On September 20, 2011 CSIS announced that Cartwright had joined the think tank as the first chair of the then new program in defense policy studies at CSIS.
Here is what The Cable had to say about the Harold Brown Chair and Cartwright at that time:
Cartwright's new chair is named in honor of Harold Brown, who served as secretary of defense from 1977 until 1981 in President Jimmy Carter's administration. Like Brown, Cartwright built a reputation throughout his career for being critical of the Defense Department bureaucracy and pushing for policies that other high-level officials disagreed with. Cartwright's 2009 advocacy for a smaller surge in Afghanistan than that requested by his bosses, Adm. Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, led to a falling out between him and the Pentagon leadership.
President Barack Obama had promised Cartwright a promotion to chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but later reneged when a whisper campaign against Cartwright -- reportedly coming from within the Pentagon -- made the choice politically difficult.
CSIS was recently ranked as the best think tank in the world for security and international affairs by the University of Pennsylvania annual think tank rankings. It was also ranked as the 5th best think tank in the world.