Archiv: think tanks


16.09.2023 - 00:05 [ Glenn Greenwald / Locals.com ]

EU and The Washington Post Escalate Their Censorship Campaign with a New Fraudulent “Disinformation Study” About Twitter and Russia. Plus: The John McCain Institute Used to Promote Neocon Dogma on War

(September 08, 2023)

The way this typically works is that groups claim to employ “disinformation experts” – a brand new and fake expertise they created overnight – and then produce studies that purport to document who is either circulating harmful disinformation or who is permitting it to be heard. This latter accusation, permitting dangerous disinformation to be heard, always means that one social media company or another is failing to censor in accordance with the demands of the group and its funders. They then get corporate media outlets who crave censorship to melodramatically trumpet their accusatory studies using flamboyant headlines that claim a disobedient technology platform has the blood on their hands, knowing that it will spread virally, but very few people actually read the study to determine if the accusations have any validity.

06.09.2023 - 02:59 [ Reuters ]

Obama-era veteran Kurt Campbell to lead Biden‘s Asia policy

(Jan 13, 2021)

Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia under Democratic President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is considered an architect of their “pivot to Asia” strategy, a vaunted but so far still limited rebalancing of resources to the region.

06.09.2023 - 02:52 [ Washington Post ]

Why Biden Skipping the Asean Summit Is a Mistake

The deliberate cherry picking of allies and partners is the brainchild, insiders tell me, of Biden’s key Asia policy czar, Kurt Campbell. It is likely to continue, as Campbell has pointed out in a discussion earlier this year at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

08.06.2023 - 03:02 [ Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft ]

Defense Contractor Funded Think Tanks Dominate Ukraine Debate

Few Americans know what a think tank is or does, although they play a pivotal role in the U.S. political process.2 Think tanks operate as something of a conduit between academia and the policymaking community, conducting research and opining on pressing policy issues, including everything from healthcare to climate change to U.S. foreign policy. Think tanks also work directly with policymakers in the executive branch and Congress. Their experts regularly testify before Congress and go on to serve in key positions in the executive branch. Former government officials in turn often go on to work for think tanks, earning them the nickname of “holding tank” where former government officials await a change in party affiliation of Congress or the Presidency.

Of most direct relevance to this brief is the fact that think tanks are a go–to source for media outlets seeking opinions on pressing policy issues. Think tank experts provide the comments and articles you read in prominent national media outlets . They’re the voices you hear providing commentary on NPR, podcasts, and even local radio stations. They’re the faces you see on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC opining on the most pressing U.S. policy issues of the day. In short, think tanks are a key component of public debates about U.S. politics and policy.

29.04.2022 - 19:30 [ Tagesschau.de ]

Bundesanwaltschaft ermittelt: BND-Spione für China im Einsatz?

(27.06.2020)

Die Bundesanwaltschaft hat Ermittlungen gegen einen 74-Jährigen und seine Frau eingeleitet. Sie sollen nach Informationen des ARD-Hauptstadtstudios für einen chinesischen Geheimdienst und den BND spioniert haben.

29.04.2022 - 19:16 [ ORF.at ]

Ehepaar in München wegen Spionage für China verurteilt

Ein früherer Informant des Bundesnachrichtendiensts und seine Frau sind vom Oberlandesgericht München wegen Spionage für China zu Bewährungsstrafen verurteilt worden. (…)

Der Politologe L. arbeitete früher auch für die CSU-nahe Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung. Laut Bundesanwaltschaft soll er seit 2001 eine Denkfabrik betrieben haben.

10.11.2021 - 17:01 [ USA Today ]

Professionals purposely spreading misinformation are ‚criminals,‘ Pfizer CEO says: COVID-19 updates

But Bourla has less empathy or understanding for what he said are the “small” number of people who have knowingly circulated misinformation. Those people can’t be qualified just bad people, he said, adding: “They are criminals. They have literally cost millions of lives.”

The interview was live-streamed online and the replay is available to watch here.

12.03.2021 - 11:31 [ Haaretz ]

The U.S. Billionaires Secretly Funding the Right-wing Effort to Reshape Israel

The Kohelet Policy Forum has wielded increasing influence on Israel‘s decision-making centers, with an ideology that weds conservative, settlement-supporting politics to free-market economics. Who is the guiding force behind this under-the-radar enterprise – and who‘s bankrolling it?

25.01.2021 - 06:44 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Vaccine passports supported by majority of public despite ‚dystopian‘ consequences

(24.01.2021)

Two polls conducted in April found that between 51 and 70 per cent of people were likely to support these passports.

23.12.2020 - 07:00 [ theGuardian.com ]

Brexit poses grave risks to UK health and care sector, report finds

The Nuffield Trust thinktank stated: “The perilously uncertain future facing the UK at the end of the Brexit transition period could put the UK’s health and care system at risk.”

The report said new migration rules, possible disruption to medicines and devices, an ongoing economic slowdown and barriers to science investment would hit the health sector.

03.12.2020 - 17:16 [ theDiplomat.com ]

NATO Huddles With Asia-Pacific Democracies to Talk China

The incoming Biden administration has pledged to do even more to partner with allies on the China challenge.

In another step in that direction, on December 2, the foreign ministers of the NATO members, along with delegations from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, gathered virtually to discuss the rise of China and the implications for the global balance of power.

03.12.2020 - 16:57 [ ORF.at ]

Stoltenberg: Keine NATO-Öffnung nach Asien

Der wachsende militärische Einfluss Chinas wird nach Einschätzung von NATO-Generalsekretär Jens Stoltenberg nicht zu einer Öffnung des Verteidigungsbündnisses für asiatische Staaten wie Japan und Südkorea führen. „Wir sind ein regionales Bündnis und werden ein regionales Bündnis bleiben“, sagte der Norweger heute bei einer Diskussion der Denkfabrik Carnegie Europe.

16.11.2020 - 18:49 [ theNewEuropean.co.uk ]

Think tank says country might face Brexit ‚in name only‘ following Cummings‘ departure from Number 10

He continued: „Dom Cummings‘ presence at the centre of the government‘s policy programme gave Brexiteers confidence that Brexit would take place in a meaningful way.“

Instead, he warned that the loss „makes post-Brexit Britain more likely to be very similar to a Britain inside the EU, and possibly worse“.

25.09.2020 - 15:05 [ BBC ]

Blair to tackle ‚menace‘ children

(31. August 2006)

And one think tank suggested it was almost „genetic determinism“ to suggest children could turn out to be troublemakers before they were born.

Mr Blair told BBC News his government had made „massive progress“ in tackling social exclusion but there was a group of people with multiple problems.

There had to be intervention „pre-birth even“, he said.

Families with drug and alcohol problems were being identified too late, said Mr Blair.

27.06.2020 - 11:53 [ Tagesschau.de ]

Bundesanwaltschaft ermittelt: BND-Spione für China im Einsatz?

W. ist 74 Jahre alt und arbeitete knapp 50 Jahre lang als Quelle für den BND. In der Spätphase der Zusammenarbeit stieg seine Frau mit ein. Jenseits einer braven bürgerlichen Existenz verfolgten die Beiden konsequent eine andere, geheime Agenda. Im öffentlichen Teil seines Lebens arbeitete Dieter W. bei der CSU-nahen Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung in München.

26.02.2020 - 21:31 [ BBC ]

Blair to tackle ‚menace‘ children

(31. August 2006)

And one think tank suggested it was almost „genetic determinism“ to suggest children could turn out to be troublemakers before they were born.

Mr Blair told BBC News his government had made „massive progress“ in tackling social exclusion but there was a group of people with multiple problems.

There had to be intervention „pre-birth even“, he said.

Families with drug and alcohol problems were being identified too late, said Mr Blair.

27.01.2020 - 07:46 [ theGrayzone.com ]

Woke wonk Elizabeth Warren’s foreign policy team is stacked with pro-war swamp creatures

Of the 35 people listed as advising Warren, including Baker, nine have spent time at the Pentagon and 13 at the State Department.

Most others have spent time at the big four Democratic foreign policy think tanks, with six from the Center for American Progress (CAP), three from the Century Foundation, five from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and five from the Truman Project. Meanwhile, three members of the team worked at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) or the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington’s two main vehicles for funding regime change activity.

28.04.2019 - 12:18 [ CEPR.net ]

Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela

We find that the sanctions have inflicted, and increasingly inflict, very serious harm to human life and health, including an estimated more than 40,000 deaths from 2017–2018; and that these sanctions would fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population as described in both the Geneva and Hague international conventions, to which the US is a signatory. They are also illegal under international law and treaties which the US has signed, and would appear to violate US law as well.

28.04.2019 - 12:16 [ Independent.co.uk ]

US sanctions on Venezuela responsible for ‚tens of thousands‘ of deaths, claims new report

As many as 40,000 people may have died in Venezuela as a result of US sanctions that made it harder for ordinary citizens to access food, medicine and medical equipment, a new report has claimed.

The report, published by the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) a progressive, Washington DC-based think tank, says those deaths took place following the imposition of sanctions in the summer of 2017.

21.04.2019 - 17:57 [ Vox.com ]

The logic of Bernie Sanders’s continuing war against Clintonworld

Over the weekend, Sanders sent the Center of American Progress — a powerful Democratic think tank that’s closely aligned with the Clintons — a scathing letter, hitting several negative articles and videos published by the group’s media arm, ThinkProgress, that he says will make it easier for President Trump to win in 2020.

“I and other Democratic candidates are running campaigns based on principles and ideas and not engaging in mudslinging or personal attacks on each other,” Sanders wrote in the letter, first obtained by the New York Times.

04.01.2019 - 11:21 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Schnell, schnell: So geht es mit den Uploadfiltern gegen Propaganda weiter

„Es ist nur richtig, dass wir schauen, wie wir die Möglichkeiten zur Verbreitung extremistischer Inhalte im Internet einschränken können“, sagt der EU-Abgeordnete Dalton gegenüber netzpolitik.org. Er verweist auf ein Papier des US-Think-Tanks Wilson Center, das dem Internet und insbesondere sozialen Netzwerken eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Radikalisierung von sich „marginalisiert fühlenden Muslimen“ zuschreibt, die daraufhin in den „Cyberjihad“ ziehen würden.

18.12.2018 - 00:47 [ Dailyrecord.co.uk ]

Secret Scottish-based office led infowars attack on Labour and Jeremy Corbyn

On the surface, the cryptically named Institute for Statecraft is a small charity operating from an old Victorian mill in Fife.

But explosive leaked documents passed to the Sunday Mail reveal the organisation’s Integrity Initiative is funded with £2million of Foreign Office cash and run by military intelligence specialists.

The “think tank” is supposed to counter Russian online propaganda by forming “clusters” of friendly journalists and “key influencers” throughout Europe who use social media to hit back against disinformation.

02.11.2018 - 06:25 [ Spiegel.de ]

Merkel-Nachfolge: Was Washington von Merz, Spahn und AKK hält

„Wer kommt da jetzt?“, ist deshalb eine Frage, die in diesen Tagen häufig von US-Regierungsvertretern und Mitarbeitern in den Think Tanks gestellt wird. Friedrich Merz, Jens Spahn oder Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer wollen Merkel im Parteivorsitz beerben – und damit vielleicht auch bald im Kanzleramt.

13.05.2018 - 14:54 [ Freitag ]

Gefühlter Kolonialismus

Nach dem Systemwechsel kam die „Rückkehr nach Europa“ auf den Wunschzettel, die mit den EU-Beitritten von 2004 und 2007 eingelöst schien. Während die Reformwilligen im Osten darunter die Heranführung an westeuropäische Standards verstanden, war damit im westlichen Establishment die Wiederherstellung jenes Hinterhofes gemeint, wie er in den Erweiterungsgebieten der Reiche bestanden hatte und auch von den unabhängigen Staaten in der kurzen Zwischenkriegszeit nicht außer Kraft gesetzt werden konnte.