatham House is the #2 think tank in the world and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is #3].
  • A new think tank, such as a crowd-sourcing think tank, makes Brookings largely obsolete.
  • A huge "scandal" rocks Brookings.  [Think tank scandals are rare, although they not unheard of.  Center for American Progress (CAP) was attacked last year for its "anti-Israel agenda.")]
  • Poor leadership leads to a brain-drain in scholars.