Think Tank Quickies (#201)

• Will some of Mark Zuckerberg's billions in donations go to think tanks? 
• Kevin Allen starts #CloudMinds, a traveling think tank.
• AEI to participate in January presidential forum.
• Picture: Is this what all think tanks look like?
• The sweet gig of being a bureaucrat, by Mac Zimmerman of AFP, quoting Cato & CEI studies.
• Hillary Clinton does Brookings AGAIN (with Saban Forum 2015).
• Zaid Jilani: "Only good food" in DC is free food you get at think tank events.
• Hotel Zed in Victoria, BC launches think tank space.
• Simon Marks: Virtually all DC think tanks need to address issues with in-house audio systems.
• What do academic think tanks offer to young researchers?
• Rohinton Medhora and John Boer: The rise and influence of foreign policy think tanks.
• Russia Insider: Think tanks heavily influence US decision-making policy.
• On Think Tanks: How think tanks can attract and retain talent.
• Brookings experts in Esquire.
• Think tanks helping get property back?
• Chatham House: Reduce meat consumption or we will all burn.
• Trailor for A Very Heavy Agenda: Role of neocon think tanks (video).
• US Chamber: "In a city full of think tanks we are a 'do' tank."
• Third Way "exposed."

Think Tank Quickies (#197)

• New book on Asian think tanks by Erin Zimmerman.
• A master's in international relations can lead to the prestigious but fiercely competitive career in international think tanks.
• Panel launched by CIGI and Chatham House urge new social compact on Internet privacy.
• Military science fiction from Atlantic Council's Art of Future Warfare project. 
• Rethinking T20: Think tanks, ideas and innovation in foreign policy, via Juan Luis Manfredi.
• Lee Fang story: SEC nominee to oversee Wall Street (Hester Maria Peirce) works at think tank dedicated to blocking regulation (Mercatus Center).
• Netanyahu escapes CAP event without any fireworks, via FP's John Hudson.
• Cato on Instagram: A behind-the-scenes look at life in a libertarian think tank.
• Rethinking Russia launches new research project to map think tanks that study Russia.
• Yahoo News report on new CFR Task Force report "eliminates reference" to every single woman involved.
• Third Way takes home two pumpkin carving trophies (h/t David Slavick).

Powerful Think Tanker Sells Iran Deal on Capitol Hill

Think tanker Nicholas Burns, a top diplomat in the Bush Administration, has been tapped by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to sell the recently reached Iran nuclear deal to Capitol Hill.  Here is more from Politico:

A former top diplomatic appointee in the administration of President George W. Bush will help sell the Iranian nuclear deal to House Democrats this week.

Nicholas Burns, who served as undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2005 to 2008, will brief the caucus on Wednesday at the invitation of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Burns, who helped Bush design the current detente with Iran, is a strong proponent of the nonproliferation deal.

Mr. Burns is a Director of the International Advisory Board at the Atlantic Council and sits on the board at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  He is also a member of the board at Harvard's Belfer Center.  He also serves on the Panel of Senior Advisors at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). He was previously a public policy scholar at the Wilson Center.

In related news, Ellen Laipson, President and CEO of the Stimson Center, has just penned a piece entitled "Iran Deal Debate Highlights Think Tanks' Role in US Policy."

Nearly every major foreign policy think tank in the US has weighed in on the Iran deal, and many are working behind the scenes to influence its outcome in Congress and elsewhere.