Project 2025 Architect Mounting Primary Challenge to Sen. Graham

Here is more from the New York Times:

The Republican architect of Project 2025 — the right-wing blueprint that Democrats made a rallying cry in the presidential election last year — is mounting a primary challenge to Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, saying he isn’t sufficiently devoted to President Trump’s political movement.

As he begins his challenge, Paul Dans, who is not originally from South Carolina, starts out as a distinct underdog. Mr. Graham, who has the support of Mr. Trump, has won past primaries handily despite appearing vulnerable, and he is likely to have a significant financial edge.

But Mr. Dans plans to run highlighting the work of Project 2025, from which Mr. Trump distanced himself during his campaign before enacting significant portions of it into his government.

 

Mr. Dans joined the Heritage Foundation in 2022 and started Project 2025, although he later had a falling out with the think tank that led to his departure. 

Controversial Academic to Lead USIP

Here is more from Politico:

An academic who has drawn criticism for inflammatory statements on race and praise of the Chinese government has been chosen by the Trump administration to lead the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The State Department said Friday that Darren Beattie would be acting president of the USIP, an independent, congressionally funded organization that the administration sought to eliminate earlier this year.

Beattie, who was fired from his job as a speechwriter during the first Trump administration for speaking at a conference attended by white nationalists, will keep his current role running the State Department’s worldwide public diplomacy efforts.

Beattie, who previously served as a visiting instructor at Duke University, has since been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the State Department’s Fulbright Program and shutter its Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub.

Trump signed an executive order firing USIP President George Moose and most of USIP’s board in February. The remaining board members, including Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, subsequently installed Department of Government Efficiency staffer Kenneth Jackson, as acting president. DOGE staffer Nate Cavanaugh later took over as acting president.

The Trump administration laid off most of the embattled institute’s staff in March following a tense standoff between USIP staffers and DOGE employees at the institute’s headquarters. A federal judge subsequently blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the organization, which was founded in 1984.

 

It is unclear how many people now work at USIP.

Think Tank Quickies (#521)

• RAND Corp.: China's Evolving Industrial Policy for AI. 
• European Marine Board: "An ocean-policy think tank."
• Flashback: French think tank chief Laurent Bigorgne, who was head of Institut Montaigne and a close associate of the French president, was convicted for attempted spike rape.
• China's think tank diplomacy in Africa.
• The Heritage Foundation launched a new Defense Budget Builder, which allows people to search through defense budget line items more easily. 
• US think tank report (from Defense Priorities) calls for removal of all 500 US military trainers in Taiwan. 
• The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) was founded in Oct. 2009 "as a result of the Great Recession, and runs a variety of affiliated programs at major universities such as the Cambridge-INET Institute at the University of Cambridge." 
• Movement Advancement Project: "A think tank that studies state policies affecting the LGBTQ+ population." 
• Shift Project: "A French environmental think tank." 

DoD Suspends Participation in Think Tank Events

Here is more from Politico:

The Pentagon has suspended participation in all think tank and research events until further notice, according to an email sent Thursday to staff and obtained by POLITICO, a major shift in engagement from the country’s largest federal agency.

The decision comes a week after the Defense Department pulled out of the high-profile Aspen Security Forum citing “the evil of globalism” and indicating the event did not align with the Trump administration’s defense policies.

The Pentagon’s public affairs office is also reviewing the agency’s participation in other top security conferences, according to the email. It specifically banned attendance at the Halifax International Security Forum, which takes place in Nova Scotia each winter and where the Pentagon chief is usually a top guest. It was not immediately clear why that forum had been singled out.

The move would sideline the Pentagon from national security dialogues that it has used for decades to advance its policy and explain the department’s rationale. Former Defense Secretaries Jim Mattis, Mark Esper and Lloyd Austin have also used think tank events, such as the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue and the Reagan National Defense Forum, to give major policy speeches and hold sideline meetings with both allies and adversaries.

The Pentagon’s public affairs, general counsel and policy teams will review all requests for participation at events and will ask for officials’ remarks and talking points in advance, according to the email. The directive, which took effect Tuesday, applies to all DOD military officers, civil servants and senior enlisted leaders. The Pentagon’s public affairs team must approve any future events. 

 

The Pentagon also funds numerous think tanks, including the RAND Corporation, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, and Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

 Here is a piece from The Atlantic entitled "The Pentagon Against the Think Tanks." 

Korea Funneling Millions to Think Tanks While Avoiding FARA

Here is more from Korea Pro:

A South Korean nonprofit affiliated with Seoul’s foreign ministry has funneled at least $9.4 million to U.S. think tanks in recent years, a Korea Pro investigation has found, making it one of the top global funders of American policy research despite avoiding registration under foreign agent laws.

The findings show that the Korea Foundation (KF), which maintains offices in Washington and Los Angeles, provided grants to at least 31 different organizations from 2019 to 2023.

But while KF claims to be a non-governmental body and a “nonprofit public institution,” Korea Pro’s findings show that the foundation is closely tied to the South Korean government and explicitly seeks to advance Seoul’s interests, at times pressuring scholars to promote the positions of the administration in power.

KF’s activities reportedly caught the attention of U.S. authorities before, and last year’s indictment of Korea expert Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst accused of failing to register as a foreign agent for Seoul, has exacerbated KF’s fears of being seen as a foreign agent itself, Korea Pro’s investigation found.

 

Think tanks that have received Korea Foundation money in recent years include the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Center for a New American Security (CNAS), RAND Corporation, Atlantic Council, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Stimson Center, and the Brookings Institution.

Korea Pro said it could find only $731,592 of Japan Foundation donations recorded for US-based think tanks and research organizations between 2019-2023, compared to the over $9.4 million provided by Korea Foundation.

Korea Pro also pointed out that in 2021, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Security Division allegedly wrote to KF, recommending that it consider FARA registration for work in the US. But the Foundation reportedly objected on the grounds that it is an “independent organization … engaged in cultural and academic exchanges exempt from FARA.” 

Think Tank Quickies (#520)

• Pro-Trump think tanks and advocacy groups paid top Trump Administration officials including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and policy adviser Stephen Miller, and a number of officials received payments from Trump's campaigns and consultants before being appointed to positions in the administration.
• Think tankers, including Julianne Smith, are part of former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's consulting firm, Clarion Strategies. 
• Think tankers join the Washington Post's new WP Intelligence Councils. 
• Quorum is now curating research from top think tanks. 
• Tracking the murky world of think tanks. 
• Islamabad think tank hires US lobbyist for $1.5 million a year. 
• Columbia's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law teams up to launch "Model Climate Laws Initiative" to draft state laws countering Trump Administration rollbacks.  While there have been universities and think tanks, such as the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, that provide resources for state-level policymakers looking to write climate laws or exchange information, this is the first instance of such a coordinated project to pass climate legislation that is actively seeking to get draft laws in the hands of US state lawmakers.
• Institute for Progress (IFP): "A think tank for accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress." 
• The Abigail Adams Institute: "An independent institute that is part of a broader network of about a dozen centers near elite universities, including Yale, Princeton, and Stanford.  The goal is to create an intellectual community that supplements what students can find on their own campuses." 
• Columbia University's energy think tank: Center on Global Energy Policy. 

Harvard Explores Starting a Hoover-like Think Tank

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal: 

Harvard leaders have discussed creating a program that people briefed on the talks described as a center for conservative scholarship, possibly modeled on Stanford’s Hoover Institution, as the school fights the Trump administration’s accusations that it is too liberal.

The idea has circulated at the university for several years but gained steam after pro-Palestinian protests began disrupting campus in late 2023. Harvard has discussed the effort with potential donors, people familiar with the matter said. The cost of creating such a center could run somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion, a person familiar with Harvard’s thinking estimated.

The Hoover Institution, which resides on Stanford’s campus and champions free markets and small government, dates back decades. Academic institutes elsewhere devoted to civics, American history and Western civilization began popping up, mostly at public universities in red states, about a decade ago.

Arizona State University launched its School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership in 2016. Founding director Paul Carrese said there are now more than a dozen centers on public university campuses and several more at private schools.

At the University of Florida’s Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education, University of North Carolina’s School of Civic Life and Leadership and Yale University’s Center for Civic Thought, students read classic texts, apply lessons to current problems and hash out differences in small group discussions.

 

The Hoover Institution was founded in 1919 and has annual revenues of around $100 million. 

Think Tank Quickies (#519)

• The night USIP was taken over, March 17th, staffers from Elon Musk's DOGE walked around its headquarters smoking cigars and drinking beers while they dismantled the signage and disabled the computer systems.
• Think tanks are helping the DoD dodge DOGE. 
• This small but influential think tank is charting a controversial course for Trump's populism. 
• JPMorganChase announced it launched the Center for Geopolitics, a new client advisory service led by Derek Chollet, the former State Department counselor and former chief of staff to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. 
• Christine Largarde discussed leaving the ECB early to head the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• Jordan Brewer is leaving the Cato Institute to join the State Department as special adviser in the bureau of cyberspace and digital policy. 
• The Burning Glass Institute: "A labor market think tank." 
• JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both addressed the American Compass New World Gala in Washington, DC. 
• Nada Hamadeh, a member of the Middle East Institute's Board of Governors, was named Lebanon's ambassador to the US. 
• Defense Priorities, the other think tank influencing US intelligence. 

Russia Targeting Personal Emails of Think Tankers

Here is more from CNN:

The second campaign, according to the cable, began in April and involves a “Russia-linked cyber actor” who “conducted a spear phishing campaign targeting personal Gmail accounts associated with think tank scholars, Eastern Europe-based activists and dissidents, journalists, and former officials.”

The cyber actor “posed as a fictitious Department official, inviting targeted users to a meeting and attempting to convince them to link a third-party application to their Gmail accounts” that “would almost certainly grant the actor persistent access to the contents of the users’ Gmail.”

The campaign was highly detailed and the actor “demonstrated extensive knowledge of the Department’s naming conventions and internal documentation,” the cable said.

That hacking activity matches what researchers from Google and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab documented last month: a stealthy effort to pose as US diplomats and infiltrate the digital lives of prominent academics and critics of Russia.

 

No specific think tanks or think tankers were named in the article.  But Cyberscoop reported that think tanker Keir Giles, a Russian military expert with the Chatham House, was targeted by Russia.

Think Tank Quickies (#518)

• US Institute of Peace staff received termination notices.  But now judge says Trump lacked authority to dismantle USIP.
• Project Esther: Inside the Heritage Foundations' plan to crush the pro-Palestinian cause.
  
• Jared Bernstein, previously the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), is now a senior fellow for economic policy at CAP.
• Trump Administration quietly holding discussions and consulting outside experts, including those in think tank land, as it considers options for potentially restarting dialogue with North Korea.
• The Library of Congress' Kluge Center "invites into residence top thinkers from around the world to distill wisdom from the rich resources of the Library and to foster mutually enriching relationships with lawmakers and other policy leaders."
• Stephanie Sutton is joining the Center for American Progress as COO.
• CNAS named Kurt Campbell and Anne Neuberger to its board of directors.
  
• European think tanks launch interactive tool on China-Russia trade relations.
• The not-so-secret society (Ben Franklin Fellowship) whose members run the State Department.
  
• The think tanks who do most of the talking for Britain's Labour party.

Democrats Trying to Copy Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 Model

Here is more from the New York Times:

Mr. AndreiCherny, the co-founder of a nearly two-decade-old liberal policy journal, is organizing a group of Democratic thinkers to recreate what Mr. Trump’s allies did when he was voted out of office: draft a ready-made agenda for the next Democratic presidential nominee.

They’re calling it Project 2029.

The title is an unsubtle play on Project 2025, the independently produced right-wing agenda that Mr. Trump spent much of last year’s campaign distancing himself from, and much of his first few months back in power executing.

They plan to roll out an agenda over the next two years, in quarterly installments, through Mr. Cherny’s publication, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. The goal is to turn it into a book — just like Project 2025 — and to rally leading Democratic presidential candidates behind those ideas during the 2028 primary season. 

Ms. Neera Tanden, leader of the Center for American Progress, is part of a sizable advisory board for Project 2029 that includes Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Anne-Marie Slaughter, the chief executive of New America; the economist Justin Wolfers; Felicia Wong, until recently the president of the progressive Roosevelt Institute; and Jim Kessler, a founder of the centrist group Third Way. 

 

A number of others are involved in Project 2029, including Marc Dunkelman, a fellow at the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Brown University.