Jamestown Foundation

Founding and mission

The Jamestown Foundation was founded in 1984 after Arkady Shevchenko, the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to defect when he left his position as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, defected in 1978. William Geimer, an American lawyer, had been working closely with Shevchenko, and established the foundation as a vehicle to promote the writings of the former Soviet diplomat and those of Ion Pacepa, a former top Romanian intelligence officer; with the help of the foundation, both defectors published bestselling books.

Central Intelligence Agency Director William J. Casey helped back the formation of the Jamestown Foundation, agreeing with its complaints that the U.S. intelligence community did not provide sufficient funding for Soviet bloc defectors. The foundation, initially also dedicated to supporting Soviet dissidents, also aided defecting intellectuals from the Eastern Bloc in disseminating their ideas in the West.

Leadership

Board of directors

In the past, Jamestown's board of directors has included Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Jamestown's current board includes Michael Carpenter, the managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Carpenter previously served in the Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and in the White House as a foreign policy advisor to Joe Biden (when Biden was vice president under Barack Obama) as well as on the National Security Council as Director for Russia. Jamestown's board also includes Michael G. Vickers, who previously served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and whose role at the Central Intelligence Agency during the Soviet–Afghan War was famously featured in George Crile's 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War.

As of 2021, the foundation's current board includes General Michael V. Hayden; Bruce Hoffman; Matthew Bryza; Robert Spalding, who acted as an architect of US-China strategy while serving on the National Security Council in the Donald Trump administration; Michelle Van Cleave; Arthur Waldron; and Timothy J. Keating, while Jamestown's fellows included Vladimir Socor; Janusz Bugajski; Paul Goble; Michael Scheuer (who claims to have been fired for criticizing the United States' relationship with Israel), Thomas Kent, the former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a Hong Kong–based China specialist; Jacob Zenn, a leading expert on Boko Haram; and Stephen Ulph, a leading expert on Jihadist ideology.

Staff

In September 2023, Peter Mattis was named Jamestown president, succeeding Glen E. Howard, who held the position for 20 years.

Activities

Its primary focus is on China, Eurasia, Russia, and global terrorism. As of 2023, its main publications are China Brief, Eurasia Daily Monitor, Terrorism Monitor, and Militant Leadership Monitor. Previous publications included Eurasia Security Trends, Fortnight in Review, North Korea Review, Russia and Eurasia Review, Russia's Week, Spotlight on Terror, North Caucasus Weekly, (formerly Chechnya Weekly) and Recent From Turkey and Terrorism Focus. Along with these publications, Jamestown produces occasional reports and books.

From 1995 to 1997, the Jamestown Foundation issued Prism: A Monthly on the Post-Soviet States.

Nikolai Getman collection

The foundation hosted Russian artist Nikolai Getman's paintings of Gulag camps. Getman was imprisoned for eight years by the Soviet regime for participating in anti-Soviet propaganda as a result of a caricature of Joseph Stalin that one of his friends had drawn on a cigarette box. He survived, and for four decades he secretly labored at creating a visual record of the Gulag system. In September 2009, the Jamestown Foundation transferred the Getman collection to The Heritage Foundation.

Reception

In 2007, the Russian government said the think tank was spreading anti-Russian propaganda by hosting a debate on violence in the Russian republic of Ingushetia. According to a statement by the Foreign Ministry of Russia: "Organisers again and again resorted to deliberately spreading slander about the situation in Chechnya and other republics of the Russian North Caucasus using the services of supporters of terrorists and pseudo-experts. Speakers were given carte blanche to spread extremist propaganda, incite ethnic and inter-religious discord." In response, Jamestown Foundation president Glen Howard said that Russia was "intimidated by the power of the free word and this goes against the state manipulation of the media in Russia".

On 8 December 2011, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator for the Obama administration, gave the keynote address at Jamestown's Fifth Annual Terrorism Conference where he praised Jamestown for its research and analysis of terrorism issues.

The Jamestown Foundation was criticized by the Right Web project (now the "Militarist Monitor" project) based at the Institute for Policy Studies for alleged links to the CIA and for advancing a right-wing, neoconservative agenda.

In 2020, the office of the Prosecutor-General of Russia said that Jamestown Foundation's publications sought to fan separatism in some Russian regions and posed a security threat. It described the Foundation as an "undesirable organisation", which could result in the organization being banned in Russia under the Russian foreign agent law.

References

References

1. "Chinese Stealth Fighter Could Rival U.S.'s Best: Report".
2. Gamarekian, Barbara. (1988-07-15). "Washington Talk: Soviet Emigres; Russians Who Choose Democracy Find Transition Is Not Always Easy". The New York Times.
3. Shipler, BY David K.. (1986-12-07). "AFTER THEY DEFECT...". The New York Times.
4. Jamestown Foundation, [http://www.jamestown.org/aboutus/ Origins] {{Webarchive. link. (3 May 2009)
5. (2009). "Russophobia : Anti-Russian Lobby and American Foreign Policy". Palgrave Macmillan.
6. (2 July 1986). "Who aids East bloc defectors in the US?". Christian Science Monitor.
7. "Brzezinski Joins Jamestown Foundation Board".
8. "Michael Carpenter - Foreign Policy Research Institute".
9. "Board Members - The Jamestown Foundation". jamestown.org.
10. "Board Members".
11. "Jamestown Fellows".
12. (15 January 2012)
13. "Towards a Curriculum for the Teaching of Jihadist Ideology". The Jamestown Foundation.
14. "Peter Mattis".
15. "China Brief". Jamestown.
16. "Eurasia Daily Monitor". Jamestown.
17. "Militant Leadership Monitor". Jamestown.
18. "North Caucasus Weekly - The Jamestown Foundation". jamestown.org.
19. "Turkey - The Jamestown Foundation". jamestown.org.
20. "Recent Reports". jamestown.org.
21. [http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/ "Books" webpage] {{Webarchive. link. (23 December 2010 , ''jamestown.org''.)
22. [https://www.amazon.com/Prism-Monthly-Post-Soviet-States-1995-1997/dp/B081MQNJYZ "Prism: A Monthly on the Post-Soviet States" on Amazon]
23. [http://www.jamestown.org/aboutus/getmanpaintings/ Getman] {{Webarchive. link. (13 May 2012 Retrieved on 9 November 2010)
24. "Heritage Exhibits Haunting 'Gulag Collection'". The Heritage Foundation.
25. (7 December 2007). "Moscow criticises US think-tank over debate". Reuters.
26. (December 8, 2011). "Al-Qaida After Bin Laden".
27. (May 28, 2013). "Jamestown Foundation". [[Institute for Policy Studies]].
28. (April 8, 2020). "Russia moves to ban 'undesirable' U.S. research group".