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International-UN-NGOs

Foreign Powers Buy Influence at U.S. Think Tanks

2014-09-08

More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments' lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research.
NYT Graphic at link.

Posted by:Pappy

#9 whores have a price. That's what negotiations are all about

Posted by: Frank G 2014-09-08 22:11

#8 They have a lot of influence with the bureaus and agencies, plus places like Congressional staffs and the media.

As for foreign money going to 'agreeable' think tanks: if the latter is agreeable, it's for a price.

Posted by: Pappy 2014-09-08 21:45

#7 Does anyone truly listen to the 'think tanks?'. I know they act as a place politicians recruit from but beyond that I think their influence is limited.

And how much of the foreign power money goes to think tanks that already agree with them? Just like a pro-gun Republican taking donations from the NRA is not exactly bought so much as supported.

Posted by: rjschwarz 2014-09-08 20:48

#6 Not surprising or unexpected considering who runs the "Think Tanks".

I think of them more as Trial Balloons.

Posted by: DarthVader 2014-09-08 11:41

#5 This gets typespace in the NYT? Some recent journograd dropped the blinders, thought he/she was onto some Kozmik Revelation, and it got past a lazy editor?

In this case, two relatively minor staffers and Nicholas Confessore.

Posted by: Pappy 2014-09-08 10:40

#4 Brookings and the M_Brotherhood.

Posted by: JohnQC 2014-09-08 09:16

#3 I checked out one recipient, the Center for Global Development. A gaggle of nonentities, it seems to comprise leftwing academics and out-of-work government hacks. No wonder it needs Norwegian money to survive. Not surprisingly, the introductory photograph was of the Brookings Institution, a gathering of moneygrubbers if there ever was one.

Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832 2014-09-08 08:49

#2 Foreign Powers Buy Influence at U.S. Think Tanks

Not to be confused with hundreds of thousands of dollar in untraceable credit card donations from overseas to a presidential campaign (circa 2008).

Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-09-08 08:03

#1 where's that "Master of the bleedin' Obvious" pic?
This gets typespace in the NYT? Some recent journograd dropped the blinders, thought he/she was onto some Kozmik Revelation, and it got past a lazy editor?

note to journo - Yes, that's how it works - as designed.

Posted by: Bov Flimbers 2014-09-08 02:32

00:00