US Think Tank Chief Charged with Acting as Foreign Agent for China

Here is more from Reuters:

The leader of a U.S. think tank has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China, as well as seeking to broker the sale of weapons and Iranian oil, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Monday.

Gal Luft, a citizen of the United States and Israel, is accused of recruiting and paying a former high-ranking U.S. government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, without registering as a foreign agent as required by law.

Prosecutors did not identify the former official, but said he was working as an adviser to the then president-elect Donald Trump at the time. Luft is accused of pushing the adviser to support policies favorable to China, including by drafting comments in the adviser's name published in a Chinese newspaper.

Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, which describes itself as a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on energy, security and economic trends.

 

Luft was arrested in early 2023 in Cyprus but fled after being released on bail while awaiting extradition.

According to the most recent US tax records, the Maryland-based Institute for Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), founded in 2002, had total revenue of around $14,000 in 2021 and total assets of around $220,000.

As Jurist has noted, one of IAGS's major projects is the US Energy Security Council (USESC), which was co-founded by Reagan-era National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane and former CIA Director James Woolsey.  Luft served as senior adviser to USESC.

One of the officials whom Luft is accused of covertly attempting to "recruit and pay, on behalf of principals based in China" is reportedly Mr. Woolsey, who was an adviser to then President-elect Donald Trump.

USESC's members include myriad former high-ranking officials in the US government.

Jurist has also pointed out that on a fundraising page posted to his Twitter account, Gal Luft called the charges a "witch hunt."  He is looking to raise $100,000, and so far has raised close to $8,000.

The eight-count indictment can be read here.

Think Tankers Holding Secret Talks with Russians on Ukraine

Here is more from NBC: 

A group of former senior U.S. national security officials have held secret talks with prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin — and, in at least one case, with the country’s top diplomat — with the aim of laying the groundwork for potential negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, half a dozen people briefed on the discussions told NBC News.

In a high-level example of the back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with members of the group for several hours in April in New York, four former officials and two current officials told NBC News.

Sitting down with Lavrov were Richard Haass, a former diplomat and the outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, current and former officials said. The group was joined by Europe expert Charles Kupchan and Russia expert Thomas Graham, both former White House and State Department officials who are Council on Foreign Relations fellows. 

 

NBC notes that that discussions have involved leaders from major think tanks in Russia that are apparently very close to the Kremlin.

Iranian Hacking Group Impersonating Nuke Experts to Gain Intel From Think Tanks

Here is more from SC Media:

A cyber espionage group linked to the Iranian government has been impersonating think-tank employees to phish Middle Eastern nuclear weapons experts, according to researchers at Proofpoint.

The group — called “TA453,” “Charming Kitten” or “APT35,” depending on the threat intelligence service you’re relying on — has a long track record of targeting U.S. and European government officials, politicians, think tanks and entities involved in critical infrastructure.

The latest campaign detailed by Proofpoint dates from March to May of this year and begins with benign emails that seek to establish a rapport with foreign policy researchers in the West.

Those initial emails were later followed by phishing emails that link to a password-protected DropBox URL, ostensibly to access the research. Instead, it executes .RAR and LNK files and run a PowerShell script that installs a backdoor on the victim’s system, before calling out to a cloud hosting provider for additional malware payloads.

In one instance, the actor reached out several times in mid-May to a media relations contact for an unnamed U.S.-based think tank focused on foreign affairs.

The first email, purporting to be from Karl Roberts, a senior fellow and deputy director of terrorism and conflict at the Royal United Services Institute, asked for feedback on an Iranian-themed piece of research.

 

SC Media notes that it is not the first time that Charming Kitten has targeted think tanks in order to gather intelligence about Western foreign policy decision-making. 

Here is a 2021 Think Tank Watch piece about Iranian hackers masquerading as UK scholars to hack think tanks.

Think Tank Quickies (#479)

• Fitch Ratings has been talking to think tanks to help decide if the US needs a credit downgrade. 
• House Democrats presented with messaging data from the Center for American Progress during a whip meeting.
  
• Heritage Action's executive director Jessica Anderson is taking a leave of absence to lead the Sentinel Action Fund.  Ryan Walker will move up to be acting ED at Heritage Action.
• Publisher/CEO Fred Ryan is leaving the Washington Post to head the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation's Center on Public Civility. 
• New report from Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) finds that sanctions are often deadly and harm people's living standards in target countries.
  
• Leo chef Matthew Lego last worked at the Cato Institute.
• Michael Turner, most recently head of communications and spokesperson for the US Embassy in Beijing, has founded Turner Global Solutions and joined the Atlantic Council as a senior fellow.
  
• Sean McElwee was founding executive director of Data for Progress, a progressive think tank and polling firm he co-founded in 2018.  He resigned in Dec. 2022 amidst allegations of artificially manipulating the results of polls and his close ties to accused fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
• Tara DiJulio, VP and chief comms officer at GE and chief comms officer at GE Aerospace, has joined the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) board of directors.
  
• "I visited the most vilified think tank in Israel; what I discovered will surprise you."
  

Think Tank IPS Settles False PPP Loan Allegations

Here is more from Politico:

The Institute for Policy Studies has agreed to pay more than half a million dollars to settle charges that the progressive think tank misrepresented its eligibility for a second draw of the Paycheck Protection Program created to help keep small businesses afloat during the Covid pandemic, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

— In February 2021, according to the settlement agreement, IPS applied for — and later received — a second PPP loan in the amount of $481,000, despite new restrictions on applicants for a second loan through the $953 billion program, including a prohibition organizations “primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities, including any entity that is organized for research or for engaging in advocacy in areas such as public policy or political strategy or otherwise describes itself as a think tank in any public documents.”

— Doing so required IPS to certify its eligibility under the program, despite describing itself online and in its corporate bylaws as an entity aiming to advance progressive policy in Washington. The Small Business Administration ultimately forgave both of the PPP loans IPS received through, along with interest accrued and lenders’ fees, according to the settlement agreement and ProPublica’s PPP loan tracker.

— In a statement, the think tank argued that as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, IPS by law isn’t allowed to spend more than 15 percent of its time lobbying or otherwise primarily engaged in political activities. “In our case,” IPS said of its time spent lobbying, “it’s less than 1 percent. We interpreted our status as consistent with the restriction and applied in good faith based on that interpretation.” Per the settlement agreement, IPS will repay the second loan, including interest.

 

In 2020, Think Tank Watch reported that think tanks received millions in PPP loans.

Cecilia Rouse named as 9th President of the Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution has just announced that Dr. Cecilia Rouse, who has served under three Democratic presidents, has been named as the 9th president at the think tank.

Here is more from a press release:

The Brookings Institution announced that Cecilia Rouse has been named its next president, following approval by its Board of Trustees. Rouse’s appointment will be effective in January 2024, when she will succeed Amy Liu, who has served as interim president since July 2022 and will remain in this role until January.

 

Rouse is currently the Katzman-Ernst Professor in Economics and Education at Princeton University.  Before that she was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) in the first couple years of the Biden Administration.  She has also served in the Clinton and Obama administrations.

She is married to Ford Morrison, the son of author Toni Morrison.

More coming soon...

Heritage Report Forces Publishing Giant to Fear Bud Light-style Disaster

Here is more from the New York Post:

The world’s largest education publisher, Pearson, started a clumsy purge of its digital footprint after a Heritage Foundation report exposed its obeisance to the ideas animating critical race theory. 

Pearson, like so many other corporate behemoths, rushed all-in on “equity” in 2021, with new editorial guidelines vowing to make woke concepts like “intersectionality” and “colonial discourse” part of everything it does.

Thursday, Heritage researcher Jonathan Butcher let the larger world know about it. His report drew some media scrutiny — and poof! 

The guidelines vanished from the web along with videos promoting the same ideas, and the company’s chief flack went into full-bore denial, insisting, “Critical race theory is not included in Pearson K-12 materials for public schools or in any materials for government contracts.”

 

Here is more from The Daily Signal.

Brookings Scholar Starting His Own Think Tank

Dr. Richard Reeves, who is currently the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair and Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, will be leaving the think tank to start his own think tank, the American Institute for Boys and Men.

Reeves says the mission of the new think tank "is to research and raise awareness of the problems of boys and men, and advocate for effective solutions."

Last year, the Brookings Institution Press published Reeves' book "Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It."

Reeves says that he expects a "soft launch" of his new think tank in September as he works to raise funds, recruit a board, and hire staff.

He also notes that he has "loved" his time at Brookings and will remain as a nonresident senior fellow.

Reeves, among other things, was previously the director of London-based think tank Demos.

Think Tank Quickies (#478)

• David Dewhirst, senior advisor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, joins Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation.
• CSIS launches bipartisan Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention.
• CSIS launches Hess Center for New Frontiers to work on macrotrends and forces shaping the global landscape over the next century; and launches Wadhani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies (it launched an AI Council in 2022).
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace opens new Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.
• Carnegie Endowment and Princeton launched initiative to counter threats to the information environment.
• Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison joins CNAS Board of Advisors.
• Wilson Center's Mexico Institute receives grant for work to strengthen protections for migrant workers in North American agriculture.
• Wilson Center launches Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition to shape conversations and reforms in era of great power competition.
• Wilson Center launches Latin America marine protection partnership with the US State Department.
• Security Policy Reform Institute (SPRI): "Unlike establishment think tanks, we rely exclusively on small donations."
  

Dems Meet at Think Tank to Fight No Labels 2024 Bid

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Top Democratic strategists, including current advisers to President Biden and former U.S. senators, met last week with former Republicans who oppose Donald Trump at the offices of a downtown D.C. think tank.

Their mission: to figure out how to best subvert a potential third-party presidential bid by the group No Labels, an effort they all agreed risked undermining Biden’s reelection campaign and reelecting former president Donald Trump to the White House.

Matt Bennett, the executive vice president for Third Way, which hosted the event, declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of the proceedings. 

 

Among those in attendance were former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, a former Third Way board member.

India Targets Think Tank Critical of Coal

Here is more from the Washington Post:

An independent think tank. A law firm. An environmental group.

On Sept. 7, Indian tax authorities simultaneously raided three seemingly unrelated nonprofit organizations without issuing a public statement, confounding many in Indian academia and politics. But one little-known thread connected the three groups: Each was seen by the government to be a critic of Gautam Adani, one of India’s richest men and a political ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At the Center for Policy Research (CPR), widely considered India's top independent think tank, more than a dozen officials and armed police officers confiscated computers and phones and sealed the building, locking some employees inside their rooms, according to three people who were present.

In the ensuing months, documents showed, investigators pored through the nonprofits’ emails and phone records and laid out a lengthy array of allegations. The government cited the allegations as the basis for administrative actions that seemed designed to cripple the nonprofits, Indian and international activists and scholars say.

CPR was accused of improperly obstructing Adani’s Hasdeo mine by “giving directions” to protest leaders, the think tank’s correspondence with investigators shows. Authorities alleged that researchers affiliated with the think tank were using U.S. funding for litigation — something that is outlawed in India.

 

The Washington Post notes that earlier this year Indian authorities froze the foreign-currency bank accounts of CPR.  Citing seven current and former CPR employees, the Post notes that the think tank, starved of funding, is likely to sharply downsize or shut down completely.  CPR had 200 employees at its peak.

Here is a letter from concerned international faculty and researchers about what has been happening at CPR.

Republicans Target Think Tanks Who Study Disinformation

Here is more from the New York Times:

On Capitol Hill and in the courts, Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online.

Targets include Stanford, Clemson and New York Universities and the University of Washington; the Atlantic Council, the German Marshall Fund and the National Conference on Citizenship, all nonpartisan, nongovernmental organizations in Washington; the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco; and Graphika, a company that researches disinformation online.

The group behind the class action, America First Legal, named as defendants two researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, Alex Stamos and Renée DiResta; a professor at the University of Washington, Kate Starbird; an executive of Graphika, Camille François; and the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, Graham Brookie.

 

Here is the biography of Graham Brookie.

Think Tank Quickies (#477)

• New study from the Quincy Institute: 85% of think tanks cited in articles about US military support in Ukraine have received funding from Pentagon contractors. 
• Brookings and John Legend's HUMANLEVEL announce new partnership to improve well-being, equity, and upward mobility.
• New Brookings task force will create the blueprint for a federal Office of Carbon Scoring.
  
• Hal Wyler in The Diplomat spoke at Chatham House.
• Billionaire David Rubenstein donated $10 million to Foreign Affairs magazine.
  
• Rogue States Project: A "bipartisan national security think tank based in Washington, DC."
• Sunwater Institute: A "non-partisan think tank with a mission to improve the legislative process."
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: "The defense industry manipulates the media, government, and public opinion through its massive funding of think tanks."
• Progressive stars Jamie Raskin and Rachel Maddow headline a conference organized by Truman Center - with Palantir and Lockheed Martin as key sponsors.
  
• Nishi Toshio, a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, has been talking about the power of the "Jewish zaibatsu" and says that Catherine, Princess of Wales, is a Rothschild.
  

Mike Needham Leaving Capitol Hill to Launch a New Think Tank

Mr. Mike Needham, Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-FL) chief of staff, is leaving Capitol Hill to launch a new think tank called America 2100.

The think tank's aim is to "begin the work of codifying and institutionalizing the ideas Rubio helped pioneer, from China to industrial policy," reported Politico.  The new think tank reportedly has Rubio's blessing.

Before joining Rubio's office in 2018, Needham was CEO of Heritage Action for America, the sister lobbying arm of the think tank Heritage Foundation.

Needham formerly worked on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign in 2008, and spent three years as the chief of staff and director at the Heritage Foundation.

Mr. Elbridge Colby, Co-founder and Principal of the think tank The Marathon Initiative, said that America 2100 is "is sure to be a critical and desperately needed voice in confronting the *actual* problems the country faces with credible solutions...not those of 15 years ago."

Dozens With Nuclear Weapons Interests Funding Think Tanks

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has just published a new report entitled "Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending," which notes that nuclear weapon-producing companies, nuclear-armed governments, and those in nuclear alliances spent $21-36 million in 2022 funding ten of the most prominent think tanks researching and writing about nuclear weapons in nuclear-armed states.

Here is the ICAN list showing think tank funding from companies, governments, and alliances that produce and support nuclear weapons:

• Atlantic Council: $4,180,000 - $7,419,974
  
• Brookings Institution: $2,460,000 - $4,794,984
  
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: $2,020,000 - $4,499,986
• Chatham House: No amount publicly available
  
• Center for a New American Security (CNAS): $2,710,001 - $4,729,975
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS): $2,590,000 - $3,829,987
  
• Hudson Institute: $375,000 - $469,999
  
• Observer Research Foundation: $888,106
  
• Royal United Services Institute (RUSI): $2,488,409 - $5,431,512
  
• Stimson Center: $3,296,369
   

Of those amounts, $5 million - $9 million is from companies, and $16 - $27 million is from governments.  The report outlines the numerous governments and firms that give to these think tanks.

ICAS says that throughout 2022, nuclear weapon-producing companies and countries in nuclear alliances did their best to sell deterrence by funding think tanks and lobbyists.  

"Board members at nuclear weapons producing companies played an integral role in keeping the money flowing to weapons of mass destruction - sitting on boards of banks that lend to them and major think tanks researching and writing about nuclear weapons," says ICAS.

In related news, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its annual assessment of of the state of armaments, disarmament, and international security.

FBI & NSA Warn Think Tanks About North Korean Cyber Group Kimsuky

Here is more from the US State Department:

Today the U.S. Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Security Agency together with partners from the Republic of Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Police Agency, and National Intelligence Service are releasing a Cybersecurity Advisory  on social engineering and hacking threats posed by the DPRK cyber group known as Kimsuky. This Advisory is collaborative effort between our two governments and a concrete outcome of the U.S.-ROK Working Group on DPRK Cyber Threats.

Kimsuky, a set of DPRK cyber actors, conducts large-scale social engineering campaigns in which victims at think tanks, academic institutions, and news outlets are manipulated and compromised for the purpose of intelligence gathering.

 

Kimsuky has been targeting experts and think tanks for years, including those in the US, Japan, and South Korea working on nuclear issues and sanctions.

Update: SentinelLabs said that North Korean hackers had been impersonating journalists to gather intelligence from academics and think tanks.

Bush Alum Margaret Spellings Named CEO of Bipartisan Policy Center

Here is more from a Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) press release:

Today, the Bipartisan Policy Center announced former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will join the organization as its new CEO. As a veteran leader who has forged strong relationships on both sides of the aisle, she has decades of experience finding common-sense solutions to improve the lives of American families.

As CEO, she will guide the organization’s strategic direction and priorities, promote BPC’s policy recommendations, and be the chief steward of BPC’s bipartisan ethos and mission to help policymakers work across party lines to craft bipartisan solutions. “In a unanimous vote, the BPC Board of Directors approved the appointment of Margaret Spellings as our next CEO,” said Kelly Darnell, interim CEO of BPC.

 

Spellings most recently served as President and CEO of Texas 2036, a Dallas, Texas-based think tank founded in 2018 by Dallas attorney Tom Luce.  That think tanks' name is based on the year of Texas's bicentennial.

Think Tank Quickies (#476)

• Numerous think tankers on Russia's new list of 500 Americans banned from entering the country. 
• Japan's minister of digital transformation, Kono Taro, named as honorary Kissinger fellow by the McCain Institute. He'll hold that title for one year.
• A number of think tankers attending the 2023 Bilderberg meeting.
• New RAND report examining 3 national security threats that had uncertain origins; and another RAND report on where and how the US, Russia, and China will be competing for influence.
  
• Administration officials, including Paul Rosen, the assistant secretary of investment security at Treasury, have been soliciting feedback from think tanks about an outbound investment screening mechanism. 
• Former AEI president Arthur Brooks joins forces with Oprah.
  
• For its new "Spotlight on Think Tanks" blog series, Overton will be exploring how think tanks are influencing policy, one country at a time.
  
• Jason Israel, most recently a trans-Atlantic fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, is now special assistant to the president and senior director for defense at the NSC.
• Natalie Boyse, and Trump alum, has started as program manager at ORF America, the US affiliate of India's Observer Reserch Foundation.
• Semafor's Steve Clemons does Strategic Ark national security conference hosted by Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs.

China Mining US Think Tanks for Military Intelligence

Here is more from the New York Times:

China’s intelligence agencies are investing deeply in open-source intelligence to learn more about the capabilities of the American military in the Pacific and beyond, according to a new report.

The analysis, by the threat intelligence company Recorded Future, details efforts by China’s government and companies to collect publicly available data from the Pentagon, think tanks and private firms — information Beijing’s military can use to help plan for a potential conflict with the United States.

The report details some of the work one prominent Chinese open-source intelligence company has done to analyze publicly available insights from the Office of Net Assessment, the Pentagon’s in-house think tank. 

 

The Recorded Future report includes a table from a 2019 study by China's Army Service Academy showing likely People's Liberation Army (PLA) open-source intelligence (OSINT) collection targets.  The list includes the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Carnegie Europe Center, and Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). 

The report also notes that China is using its own "think tanks" to collect OSINT.  For example, it says that the Beijing Lanhai Changqing Information Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is a new self-described think tank that provides research support to military clients.  The entity claims to be "committed to becoming China's most influential military-civil fusion innovation think tank."

A similar entity is the Beijing Yuanwang Think Tank Science and Technology Consulting Co., Ltd., a privately owned PLA OSINT research services provider.

In related think tank news, China's new ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, has been having meetings with influential US think tanks.  He met, for example, with Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) President Richard Haass.  

Meanwhile, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said that think tanks play a "unique role" in US-China understanding.

Jose Andres Launches Food Think Tank

For more than a decade, celebrity chef Jose Andres has dreamed of opening a think tank for food, and that dream has finally arrived.

Here is more from a George Washington University (GWU) press release:

George Washington University and world-renowned chef, author, and humanitarian Jose Andres are announcing a historic partnership to launch a premier Global Food Institute at GW, a transformative and unprecedented collaboration that will be the world leader in food system solution delivery.

GW is uniquely positioned to drive global progress in the food space, thanks to its location in the heart of the nation’s capital, depth of academic expertise across countless disciplines, track record of leading critical conversations in the public and private sectors and partnerships with global influencers from the White House to the World Bank.

Driven by Andrés’ vision of changing the world through the power of food, the Global Food Institute at GW will work to transform people’s lives and the health of the planet, taking an interdisciplinary systems approach across three main pillars: policy, innovation and humanity.  The institute will enable faculty and students from every school and college, industry leaders, policymakers and renowned experts to work and teach across these pillars, producing cutting-edge research to create and improve domestic and global food policies, incubate and engineer innovative new technologies and entrepreneurial spirit and lead critical conversations about the impact of food on the human race.

A founding gift from Andrés made the Global Food Institute possible, and the institute’s work will be powered by philanthropy and supported by partnerships with organizations, companies, foundations, and individuals. A significant contribution from the Nelson A. and Michele M. Carbonell Family Foundation will endow the Executive Director position. The Rockefeller Foundation has also committed financial support for the Global Food Institute.

 

The Global Food Institute (GFI), which is not to be confused with the think tank Good Food Institute (which also goes by the acronym GFI), held a launch event on May 23. 

A search for the executive director of the Global Food Institute will commence this summer.

Here is more about GFI from the Washington Post.

Fun fact: There are other think tanks devoted to food.  For example, there is an entity called Food Tank, which calls itself a "think tank for food."  Food Tank says it's a "research and advocacy nonprofit organization devoted to storytelling that highlights how food and agriculture can be the solution to some of our most pressing environmental and social problems."

Republican Think Tanks Gearing Up for 2024

Here is more from FP:

The [Mike] Pence-backed nonprofit Advancing American Freedom released a legislative agenda that calls for canceling Chinese treasury bill holdings as COVID-19 restitution to the families of victims, accelerating the U.S. nuclear program, and advocating more tree trade, a genuinely lonely position on both sides of the aisle these days.

[The Heritage Foundation's] Project 2025 has launched an online questionnaire, asking would-be conservative wonks in a Republican  to explain their political philosophy, who influenced it, and asking them a series of questions, including whether the United Nations should have authority over sovereign countries, and whether the U.S. president "should be able to advance his/her agenda through the bureaucracy without hinderance [sic] from unelected federal officials."

Another conservative think tank to watch for potential 2024 GOP administration picks is the Hudson Institute, which seems to have effectively struck a balance between the MAGA and the more traditional wings of the Republican party with its own cast of conservative foreign policy heavyweights.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on the Heritage Foundation's plans to staff a Republican administration in 2024.

How China has Infiltrated US Think Tanks

Here are some think tank-related excerpts from the book Spies and Lies by Alex Joske, the youngest-ever analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI):

• America's think tanks have long been of interest to Chinese intelligence agencies.  Numerous spies from both the Ministry of State Security (MSS) and People's Liberation Army (PLA) have held posts as visiting scholars in DC think tanks with varying degrees of transparency and awareness about their backgrounds.  Even before the MSS was created, Chinese intelligence analysts were compiling open-source studies of influential think tanks in the Reagan era.

• To many scholars and policymakers, the think tank China Reform Forum brings to mind dreams of change and liberalism to China.  Led by Zheng Bijian, the think tank touted unmatched access to China's leadership, superior pedigree through its affiliation with the Party's highest training academy, and a track record of policy influence.  It was cocaine for China watchers from Washington to Tokyo and Paris, manufactured in Beijing by the MSS.
  

• Other think tanks envied the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's unusual connections to Beijing.  After several years of collaboration with China Reform Forum, Carnegie could now reveal it had inked a deal to deepen that partnership and set up Carnegie's first Beijing office within the premises of China Reform Forum.  It was the first American think tank with a permanent presence in Beijing.  Carnegie thought it was expanding its influence within China, blind to the fact that it was taking part in an MSS influence operation.

• The Carnegie Endowment was far from the only American think tank that unwittingly wrapped itself up in the MSS's influence operations.  Two China representatives for the Asia Society were named as members of China Reform Forum's council.  Washington, DC's Center for Strategic and International Studies was often a host for visiting China Reform Forum delegations, as was the Brookings Institution.

• MSS quickly homed in on RAND Corporation as a priority for influence and espionage operations.  It surely helped that RAND is headquartered in California, the state with the most mature MSS networks.  Through China Reform Forum, RAND also had some of the strongest and longest-running ties to the MSS of any American institution.  RAND continued to help China Reform Forum access the United States even after it was warned that the group was a MSS front.

• Like every other major American foreign policy institution, Brookings had already been engaging with China Reform Forum, hosting Zheng Bijian and the MSS as they tested out the "peaceful rise" theory on its target audience.  Brookings chairman John L. Thornton unwittingly fell into the sights of an MSS influence operation.

• Nicolas Berggruen's Berggruen Institute helps connect the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy (CIIDS) to global elites and is key to its success.

• China Institute of Strategy and Management (CISM) started its existence as the internal think tank of the PLA's Academy of Military Science (AMS).

• The China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) was originally established to give Chinese intelligence a channel for engaging internationally, and it actively helps the rest of the MSS target and recruit foreigners.  It holds dialogues and conferences with think tanks like the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

• Maurice Greenberg was a leading donor to American foreign policy think tanks and once threatened to pull funding from the Heritage Foundation after one of its analysts wrote a paper calling for tougher policies on China.
  

 

Here is a list that Think Tank Watch compiled of former Intelligence Community (IC) officials that now work at think tanks.

One of the most interesting facts from the book: Windsurfing was invented by one of RAND Corp.'s engineers.

Think Tank Quickies (#475)

• Brookings and staff union reach initial one-year agreement.
• GOP think tank wonks trying to get their party not to detonate the debt limit bomb. 
• CGD is not an "eat what you kill" think tank.
• NYT: There are military contractors and even analysts at think tanks who have some level of security clearance.
  
• Scottish Tory MSPs launch "think tank of sorts" at conference.
• Think tanks find out information about Chinese police stations in the US before FBI?
• Casey Michel: "Biden is letting think tanks and dodgy foreign funders get cozy again."
• Ember: "An independent energy think tank."
• Stephen Walt, a former think tanker, on how to succeed in the foreign policy blob.
  
• DJ Khaled spoke at MBS's personal think tank.
  

Leaked Docs Show Lockheed Martin CEO About to Join CFR Board

Here is more from the Eli Clifton, a senior advisor at the Quincy Institute and Investigative-Journalist-at-Large at Responsible Statecraft:

Members of the Council on Foreign Relations are currently voting on a slate of ten board candidates put forth by the “Nominating and Governance Committee.” That slate includes what is arguably the world’s largest arms dealer, the chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, James Taiclet, according to a document circulated to CFR members and obtained by Responsible Statecraft.

The board of directors of CFR, a New York-based think tank that focuses on U.S. foreign policy and international relations, isn’t a stranger to embracing the weapons industry. CFR’s chairman is David Rubenstein, a co-founder and co-chairman of the private equity firm and defense-industry-focused Carlyle Group, and the board currently includes Raytheon board member Meghan L. O’Sullivan, and Frances Townsend, a director at Lenoardo Systems, a Virginia based weapons systems company. (CFR’s biography of Townsend omits any mention of her role at the weapons firm but Leonardo Systems lists her CFR board membership in her biography on their website.)

 

A list of CFR's current board members can be found here.

Susan Rice Will Not be Next President of Brookings Institution

Here is more from Politico:

Susan Rice has made it clear she’s not interested in becoming the Brookings Institution‘s next president, three people familiar with the situation told POLITICO’s Alex Ward and Daniel. Buzz spread throughout the think tank after the White House announced Rice was stepping down as the domestic policy adviser, leading to rumors that she might be a natural pick for the role. But she made clear to people in Brookings’ orbit that the board, which aims to make a decision in the summer, should consider other candidates. A Brookings spokesperson declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Rice said, “This is urban legend. No one involved with the search at Brookings has contacted Ambassador Rice about this opening.”

Ms. Amy Liu remains as Interim President of Brookings while the search continues.

Atlantic Council Says Its Scholar Possibly Poisoned by Russian Intelligence

This week the Atlantic Council said that John Herbst, Senior Director of the think tank's Eurasia Center, may have been poisoned by Russian intelligence officers.

Here is more from an Atlantic Council statement:

Though Ambassador Herbst has recovered to full health, in April 2021 he grew ill and experienced symptoms that could have been consistent with poisoning, including elevated levels of toxins in his blood. Medical professionals treated Ambassador Herbst effectively at the time but could not definitively conclude there was poisoning involved. 

The Atlantic Council worked with federal law enforcement on this matter, who later also took a blood sample from Ambassador Herbst, and the lab results failed to detect toxic compounds. “The health and safety of our staff is the highest priority,” said Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council. “We were in touch with authorities immediately at the time of Ambassador Herbst’s illness, but due to the results of the test we decided not to make the incident public.” 

Ambassador Herbst and the Eurasia Center, working alongside other colleagues at the Atlantic Council, have been among the leading voices in the United States analyzing and responding to Russia’s threats to the United States and Ukraine, including its ongoing war, and advocating for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and freedom. 

 

Herbst was US Ambassador to Ukraine from 2003-2006.  His think tank work can be found here.

Russia has previously made known its disdain for Atlantic Council, and back in 2019 it blacklisted the think tank, saying that the activities of the organization "pose a fundamental threat to the constitutional order and security" of Russia.

White House Stops Requesting Think Tank Dislosures of Foreign Funding

Here is more from The New Republic (TNR):

At some point over the past few years, the Biden administration revoked one of the few progressive policies that Trump-era officials implemented in the effort to bring greater transparency to foreign influence in Washington. The New Republic has learned that with little fanfare, and with even less explanation, the White House has stopped requesting that American think tanks disclose funding from foreign governments. “This is not the policy of the U.S. State Department,” an agency spokesperson said last month.

The policy initially emerged in 2020, when then–Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the State Department would finally request that think tanks “disclose prominently on their websites funding they receive from foreign governments, including state-owned or state-operated subsidiary entities.” As Pompeo continued, “The unique role of think tanks in the conduct of foreign affairs makes transparency regarding foreign funding more important than ever.” He added that State Department staff would “be mindful of whether disclosure has been made.”

 

TNR notes that a forthcoming report from the Human Rights Foundation will show how the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has "perfected the art" of transforming US think tanks into lobbying vehicles.

AI Botches Think Tank Analysis

Here is more from the Washington Post, which asked Microsoft's Bing AI dozens of questions to evaluate the chatbot's answers and sources:

Another problem suggested by our results: When the AI chooses a source, is it adequately understanding what it has to say? In a different answer to that same question about immigrants, Bing cited the Brookings Institution. However, Bing’s AI wrote that Brookings said immigrants may “affect social cohesion or national identity” and push down wages for native-born workers — a claim Brookings never made.

“We are flattered that chatbots like Brookings content, but the response is not accurate,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Center for Technology at Brookings. He said Bing not only failed to adequately summarize that one article, but it also missed the organization’s more recent writing on the topic.

Microsoft told us it couldn’t reproduce that result. “After consulting engineering, we believe you encountered a bug with this answer,” Manfre said.

 

The newspaper concluded that nearly 1 in 10 answers/sources were inadequate or inaccurate.

Think Tank Quickies (#474)

• The McCain Institute announced Politico and CBS as its media partners for its 2023 Sedona Forum.
  
• Open Secrets: "One of the main issues tracking money that's funding think tanks is there's no legal requirement for them to disclose their donors."
• Jason Greenblatt, who served in the Trump Administration, has joined the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs as a senior director for Arab-Israel diplomacy.
• The US Global Leadership Coalition has announced the creation of the Conservative Foreign Policy Study Group, which consists of a group of conservative foreign policy and national security experts who served in the Trump Administration.
• The Washington Policy Center has hired state Rep. Chris Corry (R-Yakima) as the new director of the Center for Government Reform.
• New RAND report examines where and how the US, China, and Russia are likely to be competing for influence. 
• Peruvian government is lobbying think tanks.
  
• Overton analyzes the think tanks that publish the most on the topic of computer security.
  
• China's "official think tanks to watch," via Cheng Li.
• Event a Chatham House: The role of think tanks amid political uncertainty.
  

Beijing Curtails Overseas Access to Chinese Data After Reading US Think Tank Reports

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal: 

A recent campaign to restrict overseas access to China-based data sources was partly triggered by a drumbeat of U.S. think tank reports on sensitive Chinese practices that alarmed Beijing, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Increasingly worried about perceived Western threats, Beijing in recent weeks expanded an anti-espionage law and stepped up pressure on foreign companies specializing in collecting information, such as auditors, management consultants and law firms. In addition, access to Chinese databases including Shanghai-based Wind Information has tightened for foreign think tanks, research firms and other nonfinancial entities.

The wider scope of the campaign is intended to ensure the party-state’s control over narratives about China. The part of it focused on restricting overseas access to databases began in earnest after some reports based on publicly available information set off alarms among senior Chinese officials, according to the people with knowledge of the matter.

The reports, these people said, included analyses written by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University and the Center for a New American Security, co-founded by Kurt Campbell, the White House’s coordinator for the Indo-Pacific.

 

The article notes that one of the think tank reports that got Chinese officials' attention is a CSET policy brief published in June 2022 entitled "Silicon Twist: Managing the Chinese Military's Access to AI Chips."  Another CSET report that got their attention was one called "The Chinese Talent Program Tracker." 

The article also notes that China cut off the Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) access to Chinese data provider Wind Information.

Bastian Giegerich Named as Next Director-General of IISS

Here is more from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS):

The Board of Trustees of The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), chaired by Bill Emmott, is delighted to announce that following a global search it has appointed Dr Bastian Giegerich as the next Director-General and Chief Executive of the IISS. Dr Giegerich will assume the role on 1 October 2023, in succession to Dr John Chipman CMG who will move to a newly created part-time post as Executive Chairman of the IISS.

Dr Bastian Giegerich has served as the Director of the Defence and Military Analysis Programme (DMAP) at the Institute since 2015. In this role he has overseen the rapid expansion of DMAP's research output and corporate advisory services, and the development of the Military Balance+ database. In 2021, alongside his DMAP role, Dr Giegerich served as Interim Executive Director of IISS-Europe to establish the new IISS office in Berlin. From 2010 to 2015 he held senior research and policy roles in the Federal Ministry of Defence of Germany. He is the author and editor of several IISS Adelphi books and IISS Strategic Dossiers and holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE). He first joined the IISS in 2005 on a post-doctoral Fellowship funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, working on European security and defence matters.

 

IISS announced the search for a new director-general of the think tank in January 2023.

UK Getting New China-Focused Think Tank

Here is more from Politico:

The China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI), set to launch on May 10 at an event in the U.K. House of Lords, aims to focus the debate on China around the risks and opportunities of its global rise, and away from the split between China hawks and Golden Era supporters, its Deputy Director Andrew Yeh said.

Recent years have seen a host of advocacy groups flood the zone in Westminster. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and Hong Kong Watch have made real inroads. But Yeh, a co-founder of Labour Friends of Taiwan, says CSRI will aim to focus on research and briefings.

 

In terms of funding, CSRI is reportedly targeting grant-making organizations funding research into foreign policy as well as private donations.

ChatGPT Explains What a Think Tank Is To a 3-Year-Old

Think Tank Watch asked ChatGPT to explain what a think tank is to a three-year-old.  Here is what it came up with:

Okay, imagine you have a big box of toys that you like to play with. Now, imagine if you and your friends had a special place where you could go to think about new games to play with your toys. That special place is called a think tank!

In the think tank, grown-ups get together to think about big ideas and try to come up with ways to make things better. They might talk about things like how to make schools better, how to make people healthier, or how to make the environment cleaner.

Just like how you and your friends use your imaginations to come up with new games to play, the people in a think tank use their imaginations and ideas to come up with new ways to help the world.

While ChatGPT thought a 3-year-old working at a think tank was way too young, it did suggest a hypothetical think tank that could be designed for them: "Playtime and Learning Ideas Group," a think tank focused on finding fun ways for children to learn and play.

Think Tank Quickies (#473)

• Bipartisan Policy Center hosted a ceremony to present its Patriot Award to former President George W. Bush at National Harbor, Maryland. 
• Elbridge Colby, a former fellow at CNAS and founder a the Marathon Initiative think tank, is close to Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.
  
• Former US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings now heads think tank Texas 2036.
• Israeli, Ethiopian think tanks sign national security MOU.
• Texas taps think tanks as co-counsel in Biden lawsuits.
• Kazakhstan's leading think tank outlines its achievements for its 30-year anniversary.
• Third Way President Jonathan Cowan, MoveOn Executive Director Rahna Epting and Center for American Progress Action Fund CEO Patrick Gaspard team up for a fiery op-ed in WaPo to rail against No Labels' effort to build a unity ticket for the 2024 election. 
• The Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank and lobbying group, drafted state legislation to strip child workplace protections.
  
• Think tanker quits career to join pronatalism movement.
  
• Book flashback: "The Shadow Government: The Government's Multi-billion-dollar Giveaway of its Decision-making Powers to Private Management Consultants, 'Experts,' and Think Tanks."
  

Russia Blocks Western Think Tanks

Here is more from Canada's Global News:

The March edition of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute magazine, Inside Policy, called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine criminal, unprovoked, unjustifiable, and aggressive.

An Ottawa-based think tank made up of academics, activists and former diplomats and politicians, the MLI has been a leading voice against the Russian war in Ukraine.

Two weeks ago, President Vladimir Putin’s government hit back: it blocked the MLI website in Russia and ordered the company that hosts it to shut it down.

 

Russia has reportedly taken the same action against the US's Wilson Center and Britain's Chatham House. 

MLI was blacklisted by Russia in 2022, along with senior fellows such as Marcus Kolga, Sarah Teich and Shuvaloy Majumdar.  Russia blacklisted Chatham House the same year.

The Atlantic Council and German Marshall Fund have also been blacklisted by Russia, and so has the Jamestown Foundation.

In 2021, China sanctioned the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and several scholars, and China recently sanctioned the Hudson Institute and its leadership. 

Chinas has also been blocking Western think tank websites, such as the one from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).