Leaked Emails Show Inside Operations of Influential Think Tank

The founder of one of the US's most influential think tanks was recently hacked and thousands of his emails have been released to the public, with many more to come.

John Podesta, the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), who sits on the think tanks Board of Directors, is the Chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Here is some recent coverage of the hack:

• Leaked emails highlight close ties between Clinton campaign and leading Democratic think tank. 
• Washington Post: CAP officials have played prominent behind-the-scenes role assisting Clinton; Tanden offered CAP's resources; says advising campaign in her personal capacity.
• Politico is liveblogging the email leaks.
• Podesta said Russian spies hacked his email to sway the election.
• Here is what CBS News has to say.
• Daily Caller says that the "liberal media" is ignoring the leaks.
• Washington Post reporter spiked info. about Podesta conflicts of interest.
• Here is The Hill coverage on the leaks.
• The Washington Examiner notes that John Podesta's brother, Tony Podesta, had special access to the White House.
• Politico reports that Podesta accused Roger Stone of colluding with WikiLeaks. 
• The Intercept: CAP advised Clinton team against $15 minimum wage. 
• Washington Examiner: CAP head faces liberal wrath after email leak.
• Daily Caller: ThinkProgress trashes a climate expert's career to appease a Hillary donor.
• The Weekly Standard: Liberal think tank freaks out.
• CNN's Jake Tapper rips into Podesta, ThinkProgress over "untrue" reporting.
• Washington Free Beacon: Liberal think tank freaked out at SNL's criticism of donors.
• Fox: Clinton think tank ally emerges in emails as scathing critic.
• Podesta on Nicki Minaj: "Booty Equity."
• Is the age of Neeras and Human upon us?
• Washington Post's Dan Zak refers to CAP as "brain box." 
• The Intercept: At Hillary's favorite think tank a doubling down on anti-Iran, pro-Saudi policy.
• Greenpeace sought Podesta's help to reach out to India's Modi.
• Leaks Lay Bare a Longtime Clinton Adviser's Unflinching Straight Talk.

The emails can be found on WikiLeaks, a number of which reference CAP.

Even with all the leaked emails, Politico said today that John Podesta still tops the list to be Clinton's chief of staff.  CAP's current president and CEO, Neera Tanden (described as Clinton's "go-to brain trust on domestic policy issues), is also near the top of the list for that position.

The Think Tanker Behind Huge DoD Robot Arms Race

A former top think tank official is behind the US Department of Defense's huge push into the robot arms race and what is known as centaur warfighting.

Here is more from The New York Times:

Almost unnoticed outside defense circles, the Pentagon has put artificial intelligence at the center of its strategy to maintain the United States’ position as the world’s dominant military power. It is spending billions of dollars to develop what it calls autonomous and semiautonomous weapons and to build an arsenal stocked with the kind of weaponry that until now has existed only in Hollywood movies and science fiction, raising alarm among scientists and activists concerned by the implications of a robot arms race.

 “China and Russia are developing battle networks that are as good as our own. They can see as far as ours can see; they can throw guided munitions as far as we can,” said Robert O. Work, the deputy defense secretary, who has been a driving force for the development of autonomous weapons. “What we want to do is just make sure that we would be able to win as quickly as we have been able to do in the past.”

Mr. Work, 63, first proposed the concept [of centaur warfighting] when he led a Washington think tank, the Center for a New American Security. His inspiration, he said, was not found in typical sources of military strategy — Sun Tzu or Clausewitz, for instance — but in the work of Tyler Cowen, a blogger and economist at George Mason University.

In his 2013 book, “Average Is Over,” Mr. Cowen briefly mentioned how two average human chess players, working with three regular computers, were able to beat both human chess champions and chess-playing supercomputers.

It was a revelation for Mr. Work. You could “use the tactical ingenuity of the computer to improve the strategic ingenuity of the human,” he said.

Although the article does not mention it, Think Tank Watch should point out that Tyler Cowen also hails from the think tank world, as General Director of the libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center. 

As for Mr. Work, he still has extremely close ties to the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and speaks there from time to time.  Robert Works' biography can be found here.

Michele Flournoy, who is Hillary Clinton's likely pick for Defense secretary if she becomes president, is Co-Founder and CEO of CNAS.  Her think tank biography can be found here.

Trump Team Targets Think Tanks; Claims Sabotage

Here is more from The Washington Post:

Two of Donald Trump's senior policy advisers argue that powerful interests have aligned to rig a long-standing institution of American presidential elections against their candidate — a conspiracy that has nothing to do with campaigning or casting votes, and everything to do with economics.

Economist Peter Navarro of the University of California at Irvine and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross say Washington think tanks — the time-honored forecasters of how candidates' economic plans might change the country — have conspired to underrate the job-creation potential of the Republican nominee's proposals and overstate how much they would add to the federal debt.

The duo say those think tanks are acting to boost Democrat Hillary Clinton and to advance the interests of large corporations that fund their research, and that news reporters are playing along. The think tanks reject the claims, saying the Trump campaign is simply practicing bad economics.

[The Trump team] said the forces working against Trump include corporations channeling money to supposedly independent researchers to promote their business interests, journalists who lack "the ethics or responsibility" to report the truth on complicated policy matters and an organization that Navarro calls "the Darth Vader of globalism."

"There's no conspiracy," said Marcus Noland, executive vice president and director of studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank Navarro dubbed "the Darth Vader of globalism" in the interview.

Among the other think tanks that the Trump team has issues with is the Tax Policy Center (TPC).

It should be noted, however, that the Trump team has also embraced certain think tanks, such as the conservative Heritage Foundation, and has a number of think tankers advising the campaign.

Think Tank Quickies (#239)

• Saudis hired DC lobbyists to enlist think tanks to kill 9/11 victims bill? 
• King Hussein of Jordan: Think tanks in the West seem to know better than we supposedly know ourselves.
• Global think tank summit in Montreal.
• Think tanks and good governance (English and Spanish).
• Vermont think tank (Ethan Allen Institute) launches campaign against carbon tax.
• The State Department's professional fellows think tank program.
• How Mises Institute beats the DC think tanks.
• Just because you're a think tank it doesn't mean you have to be boring.
• Pic of India-Russia think tank summit.
• Scottish Conservative MEP appointed adviser to Arnold Schwarzenegger's think tank.

Think Tank Presence Slim at Obama's Last State Dinner

It was the last chance for think tankers to get invited to a President Barack Obama state dinner, and only two think tankers made the cut to honor Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi to the White House.

The two who made it were Robert Kagan, a Senior Fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution, and Jane Harman, Director, President, and CEO of the Wilson Center.

It helps that Kagan is the husband of Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Interestingly, Mae Podesta, the daughter of Center for American Progress (CAP) founder John Podesta, also made the list.  Perhaps Mr. Podesta was going to go but become a bit too preoccupied with his ongoing email issues.

Earlier in the year Think Tank Watch wrote about the likelihood of think tankers being invited to a White House state dinner.  Basically, it doesn't happen too often.

Why not?  Part of the reason is that the current president and those who advise him do not see eye to eye on a number of issues.  In fact, many at the White House refer to Washington's foreign policy elite (i.e., think tankers) as "The Blob."

But do not fret all you think tankers.  For if you you did not get your invitation these past eight years, a new administration will always bring more opportunities.

Major Think Tank Reports Seek to Influence New Administration

Think tankers are quietly writing a slew a major policy reports that will likely shape the future of US foreign policy for years to come.

Here is more from The Washington Post:

The Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the groundwork for a more assertive American foreign policy, via a flurry of reports shaped by officials who are likely to play senior roles in a potential Clinton White House.

It is not unusual for Washington’s establishment to launch major studies in the final months of an administration to correct the perceived mistakes of a president or influence his successor. But the bipartisan nature of the recent recommendations, coming at a time when the country has never been more polarized, reflects a remarkable consensus among the foreign policy elite.

This consensus is driven by a broad-based backlash against a president who has repeatedly stressed the dangers of overreach and the need for restraint, especially in the Middle East. 

“The American-led international order that has been prevalent since World War II is now under threat,” said Martin Indyk, who oversees a team of top former officials from the administrations of Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton assembled by the Brookings Institution. “The question is how to restore and renovate it.” The Brookings report — a year in the making — is due out in December.

Taken together, the studies and reports call for more-aggressive American action to constrain Iran, rein in the chaos in the Middle East and check Russia in Europe.

The article notes that other think tanks (besides Brookings) have recently released or are set to release their own foreign policy prescriptions for the incoming administration.  One example is the Center for American Progress (CAP), which just released a report calling for renewed engagement with long-standing partners in the Middle East.

The article also notes that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is leading a bipartisan and international team looking at US strategy in the Middle East for the think tank Atlantic Council.

But many of these think tanks will wait a few more weeks to release certain reports because the Obama Administration will instantly dismiss them.  As Derek Chollet, a former top Obama Administration official and Counselor/Senior Advisor at The German Marshall Fund (GMFUS) said, "many inside the White House regularly dismissed calls for military force from the foreign policy establishment as the product of 'too much college and not enough knowledge.'"

As the Washington Post points out, some White House officials "derisively referred to Washington's foreign policy experts as 'The Blob.'"


Update: In response to the Washington Post article, a reader from Delaware asked in the newspaper's "Free For All" Section: "Who are the foreign policy elite?  How are they chosen?  How does one identify eliteness?  If elites want to urge the nation into any and all conflicts from the well-paid security of their 'think tanks' (and how many of those things are there anyway?), lest we be deemed not 'muscular' enough, shouldn't the rest of us at least be told what the criteria are to determine their eliteness?  And why do they always seem to be belligerent?  Do they need reassurance, or do they merely have books to sell?"

The First Rule of Getting a Job with Clinton: Know John Podesta

The first rule of getting a job in the Clinton Administration: Know John Podesta, the founder of the think tank Center for American Progress (CAP).

Here is more from Politico:

 If you're wondering how to get a job in a Hillary Clinton White House, start by reading campaign chairman John Podesta's hacked emails.

From a billionaire plugging a federal official for a cabinet appointment to Podesta himself plugging the daughter of a friend for an internship, the trove of Podesta’s correspondence posted by WikiLeaks is a portrait of Washington insiderism, showing powerful people turning into supplicants using connections and flattery.

A new president has 4,000 political appointments to dole out. And as Podesta went from running a think tank to serving as a counselor to Barack Obama to joining the Clinton campaign, everybody from high-ranking officials to college undergraduates jockeyed to get themselves or their friends onto his radar.

In 2014 Podesta himself appeared to put in a good word with his former Center for American Progress colleagues on behalf of the daughter of a friend who had recently applied to an internship at the think tank. She ended up getting the internship, according to the email.

As you can see, if also pays to know Mr. Podesta when you want to work at CAP, a think tank that houses many scholars who will likely soon be working in a Clinton Administration.

Think Tank Quickies (#238)

• Executive from leading US think tank: Think tanks should be elitist.
• Brookings on why checks don't clear instantly.
• Lowy Institute analysis: US may become a rogue superpower under Trump.
• Documentary on neocons permeating DC's think tanks.
• Brookings scholars pitch their best ideas for fixing America's challenges; Calls on DOJ to embrace mass hacking.
• Hundreds of think tank nerds descend on Nashville.
• AEI's YouTube channel has around 100k followers (biggest of any think tank).
• List of UK think tanks' Twitter accounts.
• Conservative think tankers say vote for Trump.
• Cato Institute documents the number of federal subsidy programs.

Think Tanks Trying to Influence Final Presidential Debate

Numerous think tanks have been working closely with presidential candidates offering policy papers, advice, and teams of scholars to quickly pen reports and opinions on the hottest topics of the day.

Think tanks have also been trying to get debate moderators to ask certain questions.  Here is the latest example from Politico:

Several think tanks have posted foreign policy and national security-related questions for the third presidential debate, including the Brookings Institution and the Center for a New American Security. Among the familiar themes: Military force in Syria (a topic the Bipartisan Policy Center also highlighted), Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Baltics and the terrorism fight.

Hundreds of think tankers are directly and indirectly advising both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and just like past debates, we anticipate a number of think tanks will be doing real-time fact-checking for this debate as well.

Here is a look at what some specific think tanks are doing for tonight's festivities:

• Scholars from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) are live on Facebook discussing foreign policy and tonight's debate.
• Brookings scholars are on the ground in Las Vegas where the debate is taking place. 
• Cato Institute's list of scholars live-tweeting the debate.
• American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is asking people to follow its Twitter feed for scholar reaction.

This is how think tankers are really preparing for tonight's debate.

Harvard: Journalists Need to do a Better Job Citing Think Tanks

Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy has just issued a new tip sheet to help journalists in citing think tanks.

The tip sheet was released in the wake of the damning New York Times pieces in August which called out a number of think tanks for their pay-for-play culture.

Only a handful of think tanks are truly unbiased, and thus, it is important for anyone quoting think tanks and think tankers to mention what biases may be present (political leanings, funding biases, etc...).

One important point the tip sheet explains is the use of "nonpartisan" that many think tanks have wrongly adopted to describe themselves, saying that there is "little legal criteria for adopting the rubric and a nonpartisan group could, in theory, still have a political leaning."

One example that immediately comes to mind in the ultra-liberal, union-backed think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which says it is "independent and nonpartisan."

The center-left Brookings Institution also calls itself nonpartisan but clearly leans Democratic and heavily supports President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.  [Here is the "nonpartisan policy" of Brookings from the think tank's Office of General Counsel.]

The think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) also calls itself "nonpartisan" when it is clearly conservative.

The tip sheet has, among other things, a definition of "think tank," examples of conflicts of interest, precautions to take when citing think tank rankings, Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) issues, and other resources for journalists.

Think Tank Quickies (#237)

• Why college (and think tank) rankings are a joke.
• New rules to put chill on think tank hiring of executive branch officials?
• RAND Corp. analyzed the Trump and Clinton health plans.
• Susan Rice to announce new Presidential Directive on Cuba Oct. 14 at Wilson Center. 
• New Canadian think tank True North launches.
• During 2nd presidential debate Brookings and Center for American Progress (CAP) did real-time fact-checking on Donald Trump.
• Adam Johnson: Gonna start a sham think tank with a really generic but official sounding name (Center for World Policy) & hand out "fellowships" to my buddies.
• Start-up think tank (Tax Revolution Institute, or TRI) on a mission to audit the IRS.
• When think tanks get bored.
• Bloomberg: Communist China turns to independent think tanks; Cheng Li says Xi Jinping emphasizes role of think tanks more than any leader in China's history.

Brookings Turns 100 And Pivots Amid Rocky Stretch

On October 1, 2016, as the venerable Brookings Institution turned 100, it issued "Brookings 2.0," a plan for its second century.

Brookings's new goals fall under five categories:

1. Tightening its focus
2. Enhancing its influence and relevance
3. Promoting a culture of collaboration
4. Advancing inclusion and diversity
5. Reinforcing efficiency and sustainability

Among other things, the think tanks says it is reissuing Brookings Classics, books from the think tank's past that are relevant to some of today's issues.  A podcast celebrating Brookings centenary can be found here.

In conjunction with its big birthday, the think tank had announced an initiative to raise $600 million.

A timeline of Brookings, including all of its past logos, can be found here.  A showcase of the impact of the work by the think tank's scholars can be found here.

Brookings notes that it has come a long way since 1916, when it had only 13 staff members; that compares to the 500+ it has now.  Brookings has also joined Snapchat.

We should note that all is not birthday cakes and roses for Brookings.  After all, the think tank has received huge amounts of negative press about pay-for-play schemes and close ties to corporations and foreign governments.  And recent investigative reports show that the think tank has been unable to shake off this decades-old stigma.

The new book "Right Moves: The Conservative Think Tank in American Political Culture Since 1945," says that even in the 1950s Brookings was perceived as "anything but free from special interests."  It adds: "By the post-World War II period, Brookings had gained a reputation, especially among liberals, as a spokesman for big business."

The book also notes that Brookings played a key role in selling the Iraq war to the American public and government.  "The advocacy of think tanks like Brookings...helped create a consensus around the invasion of Iraq."

UPenn Think Tank Rankings Tainted by Brookings Connection

There is one more reason to put a little less faith in the much-anticipated think tank rankings put out by the University of Pennsylvania: The professor who conducts the rankings just had his new book published by the Brookings Institution, the very think tank that he has repeatedly ranked as the world's best think tank.

While there is not necessarily a quid pro quo going on, there is certainly an appearance of one.  After all, are you going to downgrade a think tank or give it unfavorable treatment if that very think tank is publishing your book?

The book, entitled The Fifth Estate: Think Tanks, Public Policy, and Governance, was written by James McGann, the Director of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. McGann, a passionate supporter of think tanks, publishes an annual ranking of the world's think tanks.

The latest rankings, released earlier in 2016, list Brookings as the world's #1 think tank.  Brookings touts this fact in its annual report and elsewhere, and UPenn touts this fact, saying that "the Brookings Institution's high quality think tank brand helped secure" the top global think tank ranking.

Earlier in the year, we wrote about how the University of Pennsylvania was paid by the very think tank it ranks for the study.

In August, when questioned on a radio show about his close connections to think tanks, Dr. McGann said it is "absolutely false" to say that his organization is funded or supported by think tanks.

Here is what he went on to say:

My salary is entirely paid by the University of Pennsylvania.  My office is paid by the University of Pennsylvania, and my principal responsibilities are teaching and research.  I have been doing this for 30 years.  Any funds that have been provided by think tanks have not come to me directly, with the exception of a $1,000 contribution [per think tank] from 25 or 30 think tanks for a study designed to focus on...think tanks.  There are funds provided, which I have helped raise for summits of think tanks in Africa and Latin America, but none of that goes to me.  It goes to the institutions to help convene think tanks and talk about these very issues.

In other words, contrary to his initial defense, Dr. McGann admitted that he does indeed receive money from think tanks.

To be fair, while not perfect, Dr. McGann's think tank rankings are by far the most comprehensive global think tank rankings available.  But putting trust in them is a different story...

New Book Describes Think Tank Panels

Eliot Nelson, a reporter for the Huffington Post, has just written a book called "The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide to Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing and Sometimes Hilarious Government."

Here is an excerpt from the book about panels (including think tank panels):

The convening of experts in sofa chairs or on barstools to furrow their brows and prove how qualified they are to opine about emerging government transparency regimes in the Balkans.

Most panel titles follow a similar blueprint, featuring a catchy statement or question followed by a description of the event — something along the lines of “Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey? Examining Knobs in the 21st Century” or “You Say, ‘Potato,’ I Say, ‘Where’s the Lactation Room?’ Updating OSHA Regulations for Today’s Working Parents.”

Friends in Washington invite you to their panels the way friends everywhere else invite you to their improv shows. Do you feel compelled to attend? Yes. Will you enjoy it? No. Will your friend not shut up about it on social media? Of course not.

Check out past entries from Think Tank Watch for more commentary about think tank panels.

Think Tank Quickies (#236)

• Vox: Almost no prominent people at think tanks or professors who are supporting Donald Trump.
• Showers are the ultimate think tanks.
• Think tank Center for Security Policy expressed concern over Qatari role in CityCenterDC.
• Massachusetts Ave. Meeting of the Minds: Brookings welcomes AEI to the block; scholars spotted debating secular stagnation over sundaes.
• Economic Freedom of the World report put together every year by a consortium of 70 think tanks.
• Think tanks pouring resources into new ways to fight against violent propaganda washing over the internet from Islamist groups and far-right radicals.
• Should think tankers "pre-suade" before talking or sending out reports?
• MSNBC holds annual WHCA after-party at USIP. 
• Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson speak at CSIS event on Sept. 22. 
• Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at Wilson Center to promote TPP.

Lawyer Pens Heritage Doc Calling for End to Obama's Lobbying Ban

Gregory Walden, a non-staff member of The Heritage Foundation, and a Senior Counsel with law/lobby powerhouse Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, has just written a piece for the think tank arguing that restrictions on lobbyists in the administration discourages good candidates from serving and proposing reversing President Obama's lobbying ban.

The full paper, which was presented at a September 26 event at Heritage, can be read here.  Mr. Walden is a former Associate Counsel to President George H.W. Bush.

The Tiny Office Writing the Future of America

The Huffington Post has a piece entitled "The Future of America is Being Written in This Tiny Office," which highlights the work of the Hillary Clinton campaign's Brooklyn headquarters office, a team that is collecting and synthesizing all the pro-Clinton think tank policy papers into actual policy as she strives to become the next US president.

Here is an excerpt:

This summer, I stopped by Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters, where the policy team occupies prime real estate. The three senior advisors—Jake Sullivan, Maya Harris and Jacob Leibenluft—share an office steps away from those of campaign manager Robby Mook and chairman John Podesta. (O’Leary is now leading the official transition operation in Washington.) About a dozen more policy aides occupy nearby cubicles, below a sign that says “Nerds” and “Wonks for the Win.” This team manages more than 30 outside working groups that include academic heavyweights, think tank experts and trusted advisers like Sperling and Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress. It’s an impressive crew, but perhaps over-qualified when it comes to some of the matters that have convulsed this particular election, like the size of Trump’s hands or the semiotics of Pepe the Frog. “It’s not exactly clear what to do with all of that horsepower,” says a person familiar with the process. “There is just this mismatch between capabilities they have and what’s actually required in this campaign.”

Among the think tanks that are heavily advising Mrs. Clinton are Center for American Progress (CAP) and the Roosevelt Institute (as we recently wrote about here).

Former CFR Scholar Axed From Trump Campaign

Here is more from Newsmax:

A foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump is reportedly stepping down from the campaign – and pushing back on allegations he had private communications with top Russian officials.

Carter Page called the allegations "just complete garbage" in an interview with the Washington Post, but said was taking a leave of absence because they were causing a "distraction."

U.S. intelligence officials were looking into whether Carter had met privately with Kremlin-aligned Russian figures while on a trip to Moscow in July, Yahoo News reported last Friday.

Carter Page was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the director of the think tank's online roundtable of the Caspian Sea Region.  After his stint at CFR, he spoke at the think tank on several occasions.

Billionaire Chinese Donor to US Think Tanks Caught in Scandal

A billionaire Chinese donor to US think tanks has been expelled from China's top legislature after being caught up in a widespread cash-for-votes scheme, according to the Washington Post.

The donor, Wang Wenliang, Chairman of privately-held construction firm Rilin Enterprises, has given to think tanks such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), as well as various schools such as Harvard University and New York University.

In 2014, CSIS created the Brzezinski Institute of Geostrategy, which was funded by Mr. Wenliang's company.  Here is more from a CSIS press release:

The launching grant for the Institute came from Rilin Enterprises, Ltd., a global construction and logistics firm based in Hong Kong with offices in New York, Beijing, and Dandong, China. Mr. Wenliang Wang serves as chairman of Rilin Enterprises. Mr. Mark Fung, who serves on the Institute’s Advisory Board, is the firm’s general counsel and in the 1990s was Dr. Brzezinski’s student and then seminar assistant at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Here is a New Republic piece written by John Judis in 2014 questioning Mr. Wang's donation to CSIS.

In recent years, there has been an explosion of billionaires (both foreign and domestic) giving donations to US think tanks.

Think Tank Quickies (#235)

• Phyllis Schlafly, who came to Washington for a year to do research for what is now AEI, dies at 92.
• Center for American Progress (CAP) starts US-China Rising Scholar Strategic Dialogue.
• Panel, which wrote stinging indictment of America's security apparatus, organized by Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former Dick Cheney adviser who now works at the Hudson Institute.
• Brookings book event (Cuba) had reception with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. 
• Congress renews debate on avoidance of local tax by colleges, think tanks. 
• Will Brexit lead to brain-drain of UK think tanks?
• For a think tank head to succeed, it helps not to look the part.
• Chinese diplomat Dai Bingguo warns on sea ruling at gathering of Chinese and US think tank officials.
• Heritage Action hosts Conservative Leadership Awards. 
• CAP publishes major new security paper offering new approach to US foreign policy.

Billionaire's Daughter Throwing Big Money at Think Tanks

In the think tank world, it pays to be friends with billionaires.  The latest example comes from The Washington Post:

Mitt Romney had just lost the 2012 presidential election, and a group of wealthy donors assembled in New York's University Club was trying to figure out what had gone wrong.  Suddenly, a young woman stood up before the largely male crowd and delivered an unsparing critique of the Republican's technology and canvassing operations.

Thomas Saunders III, chairman of the Heritage Foundation's Board of Trustees, was impressed.  "Who is that?" he asked the man next to him.

Soon, there would be few in conservative policy and political circles who did not know the name Rebekah Mercer.

Galvanized in part by the Republicans' 2012 White House loss, the middle daughter of billionaire hedge fund magnate Robert Mercer has rattled the status quo by directing her family's resources into an array of investments on the right.  In the past six years, the Mercers have poured tens of millions into Republican super PACs, Washington think tanks, state policy shops, a film-production company, a data analytics operation and one of the country's most provocative online conservative news outlets.

The article goes on to note that Rebekah Mercer jointed the board of the Goldwater Institute and her family foundation gave nearly $1 million to the think tank between 2011 and 2014.  The family foundation have nearly $35 million to conservative think tanks and policy groups between 2009 and 2014.  And she is now on the board of trustees of the Heritage Foundation.

The Hill also notes that Mercer has been a big supporter of the libertarian Cato Institute.

Think Tank Watch recently wrote about a new trend of billionaires starting their own think tanks.  Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on the favorite think tank of billionaires.

PR/Lobby Firms Lawyer Up After Entanglements With EU Think Tank

Here is more from Politico:

K Street powerhouses Mercury and the Podesta Group recently hired outside lawyers after the Associated Press reported that their work for a European think tank was secretly overseen by [Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul] Manafort and one of his associates working for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Manafort and his company never registered their activities under FARA.

The IG report noted ambiguity about whether exemptions apply to representing foreign entities like college campus groups and think thanks that receive government funding but claim to act independently.

FARA registrations peaked in 1987 and fell sharply since the 1990s, probably because people started registering under the 1995 domestic lobbying law instead, which requires less detailed disclosures.

The "think tank" mentioned above is European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU), based in Brussels, Belgium.  Here is more about that organization, which was founded in 2012.

Atlantic Council Faulted for Awarding African "Dictator"

This is from a Foreign Policy opinion piece by Thor Halvorssen and Alex Gladstein (both of the Human Rights Foundation) entitled "Why Did the Atlantic Council Even Consider Giving African Dictator Ali Bongo Ondimba a Global Citizen Award?":

Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba was scheduled to attend a swanky gala on Monday hosted by the Atlantic Council, a well-known Washington-based think tank, to accept an award for “his life of public service and efforts to improve the lives of the people of Gabon.” Unfortunately for the dictator, he was forced to cancel at the last moment because of mounting unrest in his country — the bloody fallout from a likely stolen election on Aug. 27.

Days of violent protests followed. At least 50 people were killed, and more than 1,000 were arrested by security forces, according to the opposition. Gabon remains under a 12-hour-a-day curfew, but the Atlantic Council has not officially rescinded the award, which it previously bestowed on the likes of Robert De Niro and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. In a letter to Human Rights Foundation, Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe said his organization respects Bongo’s “decision to forgo receiving his Global Citizen Award this year due to the overriding priorities he has in his country.”

Yet it’s not clear how Bongo was ever considered a worthy candidate for the award in the first place. The notoriously corrupt leader has ruled Gabon since 2009, when he succeeded his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, in a fraudulent election.

By recognizing him with a Global Citizen Award, the Atlantic Council is helping Bongo shed his image as an outrageously corrupt autocrat. The democratically elected leaders of Japan and Italy, Shinzo Abe and Matteo Renzi, respectively, will receive their awards on Monday as scheduled at a gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Had Bongo not been busy putting down a protest movement opposed to his rule, he would have been able to present himself as a similarly legitimate leader. And since the Atlantic Council hasn’t revoked the award, he may still be able to do so at a later date.

The Atlantic Council has long trumpeted its objectivity and independence, but feting Bongo is just the latest in a series of troubling developments at the think tank that raise questions about its commitment to transparency and ability to keep business interests separate from its research and policy operations. Gabon is not the only dictatorship the Atlantic Council has cozied up to: The Kingdom of Bahrain is listed on the organization’s website as a six-figure donor, and it has received financial support from the governments of Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan. Alexander Mirtchev, one of the directors of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, sits on the executive committee of the Atlantic Council’s board of directors and is listed as a six-figure donor.

The piece goes on to note that it is "difficult to discern the precise nature" of the Atlantic Council's relationship with the Bongo regime, and questions if someone from the government (or someone on behalf of the government) has donated money to Atlantic Council.  The authors say that until these questions are answered, the "credibility of one of Washington's most venerated think tanks will remain in question, and its Global Citizens Award will remain a joke."

In what appears to be pushback from the think tank, Foreign Policy issued a correction at the end of the article saying that a previous version of the article noted that the Atlantic Council does not publicly disclose all of its funders, or the size of their donations (found here).  However, many think tanks say that they publicly disclose all of their donors, when it practice, many do not.

The Telegraph also wrote about this issue on September 11.

Here is an Atlantic Council statement on President Ali Bongo Ondimba not being able to accept the award this year.

But the Gabonese President was able to make it to the think tank earlier in 2016 for a breakfast to honor him.  And he also gave a keynote speech at the think tank in 2011.

Here is a Human Rights Foundation (HRF) letter sent to Atlantic Council saying that HRF is "unaware" of the qualification of a Global Citizen Award but "unless kleptocracy, nepotism, and repression are given high marks," giving the award to Ali Bongo is a "monumental mistake."

Think Tank Watch should note that it is not illegal for think tanks to take money from (most) dictators, although some may consider it ethically questionable.  And as previously reported, Gabon funds US think tanks.

Update: Here is another piece from Mr. Halvorssen.

Think Tank Quickies (#234)

• Video by Renard Moreau: What are think tanks and can they be trusted?
• NAF head Anne-Marie Slaughter's 5-minute survey on what a 21st-century think tank should be doing to affect change.
• Think Tank Hub: A space for think tanks worldwide.
• The Solomon Islands paper and the role of think tanks, by Elsina Wainwright.
• Video: EastWest Institute (EWI) much more than your usual think tank?
• Brookings's role in the Marshall Plan.
• New think tank in Japan offers tips on LGBT awareness, market potential.
• US think tanks focusing on studying China.
• How and why we network Asian think tanks.
• John Avlon of Daily Beast was senior fellow at conservative Manhattan Institute.

Think Tank Heads Get Paid big Money for Speeches

Think Tank Watch has long documented the generous pay that many top think tank officials take home, but a new trend is arising that makes their salaries look like chump change.

More and more think tank heads are joining the paid speaking circuit, bringing in tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in supplemental income each year.

One example is New America head Anne-Marie Slaughter, who gets between $30,000 and $50,000 per speech, according to Foreign Policy.

Another is Arthur Brooks, President of American Enterprise Institute (AEI), who has a booking fee of $20,000 to $30,000, according to All American Speakers Bureau.

Strobe Talbott, head of the Brookings Institution, has a booking fee between $10,000 to $20,000, according to All American Speakers Bureau.

Speakerpedia, a directory of professional speakers, lists dozens of current and former think tankers seeking paid gigs.  Examples include:

• Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
• Norm Ornstein, AEI
• Michael Barone, AEI
• Peter Singer, New America
• Robert Kagan, Brookings
• Scott Aughenbaugh, CSIS
• Aaron David Miller, Wilson Center
• Stephen Moore, Heritage Foundation
• Kenneth Pollack, Brookings
• Sebastian Mallaby, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
• Uri Dadush, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Patrick Michaels, Cato Institute
• David Wessel, Brookings
• Peter Wallison, AEI
• Gene Healy, Cato Institute
• Edward Crane, Cato
• Kevin Hassett, AEI
• Ted Piccone, Brookings
• Marina Ottaway, Wilson Center
• Fiona Hill, Brookings
• Dan Ikenson, Cato
• Ryan Radia, Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)
• Michael Tanner, Cato
• Thomas Sanderson, CSIS
• Peter Goettler, Cato
• Daniel Pearson, Cato
• Frederick Hess, AEI
• Neal McCluskey, Cato
• Matthew Feeney, Cato
• Marc Scribner, CEI
• Angela Maria Kelley, CAP
• Emma Ashford, Cato
• Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Cato
• Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato
• Emily Ekins, Cato
• Michael Strain, AEI
• Anisha Singh, CAP
• Adam Bates, Cato
• Nicole Kaeding, Cato
• Christopher Preble, Cato
• Katherine Zimmerman, AEI
• William Niskanen, Cato
• Roger Noriega, AEI
• Genevieve Wood, Heritage Foundation
• Daniel Griswold, Cato
• Stephen Slivinski, Cato
• Mark Moller, Cato
• Todd Harrison, CSIS
• Timothy Lynch, Cato
• Linda Killian, Wilson Center

While select think tank heads typically can command high fees, those lower on the think tank totem pole get significantly less.  But even the highest paid think tankers get peanuts compared to the most in-demand speakers.

One of the few exceptions is former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at Brookings, who pulls down a nice six-figure fee per speech.

In recent months think tanks have been tightening their rules on outside work by scholars, particularly in light of the New York Times expose last month on pay-for-play at major think tanks.  But the speaking circuit generally does not fall under the purview of most think tank policies on outside engagements.

Taiwanese Think Tanks Take Washington by Storm

Think tanking in Washington, DC is getting more crowded by the day.  To wit: This week a well-funded Taiwanese think tank, said to be the largest US-based think tank focusing on Taiwan, will open its doors in Washington, DC.

Here is more from the Taipei Times:

The Global Taiwan Institute (GTI), opening on September 14, has access to more than US$20 million and has paid US$3 million for its Dupont Circle, Washington, office, sources said, adding that the institute is to be made up of people from the US, Taiwan, Japan and Europe.

US Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Grace Meng, institute honorary chairman Wu Rong-i and Formosa TV chairman Kou Pei-hung are to attend a founding event for the institute, they said.

The institute has received funding and support from influential figures, sources said, adding that its establishment is noteworthy at a time when Taiwanese independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming has announced the suspension of his Taipei-based Taiwan Brain Trust, which is expected to join the Ketagalan Foundation, an organization owned and operated by supporters of former president Chen Shui-bien.

Former president Lee Teng-hui is to serve as the institute’s chief adviser and Wu as its honorary chairman, while 37 people are to serve as cofounders, including former Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission chairwoman Chang Fu-mei (張富美).

Each cofounder has contributed US$100,000 to the institute.

The institute’s board of advisers has 14 members and includes former American Institute in Taiwan director William Stanton, University of Miami professor of political science June Dreyer, University of Pennsylvania professor of history Arthur Waldron and former Congressional Research Service researcher Shirley Kan, the institute said.

Here is a link to the think tank's new website.

Another think tank, The Institute for Taiwan-American Studies (ITAS), opened in 2015.  Here is a link to its website.

In related news, Foreign Policy recently published a piece on China's sole Washington, DC think tank.

According to the University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings, tiny Washington, DC has the most think tanks of any place in the United States, at 397.

Update: GTI held a reception on September 14 to celebrate its opening.  Attendees including more than 100 prominent Asia scholars as well as lawmakers and Obama Administration officials.

Think Tankers Jockeying for Key Posts in Clinton Administration

Scholars at some of Washington, DC's top think tanks are jockeying for attention and power as they vie for  key posts in a possible Hillary Clinton Administration.

Reporting from Politico shows that a number of high-level think tankers are in the running for key posts within a Clinton Administration.  Examples include:

• Neera Tanden, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress (CAP), will likely be some type of "senior adviser" to Mrs. Clinton, and possibly the domestic policy adviser.
• William Burns, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, could be the next secretary of state.
• Wendy Sherman, a non-resident Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, is also in the running for secretary of state.
• Nick Burns, who is on the Board of Directors at Harvard's Belfer Center, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and Atlantic Council, is another possibility for secretary of state.
• Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution, is also being talked about as a possible secretary of state.
• Kurt Campbell, Co-founder and former CEO of Center for a New American Security (CNAS), could also become secretary of state.
• Michele Flournoy, Co-founder and CEO of CNAS is a possible secretary of defense.
• Lael Brainard, formerly at Brookings, is a possibility for treasury secretary.
• John Podesta, Co-founder of the Center for American Progress (CAP), could possibly become the next energy secretary.

In related news, Think Tank Watch has just reported that scholars from the Roosevelt Institute are drafting a list of key people that want in a Clinton Administration.

Roosevelt Institute Becoming Clinton's Go-To Think Tank?

The liberal think tank Roosevelt Institute has gained enormous influence during the past year as more and more are taking their work seriously amid an increased focuses on inequality and progressive politics.

Here is more from the New York Times Magazine:

Felicia Joy Wong runs the Roosevelt Institute, a small think tank (for lack of a better term) that originated in trusts established to promote the legacies of Franklin and Eleanor.  Its chief economist, the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, indirectly coined the Occupy movement's enduring slogan ("We are the 99 percent"), and Stiglitz and Wong each saw the election as an opportunity to channel Occupy energy into national politics.

...Unlike the myriad other white papers that each week were drafted, edited, somnolently received at other think tanks and shelved without fanfare, this report [Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy] had captured wide and consequential attention.  In the months leading up to its publication, the Roosevelt team was in close touch with Clinton's speechwriters and advisers, and in subsequent rallies the candidate continued to draw upon the report, even at the level of explicit language; calls to "rewrite the rules" found their way into more of her addresses.  The many news reports that linked the speech to Wong's organization consistently and erroneously relocated her team to Washington.  (Their headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, in an Art Deco tower in the shadow of the Citigroup Center.)

Roosevelt is a 501(c)(3), and though it does maintain a political-action arm, it does not work to elect specific candidates.  Still, various representatives from Clinton's speechwriting and policy teams regularly solicit the organization's input.  Roosevelt in turn has redoubled its efforts not only on advancing the ideas in "Rewriting the Rules" but also in recruiting the personnel necessary to carry them out, in the form of a methodical effort to find suitable candidates for economic positions in a future presidential administration.

Here is more about Ms. Wong:

[Felicia Joy] Wong really does seem like an improbable person to preside over a think tank.  She grew up in Silicon Valley, studies poetry at Stanford, got a Ph.D. in political science at Berkeley, worked as a high-school teacher and then at a valley start-up and then happened into a job at the Democracy Alliance, a semi-secretive club of progressive donors.  She can barely bring herself to utter the phrase "think tank," much less "policy shop."  Late one evening in Washington, we walked by a thickset monolith that glowed with cold marmoreal light, as if James Turrell had built a fortress for some paranoid ice king.  The front read CSIS: the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Wong rolled her eyes, theatrically shuddered and tucked her runaway hair behind her ear.  "Now that's a think tank."

On Roosevelt Institute vs. Center for American Progress:

On the left, there are lots of small organizations in Washington that publish granular research on specific economic trends.  But the most significant liberal think tank in recent years has been the Center for American Progress, founded in 2003 by former Bill Clinton chief of staff (and current Hillary Clinton campaign chair) John Podesta as his party's answer to the conservative Heritage Foundation.  CAP has done a lot of innovative policy work, especially on universal preschool and health care, but it was always less of a research organization than a shadow government for an opposition in exile.  When Obama was elected, roughly a third of CAP's staff went into his administration.  (Today, CAP's economic ideas are more in line with those of Roosevelt, and in 2015 it released a report on short-termism that anticipated part of "Rewriting the Rules.")

On How Roosevelt Institute has changed in the Obama era:

In 2009, a political scientist named Andrew Rich, known for writing about the "war of ideas," was drafted to reinvent the Roosevelt Institute as a place for the radical thinking that postcrisis politics seemed to require.  Roosevelt at the time was an ad hoc collection of spare progressive parts, including the upkeep of the F.D.R. Library in Hyde Park, N.Y.  Rich believed that if you weren't in Washington, and you weren't beholden to the party apparatus, and if you got the right people - people who were too idiosyncratic or rough-hewn for academia, or academics who wanted to be politically relevant bu needed help with finding an audience for their work - you could crate a new kind of institution on a looser, livelier model.  Rich brought on [Joseph] Stiglitz and Mike Konczal, who pseudonymous financial-crisis blog had a cult following among progressives

On Roosevelt Institute ties to Elizabeth Warren:

Elizabeth Warren is a key Roosevelt ally.  While Warren worked on the TARP oversight panel, she needed somewhere to park her aide-decamp, Dan Geldon, to help draft the details on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was being set up on the basis of her ideas.  He served as a fellow, and he and Warren maintain close ties to Roosevelt.

On the think tank's recruitment efforts & "Rewriting the Rules":

When Wong took over in 2012, she continued to recruit staff members and fellows who were at once nonaligned and well connected: to the A.F.T. and S.E.I.U., Demos, MoveOn, the Clintons.  By January 2015, Wong had decided, along with her communications director, Marcus Mrowka, and her vice president of research and policy, Nell Abernathy, to prepare for the coming election by creating a full-dress economic agenda that would be there for the candidates' taking.  "Rewriting the Rules" got funding from the Ford Foundation, whose decision last year to refocus around the issues of inequality was influenced by Roosevelt...While written by Stiglitz, the paper was worked out in consultation with labor officials, academics, congressional staff members and - unusually for a think tank - advocates from places like Color for Change, Naral and the Black Civic Engagement Fund.

On Roosevelt Institute vs. Heritage Foundation:

In July, The Boston Globe reported that Roosevelt had been leading a campaign to help staff the economic-policy positions in future presidential administrations.  Since the 1970s, movement conservatism has consistently outperformed progressives in laying a talent conduit.  Heritage identifies young candidates and grooms them for a smooth climb through the system; adjacent to its headquarters is a library-dorm for its interns, replete with piles of free Hayek.  Roosevelt's project, likewise, is about finding people with the economic, legal and regulatory experience to change the country's balance of power.

The report "Rewriting the Rules" can be found here.  And here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece on how the think tank has been trying to influence Clinton's cabinet picks.

Also, here is a Politico article on how the think tank in helping draft a blacklist of prospective Clinton hires.  Among those already on the blacklist include Tom Nides (now Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Wilson Center) and Lael Brainard (formerly of Brookings).

Think Tank Quickies (#233)

• Asymmetric polarization: Brookings moving right to stay in the center?
• How conservative think tanks helped create the age of Trump; Trump supporter Michael Flynn speaks at Heritage.
• New film (Starving the Beast) explores the influence of think tanks and lobbyists on America's public colleges and universities.
• Max Abrahms: Under-studied research question is why think tanks are generally so much more supportive of regime change than the academics. 
• Think tanks and advocacy groups fighting FDA ECig rule have something in common: Altria money.
• Grizzly Bear Institute of Canada: best think tank name ever?
• Video: Think tanks - what are they good for?  Conversation with Rohinton Medhora. 
• Two new Taiwanese think tanks in DC.
• ECFR: A hundred think tanks bloom in China.
• The Onion: "Encouraging Report From Radical Extremist Think Tank Finds America No Safer Since 9/11."

DC Think Tank Hires Former al-Qaeda Recruiter

Here is more from the Washington Post:

A former Islamist extremist who supported al-Qaeda and exhorted others to follow Osama bin Laden has joined George Washington University as a research fellow.

Jesse Morton, who was born in Pennsylvania and said he became a Muslim at age 20 after reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” while in prison for a drug offense, argues that he can offer an insider’s perspective on Islamist radicalization — and how to counter that threat.

Morton is the first former extremist in the United States to join an academic program, Lorenzo Vidino, director of GW’s Program on Extremism, said, although there are some working similar capacities in Europe.

The article goes on to note that Mr. Morton will be working at GWU's off-campus think tank (launched June 2015 to study both violent and non-violent extremism) and he will not be interacting with students.

Interestingly, the article does not even mention the think tank's name, which is the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security (CCHS).  Mr. Morton's think tank biography can be found here; he is listed as a research fellow.

Here is an interview with Lorenzo Vidino, the think tank's director, who discusses the hiring of Mr. Morton.

CCHS is believed to be the first think tank to hire a former Islamic extremist.

Among those on CCHS's board of directors include Michael Chertoff (former Secretary of Homeland Security), Cathy Lanier (Chief of DC police), and Tom Ridge (former Secretary of Homeland Security).