Trouble Brewing at Truman National Security Project

Here is more from Politico:

The Truman National Security Project is in trouble.

The left-leaning network, formed in the heyday of the GEORGE W. BUSH-era war on terrorism to promote a more muscular Democratic foreign policy, is facing internal discontent and fundraising struggles, six current and former members told NatSec Daily.

For many years, Democrats viewed Truman as a prime organization for young national security professionals, especially because of the job networking opportunities it offered. Now some of its 2,000-odd members are questioning its relevance and wondering how much longer it can stick around.

The network has laid off several of its paid staff over the past year, according to three current members. This month, its CEO, TONY JOHNSON, stepped down after just a little more than a year. Truman’s revenue has not always kept pace with its expenses, publicly available tax forms show. Members say the group’s events and other offerings have slowed in recent years. One former member said he left because being part of the network was no longer worth the fees, which can run $250 or more annually.

Some members say the organization lacks a clear focus and mission.

“It has no reason to exist. What is its ethos? Where does it stand? What is its purpose?” said YOUSI FAZILI, who worked at the Defense Department during the Biden administration and has been a Truman member since 2021.

A Truman board member said the project, and a closely affiliated center, currently has no outstanding debt and are hoping to change their income streams to rely less on external funding.

 

Here is a link to the Truman National Security Project. 

Think Tanker Arrested Over Classified Documents

Here is more from The New York Times:

A prominent foreign affairs analyst and senior State Department adviser was arrested over the weekend and charged with illegally storing sensitive government records after federal agents found more than 1,000 pages of secret documents at his home, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Ashley Tellis, 64, an unpaid adviser who also works as a contractor in the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment as an expert on Indian and South Asian affairs, was charged after F.B.I. agents searched his home in Vienna, Va., on Oct. 11, the Justice Department said.

Agents discovered more than 1,000 pages of documents marked “Top Secret” or “Secret” in two locked cabinets, a desk and three large trash bags in an unfinished storage room in the basement, according to an F.B.I. affidavit.

Mr. Tellis is a Senior Fellow  and the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which has not commented on his arrest. A scholar specializing in Indian and South Asian affairs, he previously served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to President George W. Bush. 

 

Although it was not mentioned by The New York Times, it has been widely reported that Tellis had been covertly meeting with Chinese officials for years, including at a Sept. 2 dinner in Fairfax, VA.

Near the end of that dinner, Chinese officials gave Tellis a "red gift bag," according to court documents.

Think Tank Quickies (#524)

• The Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream opened on Sept. 20. 
• Former First Lady Jill Biden has retired from her $100,000-a-year teaching job at Northern Virginia Community College and started a new unpaid position chairing the new Women's Health Network at the Milken Institute, a think tank created by former financier Michael Milken. 
• Asia Society President & CEO Kyung-Wha Kang has been tapped to serve as South Korea's ambassador to the US. 
• A new report from Capital Research Center (CRC), a think tank tracking foundations, charities, and other nonprofits, has revealed Open Societies Foundation (OSF) has funneled over $80 million into groups linked to terrorism or extremist violence.
• In its new book, the think tank behind Project 2025 takes on the Constitution.
• Dentsu has established the Dentsu Soken Center for Economic Security Research (DCER). 
• Kearney Consumer Institute: "An internal think tank at Kearney." 
• The Organization of American Studies (OAS) is a graduate student-run think tank at The George Washington University (GWU), and the China Development Student Think Tank (CDSTT GWU Chapter) is a non-partisan student think tank. 
• Paladin Capital Group - among the top venture-capital firms in the US - launched the Paladin Global Institute, an AI-focused think tank headed by Kemba Walden. 
• Grace Wright is joining the think tank Snake Island Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine.  She previously worked for Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO). 

CNAS Expert Tangled in High-Tech Conflict of Interest

Here is more from Politico: 

Janet Egan, a tech and national security expert at the Center for a New American Security, last week wrote an op-ed that praised a significant technological shift by artificial intelligence company Anthropic. It was pretty standard fare except for one thing: She didn’t disclose several close connections her think tank has to the company, Daniel L. reports.

— Egan, a senior fellow and deputy director of the technology and national security program at CNAS, wrote an article Sept. 3 in Just Security applauding that Anthropic and Google had moved away from relying exclusively on Nvidia’s chips. Now, Anthropic uses Amazon Web Services’ hardware in addition to Google chips and some Nvidia chips.

— Unmentioned, however, was the fact that in June, CNAS CEO Richard Fontaine was named to Anthropic’s long-term benefit trust, an independent body to help Anthropic achieve its “public benefit mission.” And in August, Fontaine joined the company’s National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council, which helps the company work with governments. Anthropic’s head of global affairs, Michael Sellitto, is also an adjunct senior fellow at the think tank.

— Several major investors in the company have also donated to the think tank. Among other examples, Amazon, which has committed to invest $8 billion in Anthropic, contributed at least half a million dollars to CNAS between October 2023 and September 2024, and AWS gave between $100,000 to $250,000 to the think tank. Google, which has invested more than $3 billion in Anthropic and owns 14 percent of the company, gave between $250,000 and $500,000 to CNAS in that time period.

 

Here is a link to Janet Egan's page at CNAS. 

The Small Think Tank Driving Health Policy Within the GOP

Here is more from Politico:

One small think tank is driving health policy within the GOP. It has also created friction on Capitol Hill and in the White House as Republicans clash over the future of Obamacare.

Paragon Health Institute was established in 2021 and has only 11 full-time staffers, but founder Brian Blase is credited with formulating many of the proposals that became the basis for nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts enacted as part of the GOP megabill. The group’s success is thanks in large part to its vast alumni network spread out across the highest levels of government, from the speaker’s office to the Trump administration.

The conservative activist orbit has responded favorably to Paragon’s work. According to tax records obtained by InfluenceWatch, Stand Together — a right-leaning organization connected to Charles Koch — donated $2 million in 2021; the 85 Fund, which has ties to the conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo, gave $1 million in 2022. 

Paragon’s influence is also reflected in its alumni network, with think tank veterans now serving in prominent places throughout the Trump administration — from Theo Merkel at the Domestic Policy Council to Abe Sutton, who leads the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and Marty Makary, the head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Joel Zinberg, a former director for a public health initiative at Paragon, was tapped by Trump in January to serve on the National Economic Council with a focus on health care and deregulation.

Paragon itself also counts several health policy heavyweights among its advisers, including the Economic Policy Innovation Center’s Paul Winfree, American Enterprise Institute’s Yuval Levin and the Ronald Reagan Institute’s Tevi Troy.

 

Here is a link to the Paragon Health Institute. 

New Dem Think Tank Hopes to Curb Left's Sway

Here is more from the Washington Post:

As Democrats search for their way out of the political wilderness, a new think tank, introduced on Wednesday, has some ideas about where the party went wrong.

Among them: too much emphasis on issues like climate change and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, and far too much deference to the powerful liberal organizations championing those causes at the expense, some argue, of appealing to voters in battleground states.

The think tank, the Searchlight Institute, was started by Adam Jentleson, a veteran Democratic operative.

Searchlight, Mr. Jentleson said, is starting with an annual budget of $10 million and a staff of seven in its Capitol Hill office. The organization is subsidized by a roster of billionaire donors highlighted by Stephen Mandel, a hedge fund manager, and Eric Laufer, a real estate investor. Its name is a homage to the dusty Nevada hometown of Senator Harry Reid, for whom Mr. Jentleson, 44, served as a senior aide. 

 

Here is a link to the new think tank. 

Think Tank Quickies (#523)

• China detains senior diplomat who had recently embraced US think tanks, such as the Asia Society. 
• Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined the board of the Center for American Progress (CAP), and gets blasted by Dem-aligned think tank.
• Conservative think tank executive Stewart Whitson, of Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), loses in VA-11 special election. 
• Eric Denece, director of the French think tank CF2R, found dead.
• Are some of the worst allegations about Qatari influence on campuses the result of a coordinated campaign of distortion led primarily by third-party advocacy groups such as the think tank Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy?
• The Heritage Foundation is set to propose sweeping revisions to US economic policy meant to encourage married heterosexual couples to have more children.
• The Edmund Burke Foundation: "A DC-based conservative think tank." 
• How Trump's think tank allies are exporting illiberalism. 
• Hoover Institution senior fellows playing big role fighting Trump's tariffs. 
• New Diplomacy Initiative (ND), "a think tank that collects and distributes information and advocates policy options in the US and Japan as well as throughout East Asia in order to promote a New Diplomacy between politicians, independent experts, businesses, and civil society."