Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies

Peter Kennard's 'Defended to Death' Photomontage

The Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies (IEDSS) was set up in London in 1979 to study political change in Europe and to assess its impact on strategic and defence issues. It was particularly concerned with those developments which affected the Western Alliance. It was founded by Peter Blaker MP (now Lord Blaker), Ray Whitney MP and Stephen Haseler. According to Tom Easton :

"Haseler was not only a member of the SDP, but a founding member of the Social Democratic Alliance which preceded it. An academic who, as a London councillor, had become a vociferous critic of changes within the Labour Party in the Seventies, Haseler had spent some time at the third big Washington think-tank, the Heritage Foundation. With its money he had helped set up in London the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies, a forceful and well-resourced foe of both the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Labour Party in the Eighties."

IEDSS was the subject of a profile in City Limits (14 August 1986). According to Robin Ramsay , it was formed as part of the response to the British peace movement; Ramsay also suggests that Haseler has CIA connections, and Richard V. Allen was NSC advisor to Reagan until he got caught (or set up) taking a bribe. IEDSS appeared to be run by Gerald Frost who was in the Thatcher/Joseph Centre for Policy Studies.

This is confirmed by an investigation by the Nation that stated that: "Since 1982 the Heritage Foundation, the most influential conservative think tank in the United States, has channeled as much as $1 million to right-wing organizations in Britain and other Western European countries, with the aim of influencing domestic political affairs."

The article states that the British groups financed by Heritage were closely linked to senior figures in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party. In one case, that of the IEDSS, where the foundation provided start-up capital and the overwhelming bulk of continued financial support, the result is a virtual Heritage satellite. Jeffrey Gayner, Heritage's counsel for international relations, described as their "ambassador to the world,' says Heritage has led the effort to shape a "common international agenda' for the right, developing "a cooperative relationship' with more than "200 foreign groups and individuals, including political parties, think tanks, academics and media. Programs include information exchanges and visits, Heritage's periodic appointment of non-Americans to specific assignments and fellowships."

Edwin Feulner Jr., was chair of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and responsible for evaluating programs of the U.S. Information Agency, including Voice of America, Radio Marti, Fulbright scholarships and the National Endowment for Democracy and had previously attended the London School of Economics and the University of Edinburgh.

John O'Sullivan, editor of the Heritage Foundation's journal, Policy Review, from 1979 to 1983 and a policy adviser to Thatcher, wrote key sections of the 1987 Conservative Party's election manifesto, "The Next Moves Forward.' The Nation article states that Heritage funding of British projects was evident as early as 1979, and became more systematic in 1982, when U.S. and British conservatives were alarmed by the growing influence of the peace movement:

"That May, Heritage disseminated a so-called backgrounder titled "Moscow and the Peace Offensive,' in which it called on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and "its affiliated public support organizations' to spread "information concerning the links . . . between known Communist front groups and the "independent' peace groups.' The campaign to prevent the deployment of cruisemissiles on British soil was accompanied by a steady acceleration of Heritage funding. According to the I.R.S.'s schedules, the foundation's donations to a range of British institutions rose from $106,000 in 1982 to $254,000 in 1985. Although 1986 figures are not yet available, total Heritage contributions over a five-year period appear to be in the neighborhood of $1 million. During the three years for which records could be obtained, Britain was the target of more than 95 percent of Heritage's international funding operations."

The main recipients identified for 1982-1985 are the IEDSS., which received a total of $427,809, more than any other group, U.S. or foreign; the International Freedom Fund Establishment (I.F.F.E.), which took in $140,000 (and was the semi-private fund run by Brian Crozier); the Coalition for Peace through Security (C.P.S.), which accepted a $10,000 grant in 1982 and, according to BBC television's untransmitted Secret Society series obtained a letter from the C.P.S. thanking Heritage for a further grant of $50,000 in October 1982.vThree other British groups were given token amounts: theSocial Affairs Unit, the International Symposium of the Open Society and an organization listed simply as Aneks.

Before moving to the IEDSS, Frost was secretary of the Centre for Policy Studies, which was founded in 1974 by, among others, Margaret Thatcher, who served as its first president.

Founded in 1979, the year Thatcher came to power, the IEDSS stated its goals thus:

"To assess the impact of political change in Europe and North America on defense and strategic issues. In particular, to study the domestic political situation in NATO countries and how this affects the NATO posture."

In an interview in the Nation, Gayner denied that there was any formal connection between Heritage and the institute, although the IEDSS was, in fact, set up with foundation funds and that Heritage president Feulner chairs the institute's board; Richard V. Allen, Reagan's first national security adviser, a Heritage distinguished fellow and head of the foundation's Asian Studies Center advisory council, is also a board member; Frank Shakespeare, chair of the foundation's board of trustees and the Reagan Administration's Ambassador to the Vatican, was a founding member of the IEDSS's advisory council.

Frost credits Stephen Haseler came up with the idea for the Institute. One of the earliest prominent defectors to Britain's Social Democratic Party, which broke away from the Labor Party in 1981, Haseler was also a Heritage scholar and a member of the editorial board of Policy Review. According to Frost, Haseler "saw the need for a broad-based international institute" and "persuaded Ed Fuelner that this was a good idea." Feulner then agreed to support the good idea, to the tune of £60,000 pounds.

Funding

Funders included the right wing US foundations The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc. and the John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.

Soviet view

The institute was denounced as a propaganda body by the Soviet Moscow Home service in 1987:

It is not only the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence that are engaged in fostering an aggressive image of the Soviet Union in the minds of the British people. Academic bodies have also taken up this unseemly task on the orders of the British Conservative Government. Amongst them is the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies.

No doubt this is just the kind of criticism that the Institute wanted. what is more interesting is that it should be reported as an 'academic' body. In fact it was chock full of cold warriors with intelligence connections.

People

1982 Advisory Council

Richard V. Allen (US National Security Council (NSC), appointed to the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board (DPB) Advisory Committee November 2001; Senior Fellow Hoover Institution 1983-present; Center for Strategic and International Studies Advisory Board; Project for the New American Century; Member Heritage Foundation; Council on Foreign Relations; The Nixon Center Advisory Council, International Crisis Group) | Luigi Barzini | Dr. Robert Conquest | Rt. Hon Lord George Brown | Brian Key MEP | Melvin J. Lasky: Ex-editor of Encounter | Leonard Schapiro | Pedro Schwartz | Frank Shakespeare | Dr. G. R. Urban

1982 Board of Management

Dr. Edwin J. Feulner Jr. (Chairman) president of the Heritage Foundation | Dr. Stephen Haseler (Sec) | Congressman David R. Bowen| Peter R. Durrant | Douglas Eden | Prof. Antonio Martino | Ray Whitney Information Research Department (IRD) | Gerald Frost (Ex. Dir.) | George Miller (research officer)

1985 Advisory Council

Dr. Robert Conquest | Brian Key MEP | Leopold Labedz | Melvin J. Lasky | Rt. Hon Reginald Prentice MP | Hon Frank Shakespeare | Dr. Philip Towle | Dr. G. R. Urban

1985 Board of Management

Richard V. Allen | Rt. Hon Sir Peter Blaker KCMG MP | Dr. Iain Elliot | Dr. Edwin J. Feulner Jr. | Dr. Stephen Haseler | Prof. Antonio Martino | Gerald Frost (Ex. Dir.) | Jonathan Luxmore (Editor)

1990 Advisory Council

Prof. Jean-Marie Benoist | Dr. Christopher Coker :BAP steering group 1996, RUSI, Chatham House and Institute for European Defence & Strategic Studies | Dr. Robert Conquest | Baroness Cox | Leopold Labedz | Melvin J. Lasky | John O'Sullivan | Pedro Schwartz | Hon. Frank Shakespeare | Dr. Philip Towle | Dr. G. R. Urban | Alan Lee Williams | Prof. Albert Wohlstetter

Members

1996

• Jimmy James

Contact, publications, notes

Contact

The IEDSS operated out of 13/14 Golden Square while 12a was used by Brian Crozier’s Institute for the Study of Conflict. Round the corner from Poland Street London, W1P 3FP

Publications

• Kuzio, T. (1995) "Back from the Brink", Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies. London: Alliance Publishers Ltd.
• Occasional paper No 7: 'Peace studies: a critical survey' by Caroline Cox and Roger Scruton, 1984.
• Occasional paper No 9: 'Idealism, Realism and the Myth of Appeasement' by Jeane Kirkpatrick, 1984.
• Occasional paper No 13: 'The Soviet connection': 'State sponsorship of terrorism' by Jillian Becker 1985.
• Occasional paper No 14: 'Neglect and betrayal: war and violence in modern sociology' by Donald Marsland 1985.
• Institute for European Defence & Strategic Studies press release: 'Sociology courses infected with anti-NATO bias, says report' 7 October 1985.
• Occasional paper No 15: 'World studies: education or indoctrination?' by Roger Scruton 1985.
• Institute for European Defence & Strategic Studies press release: "Curriculum activists" waging propaganda war in schools' 11 December 1985.