Former Sen. Jay Rockefeller (R-WV) will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) this month as a Distinguished Fellow. Rockefeller's portfolio will include Japan, East Asia, and cybersecurity, and he will remain in CFR's Washington, DC office.
Rockefeller, the former Chairman of the US Select Committee on Intelligence, has been a member of CFR since 1978.
CFR was previously chaired by David Rockefeller (Jay's uncle), and CFR's David Rockefeller Studies Program (which is considered CFR's "think tank") is home to more than 70 full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners.
The Rockefeller Foundation was involved in the early financing of CFR.
In 2005 CFR held a special symposium in honor of David Rockefeller's 90th birthday. And here is what Inside Philanthropy recently had to say about David Rockefeller and his funding.
Here is what The Hill has to say about the CFR-Rockefeller announcement.
Each year a number of former lawmakers join think tanks, and the trends seems to have picked up over the past few years as think tanks compete to land "big names" at their policy shops.
Here is a previous list from Think Tank Watch on members of Congress who have joined think tanks (or are affiliated with think tanks). The list has been updated periodically and will be updated in the near future (it is by no means complete).
