Who’s paying these people to ‘think’? (Addendum to “Sticks & Stones”, published separately)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post is an addendum to the separately posted “Sticks and Stones: How think tank ‘experts’ are trying to dupe us into World War III”. This post contains reference sources and further information about the background and affiliations of the “think tank experts” who signed a letter urging Biden to support a Ukraine no-fly zone. You can read the letter in question by clicking here.

The think tanks of the signers and their funders are below the list of signers.

Experts asking Biden for a Ukraine no-fly zone-  their think tanks are underlined

1. Anders Aslund, Senior Fellow, Stockholm Free World Forum – Atlantic Council.

2. Stephen Blank- Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Jamestown Foundation (no donor information found).

3. Gen. (Ret.) Philip Breedlove, Former Supreme Allied Commander Europe – Atlantic Council, Center for a New American Security, Jamestown Foundation (no donor information found).

4. Paula Dobriansky, Former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs- Atlantic Council, Academy of Diplomacy, American Foreign Policy Council (no donor information found). 

**Dobriansky is also on the advisory board of IDS, a defense contractor.**

5. Eric S. Edelman, Former Under Secretary of Defense – Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments,  Academy of Diplomacy.

6. Evelyn Farkas, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia – Council on Foreign Relations,  Aspen Institute,  Project 2049 Institute.

7. Daniel Fried, Former Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to Poland – Atlantic Council,  Academy of Diplomacy.

8. Andrew J. Futey, President, Ukrainian Congress Committee of America
9. Melinda Haring – Atlantic Council,  Foreign Policy Research Institute.

10. John Herbst, Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine – Atlantic Council.

11. LtG (Ret.) Ben Hodges, Former Commanding General, United States Army Europe – Center for European Policy Analysis.

12. Glen Howard- President of the Jamestown Foundation (no donor information found).

13. Donald Jensen, Johns Hopkins University- Institute of Modern Russia (no donor information found).

14. Ian Kelly, Former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia and OSCE
15. John Kornblum, Former Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to Germany – Center for Strategic and International Studies, Academy of Diplomacy.

16. Shelby Magid- Atlantic Council.

17. Robert McConnell – Co-Founder, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (no donor information found).

18. Claire Sechler Merkel – Senior Director, McCain Institute for International Leadership.

19. David A. Merkel, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Director, National Security Council – Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies.

20. Barry Pavel-  Atlantic Council.

21. Herman Pirchner- President, American Foreign Policy Council (no donor information found).

22. Michael Sawkiw, Jr., Director, Ukrainian National Information Service
23. Leah Scheunemann- Atlantic Council.

24. Benjamin L. Schmitt, Former European Energy Security Advisor, U.S. Department of State – Center for European Policy Analysis.

25. William Taylor, Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine – Academy of Diplomacy.

26. Alexander Vershbow, Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and NATO – Atlantic Council.

27. Ian Brzezinski, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense – Atlantic Council.

28. Orest Deychakiwsky, Former Policy Adviser, U.S. Helsinki Commission
29. Larry Diamond – Hoover Institution (no donor information found).

30. Kurt Volker, Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations – Atlantic Council,  McCain Institute for International Leadership,  Academy of Diplomacy,  Center for Transatlantic Relations (no donor information found)

–**Volker also works for BGR group, a lobbying firm which represents major defense contractor Raytheon among others.**

Think tanks and their defense contractor donors

Here’s a list of the think tanks to which some of the individuals on this list belong (some belong to more than one). I’ve gone through their donor lists and picked out a few of the defense contractors (or associated individuals) that appear. Not all are weapons contractors, but all have lucrative dealings with the Pentagon. Their approximate monetary contribution is also supplied where possible. There are certainly many defense contractors and executives on these lists that I missed.

Admittedly, this is cherry picking. None of these think tanks are exclusively funded by defense contractors (though some come close). I’ve supplied links to the full donor lists so you can see for yourself (click on the names of the think tanks in blue). In the case of individuals, of course, I have no way of verifying if these names refer to the exact people that I think they do; it’s just a damn good bet.

I could not find donor information for the Jamestown Foundation, American Foreign Policy Council, and the Hoover Institution. Watchdog groups have singled out these organizations as being especially hawkish and secretive about their backers.

Here are a couple of links I found useful:

Top 100 Defense Contractors, 2020: https://dsm.forecastinternational.com/wordpress/2021/02/02/top-100-defense-contractors-2020/

A useful tool for looking up government spending: https://www.usaspending.gov/search

The Atlantic Council (AC)

$5OOK- $999,999: Saab.

$250K-$499,99: Airbus, Chevron, General Atomics, Palantir, Raytheon.

$100K-$249,999: Accenture, Burisma (Ukrainian oil company), Dell, Lockheed Martin.

50K-$99,999: General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman.

$25K-$49,999: BAE Systems, Boeing, Microsoft.

The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)

Under the individual donors, one Phebe Novakovic has pledged $15,000 a year to this think tank. This could well be the Phebe Novakovic who is currently CEO of General Dynamics.

Center for a New American Security

$500k and up: Northrop Grumman.

$250k- $499,999: Neal Blue (CEO of General Atomics).

$100k-$249,999: Amazon Web Services, Charles Koch Institute (always nice to see a Koch brother), Cisco Systems, Honeywell International, Inc., Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc., Leidos Holdings, Inc., Leonardo DRS, Microsoft, Palantir, Raytheon.

$50k-$99,999: BAE, Bell Textron, Boeing, Booz Allen, Brighton Marine, Lockheed Martin.

$25k-$49,999: General Dynamics, L3Harris Technologies, Inc.

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

Top tier: Accenture, AT&T, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Exxon

Second tier: Dell

Third tier: Booz Allen, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Northrup Grumman, Palantir

International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)

£100K and over: Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon.

£25K- £99,999: Booz Allen Hamilton, Northrop Grumman, Leonardo, Saab.

£1,000 to £24,999: General Atomics.

Project 2049 Institute (donors per Sludge)

Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems.

Aspen Institute

$1m or more: Accenture, Jacklyn and Miguel Bezos (mother and stepfather of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon); Bill and Melinda Gates (of Microsoft); Lester Crown (likely the founder of General Dynamics); James Crown (likely Lester’s son).

$100k-500k: Cisco, Deloitte, Microsoft.

$50k-$100K: General Dynamics.

Academy of Diplomacy (AoD)

Black & Veatch, Gardaworld.

Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA)

BAE Systems plc, Bell Textron, Inc., Daimler AG, General Atomics, General Dynamics, Leonardo US, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft.

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

$500K or more: Northrop Grumman.

$200k-$499,999: BP, Chevron, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin.

$100k-$199,999: Boeing, General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls, Microsoft, Raytheon.

$35k-$49,999: BAE Systems.

McCain Institute for International Leadership (MCIL)

$100k or more: Cisco Systems, Bill and Melinda Gates, General Electric.

$25k-$99,999: Amazon Web Services, Raytheon, Saab.