Foreign Policy Initiative

The Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) is a neoconservative pressure group founded by William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Dan Senor to fight what they call 'neo-isolationism'. The think tank sponsored a conference in March 2009 pushing for a U.S. "surge" in Afghanistan entitled "Afghanistan: Planning for Success". The FPI is seen by some as a successor to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which became best known for leading the public campaign to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Principals

According to Jim Lobe:

Two of FPI's three staffers, policy director Jamie Fly and Christian Whiton, have come directly from foreign policy posts in the Bush administration, while the third, Rachel Hoff, last worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Contacted by IPS at the group's office, Fly referred all questions to Senor, who did not return the call.

Staff

• Jamie M. Fly - Executive Director
• Ellen Bork - Director, Democracy and Human Rights
• Abe Greenwald - Policy Advisor and Online Editor
• Daniel Halper - Research Associate
• Rachel Hoff - Director of External Affairs
• Christian Whiton - Policy Advisor

Board of Directors

• William Kristol
• Robert Kagan
• Dan Senor

Mission Statement

Jim Lobe analyses the group's mission statement:

"The United States remains the world's indispensable nation," and warns that "strategic overreach is not the problem and retrenchment is not the solution" to Washington's current financial and strategic woes. It calls for "continued engagement - diplomatic, economic, and military - in the world and rejection of policies that would lead us down the path to isolationism."

"The mission statement opens by listing a familiar litany of threats to the U.S., including "rogue states," "failed states," "autocracies" and "terrorism", but gives pride of place to the "challenges" posed by "rising and resurgent powers," of which only China and Russia are named".

Their prominence may reflect the influence of Kagan, who has argued in recent years that the 21st century will be dominated by a struggle between the forces of democracy (led by the U.S.) and autocracy (led by China and Russia). He has called for a League of Democracies as a mechanism for combating Chinese and Russian power, and the FPI statement stresses the need for "robust support for America's democratic allies".

This emphasis may also indicate that FPI intends to make confrontation with China and Russia the centrepiece of its foreign policy stance. If this is the case, it would mark a return to the early days of the Bush administration, before 9/11, when Kristol's Weekly Standard took the lead in attacking Washington for its alleged "appeasement" of Beijing.

Similarities to PNAC

FPI has inevitably drawn comparisons to PNAC, a "letterhead organization" founded by Kristol and Kagan shortly after their publication in 'Foreign Affairs' of an article entitled "Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy" which called for Washington to exercise "benevolent global hegemony" and warned against what they saw as the post-Cold War drift of the Republican Party toward "neoisolationism" after it lost the White House to Bill Clinton.

"This reminds me of the Project for the New American Century," said Steven Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. "Like PNAC, it will become a watering hole for those who want to see an ever-larger U.S. military machine and who divide the world between those who side with right and might and those who are evil or who would appease evil."

Affiliates

Besides other neocons, FPI has organized events featuring liberal hawks affiliated with the Israel lobby including Kenneth Pollack and Michael O'Hanlon of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and fellow travellers such as Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post.

Figures who have participated in FPI programs include:

• Mark Kirk Congressman (R-IL)
• Mitt Romney
• Lilia Shevtsova - Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Ivan Krastev - Chair, Centre for Liberal Strategies
• Fred Hiatt - Editorial Page Editor, The Washington Post
• Newt Gingrich
• Elliott Abrams
• Kenneth Wollack - President, National Democratic Institute
• Saad Eddin Ibrahim
• Jeffrey Gedmin - President, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
• Reuel Marc Gerecht
• Michael O’Hanlon
• Kenneth Pollack
• David W. Barno - Lt. Gen.(Ret.)Former Commander of Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan and Director, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University
• David Brooks
• John McCain

Contact

• Address: 11 Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 325, Washington, DC 20036
• Telephone: + 1 (202) 296 3322
• Email: info@foreignpolicyi.org
• Website: http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/