Think Tank Quickies (#511)

• The Heritage Foundation made a $200,000 ad buy supporting Trump's Cabinet nominations. 
• The Heritage Foundation erected a 30-by-60-foot banner on the side of its Capitol Hill building congratulating Donald Trump.
  
• Asian companies asking which think tanks will rise under Trump.
• Dark Money is tainting Washington think tanks.
• Hanwha launches Korea Chair at UK think tank IISS.
  
• Former head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, named the new co-chair of the Bilderberg Group.
• Michael Anton, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute going into the Trump Administration, recorded a podcast in 2021 with "dark enlightenment" blogger Curtis Yarvin.
• As China's think tanks seek wider influence, is more autonomy the answer?
  
• "Hosted annually by the Tax Foundation, a think tank that generally favors lower taxes, and sponsored by major corporations, Tax Prom is Washington networking par excellence." 
• Why are Hong Kong think tanks facing a bleak future?
• American Compass has launched a new online magazine, Commonplace, aiming to be the "intellectual home of the new right-of-center" with a focus on political, economic, and cultural concerns.
  

DOGE, FBI Try to Enter Think Tank on Trump's Chopping Block

Here is more from The Hill:

U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the building after being approached by their counsel.

“They were met at the door by the Institute’s outside counsel who informed them of USIP’s private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency.  Following that discussion, the DOGE representatives departed,” Gonzo Gallegos, USIP’s director of communications, said in a statement to The Hill.

 

 Here is a statement from USIP about the incident.

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order that will significantly shrink the size and scope of USIP.

Trump Signs Executive Order to Dismantle the Wilson Center

Here is more from The Hill:

President Trump on Friday signed an executive order that aims to eliminate seven federal agencies, including ones that focus on media, libraries, museums and ending homelessness.

The president directed the government entities “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” insisting they “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel.” It ordered the heads of each entity submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget confirming full compliance within seven days.

The president targeted the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is the parent company of Voice of America’s (VOA), as well as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, which is a think tank, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is an agency that supports libraries, archives and museums in every state.

 

Here is a link to the executive order.

Last month, Trump signed a similar executive order that will significantly shrink the size and scope of the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

Brookings May Become a Lobbying Shop

Here is more from Politico:

MORE DISCONTENT AT BROOKINGS: Employees of the Brookings Institution have sent another anonymous letter to the think tank’s trustees complaining about the management of the organization by its President Cecilia Rouse, Daniel reports.

— “After one year of her tenure, Brookings does not have a clear direction nor guidance from Dr. Rouse on where we are headed as an organization nor how to navigate the current political climate,” the letter asserts. The letter, sent last week, also argues that Rouse, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden White House, hasn’t given any guidance on how Brookings is handling federal freezes on grants.

— It requests that the board send out an independent anonymous survey to ask Brookings staffers to assess Rouse’s performance and a town hall meeting with co-chairs of the board for employees to express their concerns.

— It also says that there’s been a brain drain of employees from the think tank last year and alleges that 25 percent of Brookings’ full-time employees have left the think tank since Rouse started.

— The letter goes on to say that Brookings scholars and researchers have been told to avoid topics like DEI that are being criticized by the Trump administration and that the message was “perceived as a form of censorship and a violation of scholar independence.”  

— The letter, which is signed by “The Brookings community,” also says that there has been no search for a replacement for its chief development officer and that Rouse has relied on a consulting firm to handle fundraising instead. A recent internal presentation about fundraising shows that Brookings only “partially met” a $2 million annual fundraising goal for the “President’s Special Initiative Funds.”

— Brookings is also considering moving itself from a 501(c)(3) to a 501(h), which would allow the think tank to do lobbying to have more impact, according to internal slides of a recent executive leadership meeting. But an employee of Brookings said the potential move is making some scholars nervous because it could weaken the nonpartisan nature of Brookings.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about the discontent at Brookings.

Think Tank Document Prepared for Kremlin Demands Hardball for Ukraine Negotiatoins

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Russia should work to weaken the U.S. negotiating position on Ukraine by stoking tensions between the Trump administration and other countries while pushing ahead with Moscow’s efforts to dismantle the Ukrainian state, according to a document prepared for the Kremlin.

The document, written in February by an influential Moscow-based think tank close to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), lays out Russia’s maximalist demands for any end to the conflict in Ukraine. It dismisses President Donald Trump’s preliminary plans for a peace deal within 100 days as “impossible to realize” and says that “a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis cannot happen before 2026.”

The document also rejects any plan to dispatch peacekeepers to Ukraine, as some in Europe have proposed, and insists on recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over the Ukrainian territories it has seized. It also calls for a further carve-up through the creation of a buffer zone in Ukraine’s northeast on the border with Russian regions such as Bryansk and Belgorod, as well as a demilitarized zone in southern Ukraine near Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. The latter would affect the Odessa region.

The document, which was obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, highlights the challenges still facing Trump in reaching any agreement with Russia for a peace deal, now that Kyiv has endorsed Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, appearing to bridge a divide between the two countries.

 

The think tank was not named by the newspaper, but it says the think tank works closely with the FSB's Fifth Service, the division that oversees operations in Ukraine.

Think Tank Quickies (#510)

• President Biden delivers major speech at Brookings, his last think tank speech as president.
• National security officials in Biden Administration trying to land coveted senior fellow posts at think tanks.
  
• Brooke Rollins, co-founder of think tank AFPI, confirmed as Trump's Agriculture Secretary.
• Think tank funders are also part of the 150-member Rockbridge Network, a secretary group of MAGA donors.
• Fred Smith, founder and longtime president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), passed away.
• American Sunlight Project: "A think tank that researches disinformation and advocates for policies that promote democracy."
• Heritage lobbying arm alum Michael Needham, who currently holds a top post at the conservative policy groups American Compass and American 2100, will be counselor to the State Department.
  
• Heritage Foundation's Robert Greenway is on the landing team for the CIA.
• The Heritage Foundation is going to spend $1 million on a campaign to pressure Republican senators into backing Pete Hegseth for SecDef.
  
• China chides CSIS' Cuba report.
  

Federal Funding Freeze Hits Think Tanks Hard

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

The Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, has received notification from the State Department formally terminating grants for several China-focused projects, including research on how Beijing tries to use international institutions to advance its interests, and a program to train Latin American journalists on how to monitor Chinese influence operations in that region.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, said the U.S. funding halt has prompted it to stop work on China-related research and data projects—worth about $1.2 million—that focused on cybersecurity and technology issues. The think tank’s China work has often been cited by members of the U.S. Congress.

To help finance its work, ASPI is planning to charge access fees for some of its more popular research, particularly on China-related projects that require significant resources to produce and maintain, Cave said. “In an ideal world, we want it to be free-for-all public good, but in this situation, we don’t have much of a choice.”

U.S. government grants have accounted for roughly 10% to 12% of ASPI’s funding and financed roughly 70% of its China research since 2019, which included studies on Chinese disinformation and data-harvesting operations, according to the institute. In its latest annual report, ASPI said it received nearly 3 million Australian dollars—about $1.9 million at current rates—in U.S. State Department grants during the 2022-2023 financial year, which supported work on issues including disinformation and protection against intellectual property theft.

 

A number of think tanks have lost funding or are likely to lose significant sources of funding due to cuts from the Trump Administration.

Think Tank Quickies (#509)

• Project 2025 leader back in the fold.
• Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), the GOP think tank stocked with former staffers and allies of Trump, had steep drop in revenue in 2023.
  
• Trump gives speech at AFPI gala.
• In recent days, Trump has tapped nearly a half-dozen Project 2025 authors and contributors for roles in his administration. 
• Pam Bondi, who Trump picked for his Attorney General, was chairwoman of AFPI.
  
• The Hudson Institute announced that Palantir CTO and EVP Shyam Sankar will join its board of trustees. 
• The prospect of a new foreign policy has attracted some relatively newer think tanks to Mar-a-Lago.
• Counselor to the Ukrainian Embassy Kateryna Smagliy and senior adviser to the German Marshall Fund Heather Conley traveled to Kentucky to make the case for Ukraine aid.  Ukrainian officials have traveled to Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, and Iowa as part of a tour of the American heartland organized by GMF.
  
• Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) launches new tech and innovation institute.
• Ember: "A global energy think think tank and go-to organization for open-source data about the clean-energy transition."
  

Neera Tanden Returing to Helm Think Tank CAP

Here is more from the New York Times:

Neera Tanden, a longtime fixture of Democratic politics in Washington, is taking back her old post leading the party’s top think tank, where she served as one of President Trump’s most energetic and vocal antagonists during his first term.

The group, the Center for American Progress, announced on Thursday that Ms. Tanden would return as its chief executive. Since its founding more than two decades ago, the center, which is based in Washington, has served as a locus of Democratic opposition whenever Republicans have held the White House.

She is returning to C.A.P. alongside its founder, John Podesta, who was Mr. Biden’s global representative on climate. Mr. Podesta was recently named chairman of the group’s board. Patrick Gaspard, who has been serving as the organization’s president, will shift to a senior adviser position.

C.A.P. is one of several liberal groups plagued by financial troubles in the early days of the Trump administration. This month, the center laid off 22 employees, a cut of about 8 percent of its staff. Ms. Tanden said she was confident that there would not be additional layoffs.

 

Democratic donors have said they would withhold funds from think tanks until the groups generate a coherent strategy for the party. 

Some have suggested that CAP could build a "Project 2029," a Democratic version of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.

Chinese Companies Threatening Think Tankers Over Unflattering Research

An increasing number of Chinese businesses are threatening think tanks and universities with legal action in an attempt to stop damaging research.

Here is more from the New York Times:

Chinese companies have sued or sent threatening legal letters to researchers in the United States, Europe and Australia close to a dozen times in recent years in an attempt to quash negative information, with half of those coming in the past two years. The unusual tactic borrows from a playbook used by corporations and celebrities to discourage damaging news coverage in the media.

The budding legal tactic by Chinese firms could silence critics who shed light on problematic business practices inside one of the most powerful countries in the world, researchers warn. The legal action is having a chilling effect on their work, they say, and in many cases straining the finances of their organizations.

One of the first examples occurred in 2019 when Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, threatened to sue the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an Australian think tank. ASPI had released a report containing allegations that servers provided by Huawei to a coalition of African nations were sending data to Shanghai. 

Eric Sayers, who focuses on U.S.-Chinese technology policy at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, received a letter in September from lawyers demanding that he take down an opinion article he co-wrote about a Chinese drone company, Autel Robotics. The article, which was published by Defense News, a trade publication, said Chinese-made drones posed a national security risk because they could map American infrastructure.

In May, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University published a report by Anna Puglisi, a researcher who had recently departed. The report said the Chinese government was most likely involved in funding the growth of BGI, a Chinese biotechnology company.

In a June letter, BGI accused Ms. Puglisi of making defamatory claims and demanded that she retract the report.

 

For years, the Chinese government has used sanctions against Western think tanks and think tank experts.

Think Tank Quickies (#508)

• Tom Jones' Heritage Foundation-funded DHS Bureaucrat Watch List names 51 federal policy experts and high-ranking leaders to fire.
  
• Some 80% of Hill "experts" take money from arms makers, foreign interests. 
• CSIS analysts gamed out a "climate club."  The outcomes weren't great.
  
• With an "epic name," this conservative think tank (Economic Policy Innovation Center) sees opening.
• One person's think tank is another's propaganda organ.
• FT: "Inside the radical Trump-backing group behind Project 2025."
• Jeff Bezos's Amazon donates to Tony Blair's influential think tank.
• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCFA) changes name and mission.
• Telegram channel Rybar, a popular military blog tracking the war in Ukraine, has been defined as a think tank "defending the nation's information borders."
• Heritage is back. 
  

USIP on the Chopping Block with New Executive Order

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order (EO) that will significantly shrink the size and scope of the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

The EO calls for the "non-statutory components and functions of [USIP to] be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law," and calling for it to "reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law."

Within 14 days, the head of USIP must submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirming compliance with the order.

Established in 1984 by the US Congress (during the Reagan Administration), it has an annual budget of around $55 million and employs some 300 people. 

The secretaries of State and Defense and the president of the National Defense University (NDU) serve on USIP’s Board of Directors, with 12 distinguished Democratic and Republican leaders nominated by the US president and confirmed by the Senate.

The think tank, which has an established presence in 15+ countries, asked the federal government for around $55 million for FY2025.

Trying to cut USIP funding is nothing new.

Here is a 2024 Heritage Foundation piece entitled "The US Institute of Peace is Politicized and Unaccountable."

Much more coming soon...

Trump Wields Army of MAGA Think Tanks

Here is more from Politico:

President Donald Trump took office eight years ago as the ultimate outsider whose rhetoric often shocked Washington but was seldom taken seriously by the policy shops that have long helped administrations transform their agenda into action.

Now, he has an army of think tanks and other advocacy groups behind him, reverse-engineering even his off-the-cuff statements into white papers, training legions of his acolytes — and jockeying for influence.

There are now MAGA-specific think tanks, like the Center for Renewing America and the America First Policy Institute; MAGA recruiting and training organizations, like American Moment; and MAGA incubators, like the Conservative Partnership Institute, all aimed at not only bolstering the Trump cause but strategizing how to sustain it with just four years until his successor is named, according to interviews with more than a dozen Trump allies, former administration officials and other conservatives who work for think tanks or other outside groups, many of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly about dynamics between the organizations.

Democrats have long leaned on the Center for American Progress, the Urban Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, among other groups, for progressive brain power. For Republicans, that intellectual heft has for decades come from think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. But the massive political realignment Trump ushered in has knocked many of those onetime mainstays from their vaunted position, with the MAGA movement dismissing some of them as liberal.

 

Among other things, that article notes that the Center for Renewing America (CRA) is positioning itself to fill the void as a nimbler, more MAGA Heritage Foundation.

Think Tank Quickies (#507)

• Knives are out for AFPI's Brooke Rollins.  [New NYT article on AFPI: "The Group at the Center of Trump's Planning for a Second Term is One You Haven't Heard of."]
  
• Pinpoint Policy Institute: "An organization dedicated to promoting and defending the essential pillars of America's economic growth and prosperity."
• Former Project 2025 chief Paul Dans condemning what he sees as "violent rhetoric" from Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and calling on JD Vance to retract the foreword he wrote for Roberts's book.
  
• Think Tank American Compass charts path for China tariffs.
• Pakistani think tank, The Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), has hired Team Eagle Consulting, a US lobbying firm, for $1.5 million.
  
• Michael Pettis: The think tanker (American Compass) and former punk-music-club and record-label owner who has gotten the attention of the Trump and Biden camps.
• Fujitsu Future Studies Center (FFSC): "A think tank bolstering the formulation and execution of the Fujitsu Group's medium and long-term strategies."
• Grantham Institute: "A think tank at the London School of Economics."
• Since 2012, a company linked to the UAE government has paid Camstoll Group more than $75 million.  In its annual disclosures, the firm says it advises the UAE on issues of illicit financial activity and developing and implementing strategies to combat illicit financial activity.  Its most recent filing mentions that it has "conducted outreach to think tanks, business interests, and government officials."
  
• Flashback: The late Joseph Overton, of Overton Window fame, played a key role in growing the Mackinac Center.
  

Trump Fires Wilson Center Board Member

President Donald Trump just fired his own former top Iran envoy, Brian Hook, from the board of directors of the Wilson Center.

Members of the board are appointed to six-year terms by the US president.  The think tank, chartered by the US Congress, receives a significant amount of government funding.

Think Tank Quickies (#506)

• Trump's transition operation compiled lists of names of people deemed unworthy of serving in a 2nd Trump Administration, including conservatives linked to Project 2025.
  
• Conservative think tank targeting NASA employees' communications about Musk, Trump.
• Conservative war of words erupts over Project 2025, with Trump transition team vowing not to tap "radioactive" recruits.
• Porn industry targets Project 2025.
  
• Heritage Foundation's record requests rattle feds.
• Steve Yates is returning to Heritage Foundation after a stint at AFPI.
• Project 2025 director did not resign - he was fired. 
• Ngor Luong joined the State Department as the CSET Fellow to work on tech and China policy in the Office of the Chief Economist.
• Former Trump national security aides, including think tankers, endorse him.
• The Saratoga Foundation: "A new non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, dedicated to conducting research and analysis on conflict and instability in Eurasia."  Glen Howard, former president of The Jamestown Foundation, is the president and chairman.
  

New Report on Think Tank Funding in America

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has a new report on think tank funding in America.  Here is more from Politico:

Among other things, the paper says that the top 50 think tanks took in some $110 million over the past five years from foreign governments and related entities, including nearly $17 million from the United Arab Emirates, the largest single foreign donor. Leading Pentagon contractors, meanwhile, kicked in nearly $35 million over the same period.

The Atlantic Council and the Brookings Institution topped the list of foreign-government beneficiaries, taking in nearly $21 million and over $17 million, respectively. All in all, 54 different governments contributed to the industry, a list largely made up of pro-western democracies but also including fantastically wealthy authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Most disturbingly, the report makes clear that the numbers it cites may only be partial: Unlike traditional PACs or registered foreign agents, think tanks don’t have to disclose where their money comes from. Researching the study, co-authors Ben Freeman and Nick Cleveland-Stout told me, meant poring through the organizations’ annual reports in hopes that information would be voluntarily shared.

 

Along with the report, the Quincy Institute launched a publicly available repository of think tank funding, the Think Tank Funding Tracker. 

Ben Freeman spoke about the report on C-SPAN.

Here is a piece that Freeman and Cleveland-Stout wrote for The Hill.

Think Tank Quickies (#505)

• Trump-aligned think tank AFPI merges with Senate Working Group.
• CAP's answer to Project 2025.
  
• How Sue Mi Terry became the poster child for think tank corruption.
• Why Australia's think tanks are a growing source of covert power.
  
• House Democrats plan multimedia Project 2025 hearing.
  
• Former Project 2025 leader accuses Trump campaign advisers of malpractice.
• Project 2025, the 922-page playbook, become quite possibly the first think tank paper in American history to appear in TV spots during NFL games, naturally via a scathing negative ad.
• 100+ Republican national security figures, including think tankers, endorse Kamala Harris.
• Project 2025 mastermind allegedly told colleagues he killed a dog with a shovel.
• Walmart's think tank: Heartland Forward.
  

Drama at Brookings to Pave Way for Biden Role?

Here is more from Politico:

Board members of the Brookings Institution recently received an anonymous email titled “Brookings Leadership Concerns” that called for a “no confidence” vote on Brookings president Cecilia Rouse, according to an email sent by the board chairs and obtained by Daniel.

— It also noted that a petition asking for the same action had been posted on Change.org but was quickly taken down. “As of now there have been no news reports, or anything public as far as we can determine,” Brookings co-chairs Glenn Hutchins and Suzanne Nora Johnson wrote in the email, noting they were “monitoring the situation closely” and would discuss the matter at their next board meeting. Sadly, PI has been unable to obtain the initial email detailing the concerns about Rouse, but one board member said she was “not the warmest and cuddliest person in the world so I’m sure she has rubbed some people the wrong way.”

— The head of fundraising, Tamara O’Neil, also quietly left the think tank over the summer. O’Neil had worked as a VP and chief development officer at Brookings for a little over two years before departing in late July, according to her LinkedIn profile; a departure memo from Rouse obtained by PI said that O’Neil and Brookings had “parted ways,” thanking her for her service. She is now founder and CEO of fundraising firm Capital Catalyst Solutions.

— A former Brookings employee who had worked with O’Neil said that she had told them that she wasn’t happy at the organization in the months before she left and that her relationship with Rouse was not strong. The person also said that people who worked for O’Neil had complained about the strength of her management style to colleagues throughout most of her tenure “and got particularly bad this year.”

 

This week, President Biden gave a major speech at Brookings, likely his last think tank speech as US president.  Even if Dr. Rouse is eventually axed from Brookings, it is highly unlikely Biden would become its new president.

Additional reporting from Politico on Dec. 19 notes that Rouse was accused, among other things, of foisting a return-to-office policy on employees without proper consultations and being dismissive toward colleagues.

In October 2024, Brookings announced that it would require most employees to work from the office at least three days a week beginning in March 2025.  To help support her decision, Rouse noted that employees at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) are already expected to go to the office five days a week.

Woman Who Frequented US Think Tanks Arrested for Ties to Russian Intelligence

Here is more from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

A Russian national, Nomma Zarubina, has been arrested on possible charges of providing false information to U.S. law enforcement and maintaining connections with Russian intelligence services, linking her to another suspected spy who fled the United States while being pursued by authorities.

According to FBI allegations presented in a New York Southern District Court hearing in late November, Zarubina was recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2020 and operated under the codename "Alyssa."

She allegedly worked to build a network of contacts among journalists and experts while carrying out tasks for an FSB officer from her native city of Tomsk in Siberia.

 

Zarubina visited many US think tanks, and she was an "International Fellow" at the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy (AILA) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the fall of 2022.

People pay to join this 5-day program, with the current tuition at $5,000.

Since 2003, CSIS has had more than 400 AILA International Fellows from 62 countries.

One person on X said that the story of Zarubina is "straight out of Showtime's Homeland Season 7 when the Russians planted a female FSB agent inside an NGO who seduces the President's chief of staff and recruits a former FBI agent in an active measures plot to weaken and remove the American President."

Think Tank Quickies (#504)

• Russian hackers targeted former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at Brookings.
• Hidden camera video shows Project 2025 co-author discussing his secret work preparing for a second Trump term.
• Russia adds over 30 British think tank experts to its sanctions list.
• Hottest meeting for a lobbyist in DC: With think tank AFPI.
• The fake spy (Gaurav Srivastava) who dazzled DC and duped the Atlantic Council.
• Right-wing operatives from Washington, including the Heritage Foundation, are sharing pointers with German conservatives in Berlin.
  
• Conservative think tanks' embrace of Hungary's Viktor Orban.
• JD Vance championed 2017 report from the Heritage Foundation that proposed a sweeping conservative agenda to restrict sexual and reproductive freedoms and remake American families.
• NYT: Heritage spreads "deceptive" videos about non-citizen voters.
• Think tanks in China are the mainstay of "neican."  From 2018 to 2020, think tanks in China nearly tripled in number, from 507 to 1,413.  By the end of 2023 there were only 1,096.
  

Georgian Government Raids Homes of Atlantic Council Experts

Here is more from The Hill:

Georgian government officials raided the homes of local staff of an American think tank who work on tracking Russian disinformation, raising alarm among pro-democracy activists, civil society groups and some U.S. officials ahead of Georgia’s Oct. 26 parliamentary elections. 

Investigators targeted local staff in Tbilisi of the Atlantic Council, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., that is known for promoting democratic values and institutions, particularly in Eastern Europe.

The investigations unit of Georgia’s Finance Ministry searched the homes of Sopo Gelava and Eto Buziashvili, both staff members with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab, known also as DFRLab. The two have authored reports on how Russia is carrying out overt and covert influence operations to sway the upcoming elections in favor of the ruling Georgian Dream party. 

 

Here is a statement from the Atlantic Council.

Think Tank Quickies (#503)

• More than 200 people appear on JD Vance's Venmo "friends" list.  Among them is Amalia Halikias, government relations director at the Heritage Foundation, as well as people affiliated with other conservative think tanks like the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  Another one is Gladden Pappin, president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. 
• The Chinese Embassy in Washington has a team of 20 policy staffers responsible for election analysis, interacting with experts, think tanks, and journalists.
  
• Can a conservative think tank help save the Great Salt Lake?
• Bill Gates-led think tank (Breakthrough Energy) urges DOE revamp to boost clean tech.
• Role of think tanks in powering policy.
• The Peter G. Peterson asked 7 think tanks (AAF, AEI, BPC, CAP, EPI, PPI, and Manhattan Institute) to submit detailed plans for putting US debt back on a sustainable trajectory.
• Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and the founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), died.
• Heritage Foundation is pushing the next US president to go all-in on deterring China in the Pacific.
• Some of JD Vance's strongest relationships in DC are with conservative think tanks and organizations influential on the so-called New Right, like the populist think tank American Compass and its chief economist Oren Cass; the nonprofit public service group American Moment; and the Heritage Foundation.
• What the government and think tanks are planning and why.
  

Top Think Tank Economsit in China Vanishes After Private WeChat Comments

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

A prominent economist at one of China’s top think tanks was placed under investigation, detained and removed from his posts after he allegedly criticized leader Xi Jinping’s management of the world’s second-largest economy in a private chat group, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation of Zhu Hengpeng, who for the past decade was deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, comes as the Communist Party ramps up efforts to suppress negative commentary about China’s economic health.

It couldn’t be determined which alleged offenses were the focus of the investigation. Zhu has since been removed from his positions at the CASS Institute of Economics, where he was also deputy party secretary. Also, his name has disappeared from the online list of personnel at a think tank affiliated with Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University.

CASS, a ministerial-level think tank directly subordinate to the State Council, as China’s cabinet is known, advises the party and government leadership on policymaking.

 

CASS, established in 1977, is made up of 31 research institutes and 45 research centers, along with 4,200+ staff members.

Atlantic Council Receives Blowback Over Musk-Meloni Event

Here is more from Politico:

Internal discontent is brewing at the Atlantic Council over the Washington think tank's decision to honor Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at an upcoming gala in New York and invite controversial tech mogul Elon Musk to introduce her.

The Atlantic Council will give Meloni its Global Citizen Award on Sept. 22 at a gala on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in recognition of "her groundbreaking role as Italy's first female prime minister, her strong support of the European Union and the transatlantic alliance, and her 2024 chairmanship of the Group of Seven."

Meloni's inclusion was grounds alone for some staffers at the prominent Washington policy shop to grouse, owing to her past coziness with Russia and her political party's anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.  But former and current Atlantic Council staffers...[said] anger reached a boiling point when the think tank announced that at Meloni's request, she would be introduced by Musk.

 

Atlantic Council, like many Washington think tanks over the years, has seen its reputation take a hit over various foreign funding and disclosure issues.

Think Tank Quickies (#502)

• Heritage Foundation suggests Biden may try to hold the White House "by force" if he loses the November election; says "zero percent chance of free and fair election."
• Heritage Foundation hosts "Policy Fest" at Republican National Convention.
  
• Defense Priorities: "A restraint-oriented think tank."
• The pro-Israel activist waging legal war against Washington think tanks. 
• Ziklag has donated $600,000 to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which in turn funds Cleta Mitchell's election integrity work.
• Former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos launches think tank ahead of mayoral bid.
• Much of the effort to turn out for the January 6th protest took place at the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI).
• A New Yorker piece entitled "Inside the Trump Plan for 2025," with lots of discussion about think tanks.
• How think tanks drive polarization and policy.
  
• The think tank shaping Britain's new government.
  

Think Tank Chief to be Extradicted on China Agent Charges

Here is more from Reuters:

The leader of a U.S. think tank who was indicted last year on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of China has been arrested and will be extradited in the coming weeks or months, prosecutors said on Monday.

In July 2023, federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Gal Luft of paying a former high-ranking U.S. government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, as well as seeking to broker the sale of weapons and Iranian oil.

Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was arrested in Cyprus last February but fled while released on bail, prosecutors said in a court filing. He has since been re-arrested, prosecutors said, without specifying when or where.

Luft, the co-director of the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, said in posts on X last year that he had never been an arms dealer and that the charges were "politically motivated."

The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security describes itself as a think tank focused on energy, security and economic trends. The group last year said it was convinced of Luft's innocence.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about Gal Luft.

Crypto Think Tank Chief Charged With Breaking Campaign Finance Rules

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged crypto lobbyist Michelle Bond with conspiring with her romantic partner, former FTX executive Ryan Salame, to illegally fund her failed 2022 congressional bid.

Bond, a lawyer who previously worked as an executive at a digital-assets trade group, faces four campaign-finance offenses, including conspiring to cause unlawful political contributions.  

Bond, 45 years old, now runs a crypto think tank called Digital Future. At the time she entered the congressional primary, she was serving as chief executive of the Association for Digital Asset Markets, a trade group for the digital-assets space. 

 

Digital Future describes itself as "a public policy and advocacy think tank dedicated to promoting the development of the next generation of the financial services industry."

FBI Raids Home of Former Think Tank Chief

Here is more:

Agents of the FBI have raided and searched the Virginia home of Dmitri Simes, a prominent political commentator and author who hosts a current-affairs program on Russia’s state-run Channel One television, the newspaper Rappahannock News reported on August 16.

The FBI told the paper the search began on August 13 but declined to comment further, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported.

Simes told the paper he is currently out of the country, but was "puzzled and concerned" by the FBI's action. He told the Russian state news agency TASS on August 16 that the reports that FBI agents were at his home were true, although he had not been officially notified.

Simes was born in Moscow in 1947 and emigrated to the United States in 1973. He served as an informal adviser to former U.S. President Richard Nixon and regularly traveled with Nixon to Russia and other former Soviet countries.

In 1994, Nixon named him to head the Center for the National Interest, which at the time was called the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom. Simes retired from the position in 2022.

Simes also advised the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump and arranged an important 2016 foreign-policy speech in which Trump outlined a vision for greater cooperation with Russia.

 

Earlier this month, the FBI raided the home of Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector and convicted sex predator who has collaborated with isolationist organizations such as the Ron Paul Institute and the Quincy Institute.

Think Tank Quickies (#501)

• Trump 2024 vs. Project 2025, via NY Mag.
• Heritage Foundation signs on as RNC convention sponsor.
  
• 4 think tanks influencing Trump's energy agenda (Heritage Foundation, CEI, IER, and TPPF). 
• Heritage Foundation recommends punishing China for Covid.
  
• New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI): "A think tank dedicated to the study of complex systems."
• Flashback: Inside a Trump-era purge of military scientists at a legendary think tank.
• Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said that the rising right wing is "in the process of the second American Resolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."
• Mark Meadows' Conservative Partnership Institute was accused of improperly paying his legal bills.
• Boutique investment bank Centerview recently hired Richard Haass, former head of CFR, as a senior counselor. 
• The US Air Force recently asked the RAND Corporation to assess whether AI tools could provide options to a "space warfighter" dealing with an incoming threat to a satellite.