Heritage Foundation President & EVP Stepping Down

Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James along with the conservative think tank's EVP Kim Holmes announced their resignation on March 22.

A press release says that James will be staying on a president for up to six months until a replacement is found, after which she will become a Heritage distinguished visiting fellow.  She will also remain on the think tanks' board of trustees.

Here is the reason James said they were stepping down:

“When we came on board as the executive leadership team three years ago, we set several goals and told Heritage’s board of trustees that we would serve for three to five years to see them through,” said James. “We accomplished everything we set out to do. Now it’s time to let someone else take the reins.”

Mrs. James became president of Heritage on Jan. 1, 2018 and has been a trustee of Heritage's board since 2005.  Holmes, whose resignation is effective April 16, joined Heritage in 1985, left for a stint in the George W. Bush White House, and later returned to Heritage.

Here is what Reuters added:

James took the helm of the think tank after former President Jim DeMint was fired in 2018 after the organization’s leadership determined he had veered too far from its conservative principals and too close to then-President Donald Trump’s White House.

The foundation shapes policy in Republican administrations and congressional districts, and many members of the Trump White House were affiliates.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, former Vice President Mike Pence and Department of Homeland Security officials Chad Wolf, Ken Cuccinelli and Mark Morgan joined the think tank as visiting fellows.

In a March opinion article for the foundation, Pence warned of “significant voting irregularities” in the 2020 election, despite dozens of lawsuits alleging these irregularities being tossed by judges nationwide for lack of proof.

 

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board praised Mrs. James and took a swipe at former Heritage president Jim DeMint, who it said "downplayed ideas in favor of transforming Heritage into a political action committee."

Here is a Real Clear Politics piece which mentions some possible replacements for James, and here is a piece from former Heritage lawyer Andrew Kloster with lots of juicy gossip.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece from 2017 about reaction to to the announcement that Kay Coles James would become president of Heritage.

James will be one of a number of think tank leaders resigning this year at major US think tanks.

Heritage Foundation, founded in 1973, calls itself the US's most broadly supported think tank, with more than 500,000 members.

Think Tank Quickies (#404)

• Expert directory: 600 female voices on Greater China. 
• Think tankers abound on American Leadership Initiative board.
• Colin Kahl, Biden's nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and a former Senior Fellow at CNAS and CFR, comes under fire from Republicans over past tweets.
  
• Aggregator of EU think tank reports.
• More than one-third of US nonprofits are in jeopardy of closing within two years because of the financial harm inflicted by the pandemic, says Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.
• Tokyo is planning to establish a new think tank to apply commercial technologies, such as quantum technology and AI, to the national security field in FY 2021.
• Think tanks in politically embedded knowledge regimes: does the "revolving door" matter in China?
• US Mission in Nepal soliciting proposals for grants or cooperative agreements from think tanks.
• Nate Schenkkan of Freedom House: "The problem with website metrics for think tanks is at least half of the clicks are the report authors looking it up to email to someone."
  
• Robert Blackwill, a former national security aide to George W. Bush, co-authored a new paper for CFR, "The United States, China and Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War."
  

Heritage Foundation Mocked for Defending British Monarchy

 Here is more from Newsweek:

One of the U.S.'s most powerful conservative think tanks is being mocked for its plans to host a March 25 event that defends the British monarchy and blasts the "radical left" for undermining American democracy.

Confused critics and left-leaning Americans are questioning the underlying "conservative" principles of the Heritage Foundation after the powerful nonprofit announced it's hosting an event entitled "The Crown Under Fire: Why the Left's Campaign to Cancel the Monarchy and Undermine a Cornerstone of Western Democracy Will Fail." Political pundits noted on Saturday that opposition to the British monarchy is "about as foundationally American as you can get," but a recent interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry by Oprah Winfrey revealed an unabashedly pro-monarchy embrace of the Crown by many of today's U.S. conservatives.

 

Heritage's event will take place on March 25 and is being hosted by James Jay Carafano, Vice President of the think tank's Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute.  It will be moderated by Dr. Joseph Loconte, Director of the think tank's Simon Center for American Studies.

The panelists include: Rt Hon Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, former leader of the UK Conservative Party and Founding Chairman of The Centre for Social Justice; Camilla Tominey, Associate Editor of the London Daily Telegraph and Royal Expert and Commentator; Tim Montgomerie, Political Commentator and Founder of ConservativeHome; and Dr. Nile Gardiner, Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom and Bernard and Barbara Lomas fellow.

In related news, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will be hosting an event with the Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP, UK's Secretary of State for Defense.

Congress Pushing for More Transparency on Foreign Funding of US Think Tanks

As foreign governments continue to flood US think tanks with money, some in the US Congress are demanding more transparency to shine a light on the influence that these entities have over policy shops.

Here is more from National Review:

A group of House Republicans [is introducing a] bill that subjects think tanks and research institutions to stricter disclosure requirements. If their proposal, set to be announced by Representative Lance Gooden and the Republican Study Committee — which initially called for these reforms in June — becomes law, it stands a chance at complicating...foreign-influence operations.

The Gooden bill will require think tanks to report any donations from foreign governments and political parties that exceed $50,000 annually, though its introduction reflects a growing concern on Capitol Hill about the CCP’s foreign-influence campaigns in particular.

The Gooden bill, in addition to making those disclosures mandatory above $50,000, requires that the Treasury Department create a publicly accessible database displaying the relevant think tanks’ ties to foreign governments.

 

Here is a press release about the bill from Lance Gooden (R-TX), and here is the text of the bill, which was introduced along with Jim Banks (R-IN) and Joe Wilson (R-SC).

Ben Freeman, Director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative (FITI), said the language in the bill is "precisely what was recommended in its report entitled "Foreign Funding of Think Tanks in America."

Think Tank Watch should note that most major US think tanks already disclose their donors, including foreign governments.  However, some that do disclose will often release only a partial list of major donors above a certain monetary threshold, obfuscate certain donors as "anonymous," or even purposely leave certain donors off the list.

And as with anything that becomes law, there would be numerous loopholes.  For example, many think tankers often work at or run their own for-profit consultancies where money from foreign governments and other entities can be funneled to, thus avoiding any disclosure requirements.

Update: Here is a piece by Quincy Institute Senior Advisor Eli Clifton about the newly introduced bill.

Koch Funding is Reshaping Washington's Think Tank Scene

While US government funding and foreign government funding of US think tanks continues to play an increasing role in think tank funding, corporate-tied funding is as influential as ever.  And there are few bigger names in think tank funding than Koch.

The recent kerfuffle at Atlantic Council exposed huge problems in the think tank world, highlighting how scholars are often beholden to their donors and will stop at nothing to defend their turf - even if it means axing their fellow think tank colleagues to keep that money flowing.

Here is more from The Washington Free Beacon about the influence of Koch money:

The controversial view that caused last week's kerfuffle—that the United States should look the other way on the human rights violations of its adversaries—is espoused by the scholars who sit atop virtually every Koch-funded program, the result of an aggressive and explicit push to undermine what remains of the country's foreign policy consensus and replace it with a different one. 

Over the past several years, Charles Koch Institute vice president William Ruger, President Donald Trump's failed nominee to be ambassador to Afghanistan, has approached virtually every major think tank in the city offering to fund proponents of "restraint," according to a dozen think-tank sources familiar with the situation.

Organizations from the Atlantic Council to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Crisis Group, the Center for the National Interest, and the Eurasia Group Foundation have taken Ruger and the Charles Koch Institute up on the offer. The list goes on: the Cato Institute, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and, as of last year, even the government-funded RAND Corporation.

 

While working for the Charles Koch Institute, Mr. Ruger is also a Research Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Cato Institute.  Charles Koch, the founder and primary financier of the Charles Koch Institute, is Chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held American companies.

The article notes that a handful of DC think tanks, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), have turned down the Koch money, "pointing privately to the Kochs' insistence on approving the scholars who would be hired with the funds."  However, CSIS spokesman Andrew Schwartz admitted that the think tank has "on occasion performed some small project work" that has been funded by Koch. 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about how Koch money helped fund the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Here is a Politico piece entitled "Koch Showers Millions on Think Tanks to Push a Restrained Foreign Policy."

Is This Little Magazine More Influential Than Any Think Tank?

There is a little magazine that is arguably more influential than any publication that any think tank in the United States produces.  Here is more from the New York Times:

It has only 500 subscribers. And yet Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, a 15-year-old quarterly run by a three-person staff out of a small office blocks from the White House, may be one of the most influential publications of the post-Trump era.

Six of President Biden’s 25 Cabinet-level officials and appointees, including the secretary of state and the chief of staff, as well as many other high-level administration members, have published essays in its pages, floating theories that may now be translated into policy.

Democracy’s print edition has no photos or illustrations, and its website is bare-bones. It has no podcast, and the titles of its articles — “Meritocracy and Its Discontents”; “How to End Wage Stagnation”; “Defend Multilateralism: It’s What People Want” — are not exactly the stuff of clickbait.

It is also not one of those publications with a big social presence, hosting public policy discussions at the Hyatt rather than cocktail parties for the Georgetown set.

 

The article notes that Anne-Marie Slaughter, the chief executive of the think tank New America, is a member of Democracy's editorial advisory committee.

Will States Start Forcing Think Tanks to Disclose Foreign Funding?

Here is more about what is going on in Florida: 

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said China’s theft of intellectual property is among the nation’s most pervasive threats as he outlined proposed legislation Monday to limit its influence in Florida.

The proposal would require universities to report any gifts of $50,000 from a foreign source and more thoroughly screen foreign applicants for research positions. Research institutes would have to report all work-related travel to foreign counties.

It would also require any company that wants to do business with the state or apply for grants to disclose financial ties worth more than $50,000 with China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria or Venezuela.

 

According to a press release, the requirements would impact "every higher education institution, including their DSO's and foundations," meaning that some university-affiliated think tanks could be impacted if the legislation in ultimately enacted.

Think Tank Quickies (#403)

• Wilson Center announces a new Brazil-U.S. Dialogue on Sustainability and Climate Change in partnership with the Concertação Pela Amazônia.
• Rep. Jamie Raskin's (D-MD) father, Marcus Raskin, co-founded the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). 
• Foreign policy think tank (Estonian Council on Foreign Relations) created by Estonian ex-ministers and former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
  
• BPC launches new task force aimed at modernizing infrastructure.
  
• Congressional testimonies of think tank economists by affiliation. 
• Dr. James McGann's new book: The Future of Think Tanks and Policy Advice Around the World. 
• FITI currently researching South Korea, Taiwan, and Saudi lobbies.
• Pic: When the think tank event runs out of sandwiches.
• Is there a single think tank in Brussels that does not get money from Google or Facebook or Amazon or Apple or Microsoft?
  
• "I really hope for an 'Emily in DC' episode where someone at a think tank Q&A stands up and says 'I have more of a comment than a question' and then the entire episode is just a 30-minute comment."
  

Think Tank Disagrees With Itself. Chaos Ensues.

Debates happen all the time at think tanks as scholars debate other scholars both within their own think tank and outside the think tank.

But what happened this week at the Atlantic Council went beyond the norms of think tank debate and spilled out into the open, highlighting simmering tensions within the highly-regarded think tank.

The tensions came to a boiling point after Emma Ashford and Mathew Burrows published a piece entitled "Reality Check #4: Focus on interests, not on human rights with Russia," in which they argue that the Biden Administration should focus on more important issues in the US-Russia relationship rather than human rights-related sanctions.

Of course, that is a no-no for most within in the NATO-friendly think thank, whose scholars almost unanimously take a very aggressive stance toward Russia and favor a pile-on of more sanctions.  Plus, the think tank gets major funding from a number of foreign governments that have imposed and are continuing to impose more sanctions on Russia.

As a response to Dr. Ashford and Dr. Burrows, 22 Atlantic Council scholars penned a piece, published on the think tank's website, saying that that the article is "premised on a false assumption that human rights and national interests are wholly separate and the US policy toward Russia was and remains driven by human rights concerns principally."

The 22 scholars added that they "disagree" with the article's "arguments and values" and "disassociate" themselves from the report.

It was a breathtaking move of dissent that is rarely seen in the think tank world.

New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter called the situation "really odd."  She added: "Think tanks typically differentiate [between] an 'institutional view,' which most of us rarely take, and views of individual experts/programs. Healthy disagreement is normal, but it should manifest in public debate or some internal process, not public disassociation."

Dr. Douglas Ollivant, a Senior Fellow at New America, said he can't recall anything like this happening before at a think tank.

Mr. Daniel Larison, who writes a Substack newsletter, called the incident bizarre.  "Atlantic Council published a sensible report on Russia calling for fewer sanctions and focusing on areas where the US and Russia can cooperate.  Then almost two dozen people at AC denounce one of their own publications.  Bizarre." 

Mr. Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital and head of the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign, said "if they didn't have American names I would swear they are Russian," referring to Ashford and Burrows.

Mr. Abe Silberstein says that he sympathizes with the views of the letter signers, but "that isn't how you conduct a professional policy debate."  He added: "It should go without saying that if your byline is not [on] an article or paper, then you are not responsible for it (hence no need to disassociate)."

Ms. Loren DeJonge Schulman, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), said that "fostering intellectual diversity does not mean people get to engage in unsound attacks on one another with the institutions resources."

Dr. Daniel Drezner has a new piece on three ways of looking at the incident.  In it, he notes that some of the 22 signatories of the letter sounded like high school mean girls."

In a move to mitigate the turmoil, Atlantic Council EVP Damon Wilson suggested it is completely normal and healthy.  "Atlantic Council is a place where debate over the most critical foreign policy issues is welcomed and encouraged," adding that the think tank's management does not review the 1,000+ papers it publishes annually for content.

Wilson noted that the think tank will host a Russia-related event soon so that competing arguments within the think tank can be heard out in the open.

Update: Politico has published a new piece on the Atlantic Council kerfuffle.  Here are some excerpts:

One person who signed the statement told POLITICO that they worried the article was, or might be viewed as, a shoddy work product influenced by a $4.5 million donation over five years to the Atlantic Council from Charles Koch, who advocates for less American intervention abroad.

After Koch gave that money to the Atlantic Council, the money was used to set up the New American Engagement Initiative, which aims to study new ways to address foreign policy issues. Ashford, who was at the Koch-funded libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, started at the Atlantic Council on the NAEI in September and was joined by Chris Preble, another prominent former Cato foreign policy scholar who had started at the think tank a few months before.

It goes on to note that most of the people who signed the statement are affiliated with the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, which has traditionally taken the lead on articles and reports about Russia.  

John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan and one of the signatories of the letter, is director of the Eurasia Center.

Besides Ashford and Burrows, those within the NAEI program include: Erica Borghard, Evan Cooper, Aude Darnal, and Chris Preble.

Nonresident Senior Fellow Dylan Myles-Primakoff has penned a piece (also on the Atlantic Council website) attempting to refute the arguments made by Ashford and Burrows.

It appears that the issue of funding has played the largest role in this fiasco, with the Koch-funded people on one side and the EU government-funded people on the other.  Sadly, the merits of the debate are tainted by that fact.

What it had led to, at least for the time being, is essentially two separate think tanks within the Atlantic Council that are catering to their respective donors while simultaneously weakening the institution as a whole. 

Head of Think Tank WRI to Lead Bezos' $10 Billion Earth Fund

 Here is more from CNBC:

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Tuesday named the head of a top environmental think tank as the CEO of his $10 billion Earth Fund.

In an Instagram post, Bezos said Andrew Steer, who currently serves as President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, an environmental non-profit, has agreed to lead the Earth Fund.

The Earth Fund, launched last February, is designed to combat the effects of climate change by issuing grants to scientists, activists and other organizations in their efforts to “preserve and protect the natural world.” Last November, Bezos announced the first recipients of the Earth Fund, with groups receiving $791 million worth of grants. Among the recipients were the Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, the World Wildlife Fund and the World Resources Institute.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about how the World Resources Institute (WRI) received $100 million from Jeff Bezos.

With Andrew Steer stepping down from his current post, WRI will become the latest think tank to lose its leader this year.  And rumors abound that there could be even more think tank leadership changes later in the year.

White House Says Think Tanks Compromised in Latest Microsoft Hack

Foreign entities continue to hack into think tanks at a relentless pace, and the White House is now monitoring the issue.  Here is more from Reuters:

The White House is closely tracking an emergency patch Microsoft Corp has released, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, after an unknown hacking group recently broke into organizations using a flaw in the company’s mail server software.

“We are closely tracking Microsoft’s emergency patch for previously unknown vulnerabilities in Exchange Server software and reports of potential compromises of U.S. think tanks and defense industrial base entities,” Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, said on Twitter.

Microsoft’s near-ubiquitous suite of products has been under scrutiny since the hack of SolarWinds Corp, a Texas-based software firm that served as a springboard for several intrusions across government and the private sector.

 

Here is a recent Think Tank Watch piece on how a suspected Russian hacking spree included a US-based think tank.

Think Tank Quickies (#402)

• CFR president: Taiwan is becoming the most dangerous flash point in the world. 
• Atlantic Council deconstructs the storming of the US Capitol.
  
• RAND Corp. doles out insights on sleep.
• To think tanks who are transcribing webinars: thank you from the bottom of my heart. 
• Neera Tanden has highest Glassdoor approval rating of any think tank chief?
• Six experts from the Hoover Institution are partnering with Innovate Alabama to help grow the state's economy. 
• Wilson Center Tech Lab alums visit water treatment facility to observe cybersecurity readiness.
  
• Carnegie Europe: Russia sees attempts to link climate change to global security as a threat to its own security and economic stability.
• AEI think tanker Scott Winship not happy with WaPo reporter.
  
• Pic: CFR's new face masks.
  

Trump's SefDef Joins McCain Institute as Distinguished Fellow

Dr. Mark Esper, former President Donald Trump's Defense Secretary, has joined the McCain Institute as a Distinguished Fellow, making him the latest high-level Trump official to enter think tank land.

The think tank, which is based in Washington, DC, notes that Esper will lead a bipartisan team to assess, discuss, and promote policy solutions to the challenges facing US national security decision-makers in Congress and the Executive Branch.

Donors to the McCain Institute include: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Carnegie Corporation, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Daimler, FedEx, Ford Foundation, GE Foundation, Open Society Foundations, MGM Resorts International, PetSmart, Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and Walmart.

Think Tank Watch has just updated its list of think tankers going into the Biden Administration and list of former Trump officials going into the think tank world.

NYT Columnist David Brooks Used Perch to Promote His Own Think Tank Project

 Here is more from BuzzFeed:

New York Times columnist David Brooks is drawing a second salary for his work on an Aspen Institute project funded by Facebook and other large donors — a fact he has not disclosed in his columns.

A Times spokesperson refused to tell BuzzFeed News whether the paper was aware Brooks was taking a salary for his work on Weave, a project he founded and leads for the Aspen Institute, a prominent think tank based in Washington, DC. The spokesperson also wouldn’t say if the Times knew that Weave took money from Facebook.

In Dec. 2018, Facebook earmarked a $250,000 gift to the Aspen Institute for the project. Three months later, Brooks introduced Times readers to his concept of “Weavers,” which he described as people who fight social isolation by “building community and weaving the social fabric” across the US.

Brooks began work on Weave in May 2018, according to the Aspen Institute. Its transparency report for that year shows Weave received just over $1.3 million from donors, including the Resnick Family Foundation, the Robert K. Steel Family Foundation, and James Schine Crown, an Aspen Institute trustee who sits on the boards of General Dynamics Corporation and JPMorgan Chase. Weave’s single largest donation, over $300,000, came from Miguel Bezos, the father of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and an Institute trustee.

 

Aspen Institute, founded in 1949, is headquartered in Washington, DC and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado and on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Update: David Brooks has resigned from the Aspen Institute after more evidence of conflicts emerged.

AFL-CIO Launches a Tech Think Tank

The influential labor union AFL-CIO has launched a new think tank called the Technology Institute.  Here is more from a press release:

Today, the AFL-CIO launched its Technology Institute, which will leverage the power of technology and innovation for the labor movement. Leading this cutting-edge initiative is Institute Director Amanda Ballantyne, who brings diverse experience in labor and economic justice work. As executive director of the Main Street Alliance, she grew a groundbreaking project into a powerful, national organization. Under Ballantyne’s leadership, the organization developed campaign strategies to engage small business owners in winning a variety of progressive reforms, including job-quality policies like earned sick time, minimum wage and family leave.

The Technology Institute will serve as the labor movement’s think tank, to help us solve issues created by technology in collective bargaining and in any place it arises.

 

While labor unions fund a number of think tanks, this is the first time ever that a union has created an in-house think tank in the United States.

Most Influential Think Tankers in the US

Washingtonian magazine has a new piece on who it thinks will be the 250 most influential people outside of government who will play the biggest roles in US federal policy debates over the next five years.  Think Tank Watch counts 38 think tankers, or roughly 15% of the list.  Of those 38, Brookings had the most people on the list, with 10.  Here are the think tankers:

Antitrust:

• Barry Lynn: Open Markets Institute, Executive Director

Banking & Finance:

• Aaron Klein: Brookings Institution, Senior Fellow

Business & Labor

• Jennifer Hillman: Council on Foreign Relations, Senior Fellow

Climate & Environment

• Paul Bledsoe: Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), Strategic Adviser

Economic Policy:

• Dean Baker: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Co-founder and Senior Economist
• Oren Cass: American Compass, Founder and Executive Director 
• Tyler Cowen: George Mason University's Mercatus Center, Director
• Steve Hanke: Cato Institute, Senior Fellow
• Adam Posen: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), President
• Heidi Shierholz: Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Senior Economist and Director of Policy
• David Wessel: Brookings, Senior Fellow

Education:

• Rick Hess: American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Resident Scholar

Foreign Affairs:

• Karen Donfried: German Marshall Fund (GMF), President
• Michelle Flournoy: Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Co-founder
• Bonnie Glaser: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Senior Adviser
• Trita Parsi: Quincy Institute, Co-founder and EVP
• Dennis Ross: Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), Counselor and Distinguished Fellow
• Kori Schake: AEI, Director, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies
• Christine Wormuth: RAND Corp., Senior Fellow
• Thomas Wright: Brookings, Senior Fellow

Good Government:

• Lee Drutman: New America, Senior Fellow
• Norm Eisen: Brookings, Senior Fellow
• Norman Ornstein: AEI, Emeritus Scholar

Healthcare:

• Stuart Butler: Brookings, Senior Fellow
• Michael Cannon: Cato Institute, Director of Health Policy Studies
• James Capretta: AEI, Resident Fellow
• Paul Ginsburg: Brookings, Chair of Health Policy Studies
• Scott Gottlieb: AEI, Resident Fellow
• G. William Hoagland: Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), SVP
• Genevieve Kenney: Urban Institute, VP of Health Policy
• Kavita Patel: Brookings, Nonresident Fellow

Immigration:

• Claudia Flores: Center for American Progress (CAP), Immigration Campaign Manager
• Tom Jawetz: CAP, VP of Immigration Policy

Legal Intelligentsia

• Benjamin Wittes: Brookings, Senior Fellow

National Security & Defense

• Fiona Hill: Brookings, Senior Fellow
• James Lewis: CSIS, SVP
• H.R. McMaster: Hoover Institution, Senior Fellow
• Michael O'Hanlon: Brookings, Senior Fellow

 

It should be noted that Time magazine has just issued its 2021 Time100 Next list of the 100 most influential people in the US, and not a single current think tanker made the list.  Jake Sullivan, who was a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is on the list, but he is currently the White House National Security Advisor.

Think Tank Quickies (#401)

• CNAS CEO promotes T-12 to fend off China while Chinese think tank circulates new paper on possible US-China cybersecurity agenda.
  
• Weapons biz bankrolls experts (including think tankers) pushing to extend Afghan War.
• Jessica Matthews, former president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes that "a return to the pre-Trump status quo isn't possible."
• The Cato Institute has a brand new design; ice cream giants Ben & Jerry do a Cato podcast.
  
• New Chatham House toolkit launches outlining recommendations to help think tanks seriously include gender in their work.
• Hot rumor: Zoom Cat joins Atlantic Council as a Senior Fellow.
• What think tanks nerds need to Google for Valentine's Day.
• New Kent Calder book chronicling growing influence of think tanks.
• What think tanks (if any) do you admire and why?
• New America's Molly Martin has a new way to explain a think tank: "wonder tub."
  

New Report Details South Korea's Outreach to Think Tanks

A new report from the Center for International Policy's (CIP) Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative (FITI) on South Korean lobbying efforts in the US describes various outreach activities that South Korea does related to think tanks.  Here is more:

The Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) reported 650 political activities - by far the most of any FARA registrant working for South Korean interests in 2019.  KEI describes itself as, "the premier U.S. think tank and public outreach organization solely dedicated to helping Americans understand the breadth and important of our relations with the Republic of Korea."  KEI is the only FARA registrant working for South Korea that is considered a think tank, and the organization's reported FARA activities reflect this unique status.  Unlike other firms, KEI's activities were primarily directed at other think tanks (229 activities), universities (136 activities), and other non-profits (93 activities).

KEI conducted nearly all (229) of South Korea's outreach to think tanks, contacting dozens of think tanks in D.C., with many of those interactions being with larger think tanks like the Center for Strategic and International Studies (22 contacts), the Bookings Institution (11 contacts), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (10 contacts).

A previous FITI report, "Foreign Funding of Think Tanks in America," found that South Korea was one of the top donors to think tanks, contributing nearly $2 million from 2014-2018.  Notably, CSIS was one of the top recipients of that funding.

 

Among other things, the report notes that Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough LLP, which lobbies on behalf of the Korean government, attended various think tank events on behalf of Korea.

Bank's Internal Think Tank Starts Lobbying for First Time Ever

While think tanks often quietly lobby the US executive and legislative branches of government, or do so more overtly via sister lobbying arms, it has been quite rare for corporate think tanks to do so, until now.  Here is more from Axios:

The JPMorgan Chase Institute — the bank's internal think tank of sorts — and its new policy arm are pushing for policy changes for the first time, the company shared exclusively with Axios.

Why it matters: The institute is sending its recommendations to Washington, as Congress hashes out a pandemic stimulus package.

What they're saying: "Even after you account for stimulus payments, unemployment insurance, renters experienced a greater than 10% drop in income, suggesting that they are really struggling," Heather Higginbottom, president of JPMorgan Chase PolicyCenter.

• "We're trying to use our data and analysis to inform some of those conversations," Higginbottom added.

What they're proposing:

• Raising the federal minimum wage, though they don't say by how much.
• Adding wage benefits for working parents — particularly women of color disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
• Switching off expanded unemployment benefits only when certain economic conditions improve and state unemployment rates fall to a certain level.

 

The  JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) Institute, launched in 2015, describes itself a "global think tank releasing groundbreaking work using proprietary data, expertise, and market access."  Co-presidents of JPMC Institute are Chris Wheat and Fiona Grieg.  Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about the think tank.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about the JPMorgan Chase Policy Center which launched in 2019 and is run by Heather Higginbottom, a former Obama Administration official.

Former Think Tank President Running for Governor in Virginia

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Peter Doran, a former Washington think tank executive and author, joined the crowded race for Virginia governor this week with a promise to phase out the state income tax.

Doran is the former president of the Center for European Policy Analysis, where he used to help former Soviet bloc countries rebuild after “the ravages of socialism,” according to his biography. An Arizona native, he has lived in Virginia since graduating from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2006.

Here is a link the the homepage of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), whose current President and CEO is Dr. Alina Polyakova.  Amb. Kurt Volker, who served as US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, is a Distinguished Fellow at the think tank.

Mr. Doran, who is an expert on Russia, Ukraine, and transatlantic relations, also served as a George C. Marshall Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Think Tank Quickies (#400)

• Former Secretary of State George Schultz, who died at 100, remained active into his 90s through a position at Stanford University's Hoover Institution think tank and various boards. 
• New Authoritarian Influence Tracker, a project of the Alliance for Securing Democracy at GMF, catalogues the Russian and Chinese governments' activities to undermine democracy in more than 40 transatlantic countries since 2000.
• "Sharp power," a term coined in a Dec. 2017 report by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is being used by the Biden Administration.
  
• Is there too much geographical favoritism in think tank papers?
• Klon Kitchen, previously director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Technology Policy, has joined AEI as a resident fellow.
• "Foreign policy as domestic policy" went from a "buzzy think tank concept to the heart of Biden's remarks in record time."
• CNAS adjunct Jordan Schneider interviews CNAS CEO Richard Fontaine.
• Spotted at a Wilson Center event where former Rep. Jane Harman announced her retirement as president: Justice Stephen Breyer, Ash Carter, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Roger Wicker, Reps. Karen Bass and Debbie Dingell, and Jeh Johnson.
• The death of CAP President Neera Tanden's Twitter feed?  Is Tanden's nomination doomed?
  
• 2018 flashback: The 10 names that matter on China policy.
• Predators and Principles: Think Tank Influence, Media Visibility, and Political Partnership (dissertation by Timothy Beryl Bland of VCU.
  

Biden Nominee Proposed Agency Overseeing Think Tanks

 Here is more from Washington Examiner:

President Biden's nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, has raised concerns among Republicans for a 2018 report in which he argued for the creation of a regulatory "superagency" that critics say could target conservative advocacy groups.

The proposed Public Integrity Protection Agency (PIPA), like the CFPB, would not receive its funding from congressional appropriation and would have the power "to bring civil and criminal enforcement actions in federal court, along with issuing civil money penalties," in addition to having the authority "to inspect and investigate individuals and companies seeking to influence federal officials."

"The new PIPA wouldn’t just be responsible for policing the bureaucracy. It would also have jurisdiction over think tanks, advocacy groups and other organizations that seek to influence the political process," the report reads. "The PIPA could propose and enforce new rules on funding disclosure, making clear to lawmakers, regulators and the public when organizations are speaking on behalf of particular donors."

 

There is currently no federal or state agency that oversees think tanks in the United States, although they must follow certain tax and reporting requirements under the law.

Why Your Think Tank Paper Never Gets Read

Think Tank Watch reads through thousands of think tank papers each year so you don't have to, but what about everybody else?

Axios reminds us why so few think tank papers are read:

• Only 5% of readers make it to the end of a typical 800-word piece.
• Over 80% stop reading before they finish the first page.
• 60% to 80% of those who stay will scan - but not read - the information in front of them.
  

For the record, an 800-word piece is roughly 1.6 pages single-spaced or 3.2 pages double-spaced.

Conclusion: Nobody reads long pieces so keep in short.

The Lobby Shop Behind DC's Newest Middle East Think Tank

 Here is more from Foreign Lobby Report:

Late last month the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee invited his fellow lawmakers to discover a new think tank dedicated to Tunisia, a tiny North African country with an outsize influence in Washington due to its status as the Arab Spring’s sole success story.

In his Jan. 14 Dear Colleague letter, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) described the Center for Strategic Studies on Tunisia (CSST) as a US-based initiative “established to strengthen ties between the United States and Tunisia and position Tunisia as a model for other nations that seek to build their own democratic institutions.” He invited members of Congress to a Feb. 4 webinar hosted by the CSST to discuss the “challenges and opportunities” for US-Tunisia relations and the “lessons learned” since a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire a decade ago, sparking anti-government protests across the Middle East.

Unmentioned in the letter was the ambitious Tunisian woman behind the think tank — or the Washington lobbying firm that helped her get it off the ground.

Olfa Hamdi, a Tunisian-born, US-educated, 32-year-old engineer, is the think tank’s president and founder as well as its public face. Corporate records show she registered the CSST in Washington last July and another group called the American Tunisian Partnership Project a month later.

While its website says it was founded by Hamdi to “help strengthen the American-Tunisian relationship and ensure a bright future for her native Tunisia,” the think tank is housed in the offices of Cornerstone Government Affairs, a lobbying firm with a strong presence in Texas.

 

The piece goes on to note that four of the five US experts listed as providing the think tank with support on communications and policy are Cornerstone employees. 

Here is a press release announcing the think tank's launch, and here is a link to the think tank itself.

Think Tank Quickies (#399)

• Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows joins the Conservative Partnership Institute, a group run by former Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint. 
• French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at Atlantic Council event.
• Rocky Mountain Institute announced it will now go by RMI, as part of a major brand relaunch.
  
• 31-year-old think tank researcher Shai Akabas achieved something that hordes of well-funded lobbyists and power players in Washington often fail to do: He got Congress to take action.
  
• In 2019, US Ambassador to Denmark barred an American NATO expert critical of Donald Trump (Atlantic Council's Stanley Sloan) from speaking at an international conference hosted by the US embassy and a Danish think tank (Danish Atlantic Council).
• Embassy of Qatar has been hosting Democrats close to Joe Biden who work at think tanks.
  
• The Palm Center: "A think tank that advocates for LGBTQ policies in the military."
• New think tank seeks to influence thinking on disability at work.
• Foundations focusing their attention of saving democracy.
• Think tanks and policymaking, via Hartwig Pautz.
  

CFR President Leaves Republican Party

Richard Haass, President of the foreign policy think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), announced via Twitter that he has left the Republican Party, saying that he changed his registration to "no party affiliation."

I changed my registration to "no party affiliation" after 40 years. I worked for Reagan & Bush 41 & 43. But today’s Rep Party no longer embraces the policies & principles that led me to join it. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party; the Party left me.

— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) February 10, 2021

 

Hasss, who has worked in several different US administrations, was a critic of former President Donald Trump.  He recently praised President Joe Biden's choice of Antony Blinken as Secretary of State.

A number of people affiliated with CFR, including members and staffers, have gone into the Biden Administration.

Here is what The Hill had to say about Haass's announcement.  Here is a Feb. 8 piece from Haass entitled "Whither US Foreign Policy?"  In it, he argues that Biden's foreign policy signals a return to tradition but it will be a long time before the US can lead by the power of its example.

Haass recently said that the post-America era started on Jan. 6, 2021, referring to the storming of the US Capitol.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that dozens of former Bush Administration officials have left the Republican Party, calling it a "Trump cult."

New Report Examines Conflicts of Interest at CNAS

The Revolving Door Project (RDP), a project of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), has published a new report examining the conflicts of interest at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a national security-focused think tank that is expected to have outsized influence in the Biden Administration.  Here is more from a press release:

A new report from the Revolving Door Project (RDP) examines conflicts of interest at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, DC think tank from which more than a dozen former staffers or affiliates have been selected to join the Biden administration. The report finds that, despite various public statements to the contrary, CNAS has made multiple policy recommendations that would directly benefit some of the think tank’s donors, including military contractors and foreign governments.

The RDP report notes that while CNAS leaders see no problem with taking defense industry money while writing broadly about defense issues, they admit that conflicts arise when the organization talks about specific products produced by organizational donors. Nevertheless, CNAS has violated their own standard by making specific recommendations that benefit its funders on multiple occasions.

In 2018, CNAS released a report suggesting that the US Air Force purchase “another 50 to 75” B-21 bomber jets.” The report did not disclose that the maker of the B-21, Northrop Grumman, was one of CNAS’s largest donors and would stand to gain $33–$49 billion dollars in sales from this recommendation. Yet in the almost four months since this conflict of interest has been identified, CNAS has not added a disclaimer.

In another case, first exposed by The Intercept in 2017, the UAE paid CNAS $250,000 to produce a private “UAE Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Study,” advocating for changes to the legal regime for the export of military-grade drones in the midst of the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen. After receiving approval from the Emirati embassy, CNAS published some of that study’s findings in a public report, urging the Trump administration to “loosen restrictions on drone exports,” and “consider targeted exports of uninhabited aircraft, including armed uninhabited aircraft, to close partners and allies provided that they agree to the principles for proper use.” No disclosure was made of their financial arrangement with the UAE.

 

Here is the full report.  Here is a recent Axios piece about how a small number of think tanks and consulting firms housed Biden's foreign policy "brain trust."

Here is a recent interview of CNAS CEO Richard Fontaine by CNAS adjunct Jordan Schneider.  In that interview, Fontaine notes that CNAS currently has an annual budget of around $11 million and around 35 full-time employees.

Here is Think Tank Watch's list of all the think tankers that have gone into the Biden Administration.

Biden's CIA Pick Runs a Think Tank With Lots of China Ties

A new piece from the Washington Examiner highlights the multitude of ties that the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has with China.  President Joe Biden recently nominated Bill Burns, President of Carnegie, to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  Here are some excerpts:

President Biden’s nominee to run the CIA, William Burns, is the head of a think tank that has routinely received large donations from groups linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

Burns serves as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and he has invited close to a dozen congressional staffers on a trip to China to meet with communist party operatives and leaders of Chinese front groups.

Burns, who has served in his position at Carnegie for six years, also welcomed Chinese businessman Zhang Yichen, CEO of CITIC Consulting, to join the think tank’s board of trustees.

Zhang is linked to two organizations with Chinese Communist Party ties, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the Center for China and Globalization.

Zhang’s firm gave Carnegie a donation of between $500,000 and $999,000 between 2017 and 2018. In the 2020 fiscal year, the firm made donations to the think tank between $250,000 and $549,999.

Carnegie also received donations between $100,000 and $249,999 from China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), an organization the Washington, D.C.,-based think tank Jamestown Foundation called “a major player in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s organizational apparatus for conducting united front work in the United States.”

Zhang’s donations helped Carnegie fund the Beijing-based Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, which partners with one of China’s top technological universities, Tsinghua University.

 

Here are even more details from Daily Caller, which points out that back in 2018, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) raised concerns that Wang Huiyao, the President of the Center for China and Globalization, was set to speak at an event hosted by the Wilson Center think tank.

Among other things, the piece notes that Carnegie is "largely supportive" of closer diplomatic ties between China and the US, and in 2019, the think tank hosted a "1.5 track dialogue" in Beijing aimed at "reducing misperceptions and keeping channels of communication open."

It also notes that Burns at Cui Tiankai, the Chinese Ambassador to the US, appeared together at a Carnegie event in 2018.  The think tank has also provided China Global Television Network (CGTN), a state-controlled news organization, access to its various foreign policy experts.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about China's funding of US think tanks.

It should be noted that nearly every major US foreign policy think tank has numerous ties to China.

How Much Does CFR's Foreign Affairs Pay for Articles?

Foreign Affairs, the magazine on international relations that is published by the think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), pays people to write its articles from outside sources such as other think tanks.  Here is more from Politico:

Here’s another revelation from the financial disclosures: They tell us which Biden nominees have enjoyed the most lucrative freelance journalism careers. Foreign Affairs paid Bill Burns — whose day job is leading the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — $1,000 to write this piece with LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Burns made another $7,200 as a contributing editor to The Atlantic.

Power, meanwhile, got Foreign Affairs to cough up $3,000 for her recent piece. The New York Times also paid her $1,800 for this op-ed and $1,200 to review PETER BAKER and SUSAN GLASSER’s book, but she only pulled in $750 for two book reviews published in The Washington Post. (She has a day job teaching at Harvard, too.)

 

Here is a link to Foreign Affairs, which was founded in 1922.  It is considered one of the US's most influential foreign policy magazines.  It is currently offering one year of its print magazine and unlimited digital access for $49.95.

Biden Team's Most Beloved Think Tanks

A new analysis shows which think tanks 150 of Joe Biden's top transition officials pay attention to and follow.  Here is a look at the top think tanks and the percent of those 150 officials who follow them:

1. New America (Anne-Marie Slaughter): 19.4%
   
2. Center for American Progress (CAP): 19.4%
   
3. Brookings Institution: 18.1%
   
4. Urban Institute: 15.3%
   
5. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): 13.9%

For the #1 slot, the officials are actually following New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter rather than the think tank itself.

It should be noted that many other think tanks will have influence in the Biden Administration, and think tanks that didn't make the top 5, such as Center for a New American Security (CNAS), are arguably more influential than any of the above-mentioned ones.

Here is a list of think tankers that have gone into the Biden Administration.

New Tool: Think Tank Name, Logo & Mission Statement Generator

Are you a former Trump Administration official in need of ideas for the name of your new think tank?  An already-established think tank not happy with your name or logo?  Or perhaps a newly-minted lottery winner looking to start a new think tank?  Well you're in luck.

The folks at UK-based Cast From Clay have created a new site called "Name My Think Tank," a tool where one can have a think tank name, logo, and mission statement automatically generated.  

Here is a post from them entitled "Think tanks: What's in a name?"  They analyzed the 225 US think tanks and 153 UK think tanks currently listed on Wikipedia in order to see what types of names are most common, dividing them into groups such as "descriptive," "conceptual," "eponymous," "location-based," and "hybrid."

In a test of the tool, the generator spit out Think Tank Watch's new think tank name in mere seconds: Council for Macroeconomic Improvement, "an independently funded, bipartisan think tank working across the political spectrum...dedicated to advancing research that leads to better policy decisions."

It is not Think Tank Watch's dream think tank (that would probably be the Center for the Study of the Proliferation of Useless Think Tanks), but it shall do for now.

Another person who has tried the new tool said it could only be improved by including a random generator of donors from a Fortune list of the world's richest billionaires.

Of course, for a seat on the board and a steady supply of cookies, Think Tank Watch will also help you choose a name for your think tank.

Former Vice President Mike Pence Joins Heritage Foundation

Think tanks continue to be popular for former Trump Administration officials.  Just a day after Trump's Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson launched his own think tank, former Vice President Mike Pence announced he is joining the Heritage Foundation.  Here is more from Politico:

Former Vice President Mike Pence is joining the Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow, the conservative think tank announced on Thursday.

He will advise the organization's experts on issues as well as give a number of policy addresses at Heritage, according to the announcement. He will also write a regular column for the think tank's news outlet, the Daily Signal.

The conservative think tank seeded numerous former staffers into the Trump administration, and they’ve picked up other Trump aides on the way out too, including the executive director of Heritage Action for America, Jessica Anderson, who worked at the Office of Management and Budget.

Here is the statement from the Heritage Foundation. 

It was recently announced that three of Trump's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, Chad Wolf, Ken Cuccinelli, and Mark Morgan, have joined the Heritage Foundation as fellows.

Meanwhile, Elaine Chao, who was the Transportation Secretary in the Trump Administration, is returning to the Hudson Institute as a Distinguished Fellow.  And Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is also joining Hudson as a Distinguished Fellow.

Here is a Think Tank Watch list of all the think tankers that have gone into the Biden Administration so far.

Trump's HUD Secretary Ben Carson Starts His Own Think Tank

Former Trump Administration officials continue to embrace think tanks.  Here is the latest announcement from The Hill:

Former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson announced Wednesday that he’s launching a conservative think tank. 

Carson, a former neurosurgeon who served as the Trump administration's only HUD chief, said his think tank, the American Cornerstone Institute (ACI), will provide “common-sense solutions to some of our nation’s biggest problems” and be centered around the “cornerstones” of faith, liberty, community and life.

 

Here is what Ben Carson has to say about his new think tank.  Here is a link to ACI's new site, which is slim on details right now.  You can sign up for their newsletter and donate money, but that's about it.  No brilliant policy papers yet.

Here is a Think Tank Watch piece from last month noting that Trump's OMB chief Russ Vought is launching his own think tank and sister lobbying arm. 

While those two high-level officials have started their own think tanks, others have been joining the so-called "H" think tanks. 

Elaine Chao, who was the Transportation Secretary in the Trump Administration, is returning to the Hudson Institute as a Distinguished Fellow.  And Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is also joining Hudson as a Distinguished Fellow.

Three of Trump's Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Chad Wolf, Ken Cuccinelli, and Mark Morgan, have joined the Heritage Foundation as fellows.

Here is a list of think tankers that have gone into the Biden Administration.

Think Tank Quickies (#398)

• Brookings warning: With China's wealth paired to Russia's resources, and the political trajectories and climate-related interests of the two countries more or less aligned, there is nothing short of a new world order at stake.
  
• "There's going to be a global think tank whose sole mission will be to catalog, explain, and prevent the 1000s of ethics trips, tricks and abuses" by the Trump Administration.
• California is emerging as the de facto policy think tank of the Harris-Biden Administration.
• Biden's think tanks won't disclose their donors; think tanks with Biden ties pose ethics quandary for his administration.
• Stacey Abrams is on the Board of Directors at Center for American Progress (CAP).
• London startup BenevolentAI has spent several years building technology that could help find information buried in vast troves of academic papers.
• The Milken Institute occupies three buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue...including one opening in 2023, the Center for Advancing the American Dream, which will focus on education, public health, and other issues.
  
• The intellectual future of conservatism will be wrestled over at a series of forums at the Center for Social, Cultural and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute that are being organized by Yuval Levin, a scholar there.
• Restaurant Buffalo & Bergen's rent was waived by Massachusetts Avenue Properties, an affiliate of the Heritage Foundation.
• AEI's Norm Ornstein, whose foundation aids the mentally ill, fund a new documentary.
  

Think Tank Quote of the Month: Feb. 2021

This is from Politico:

Revolving door: The new administration has such a familiar ring to it, it’s a wonder there’s anyone left to clean the coffee machine at Albright Stonebridge Group, WestExec, Center for New American Security and other parts of the D.C. progressive talent pipeline. With their big names sucked into the administration, watch now for foreign government partnerships or commercial relationships with that elite category of organizations, as a way to tap into the new administration’s thinking and networks.

 

A number of think tankers from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) have already been named to top-level Biden Administration posts, and many more are likely to  leave for the new administration. 

In fact, CNAS co-founder Kurt Campbell was recently named as the top Asia official in President Joe Biden's National Security Council (NSC).  Another CNAS co-founder, Michele Flournoy, was on the short-list to become Biden's defense secretary.

Here is a list of think tankers that have gone into the Biden Administration.