Henry Jackson Society: Project for Democratic Geopolitics

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The Henry Jackson Society Logo

The Henry Jackson Society Project for Democratic Geopolitics is a British neoconservative think tank and political action committee (PAC) which is supported by key US neocons and by two of Prime Minister David Cameron's closest advisers and ministers. It was launched in Cambridge on 11 March 2005 and in the Houses of Parliament on 22 November 2005. [1] The manifesto for the society was published by the Social Affairs Unit. [2]

Origins and launch

The Henry Jackson Society was originally an online organisation, only later moving to offices in London. According to its own account it was launched online on 11 March 2005, ‘after several months and much hard work.’ [3] Its online launch was announced in a press release drafted by the ‘Organising Committee’ – the body which ran the Society before its registration as a UK charity. The Organising Committee was headed by Brendan Simms and Alan Mendoza, the Society’s co-founders. [4] Brendan Simms, a Cambridge historian, was then best known for his book Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia, a highly critical account of British (non-interventionist) policy during the Bosnian War. Mendoza had written his PhD thesis on British policy during the conflict.

The HJS’s homepage originally displayed the following message:

The Henry Jackson Society is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote the following principles: that liberal democracy should be spread across the world; that as the world’s most powerful democracies, the United States and the European Union – under British leadership – must shape the world more actively by intervention and example; that such leadership requires political will, a commitment to universal human rights and the maintenance of a strong military with global expeditionary reach; and that too few of our leaders in Britain and the rest of Europe today are ready to play a role in the world that matches our strength and responsibilities. [5]

The HJS was launched in Cambridge on 15 June 2005. At the launch event Gary Kent of Labour Friends of Iraq spoke about ‘The Left and Iraq’. That was followed by a drinks reception in the Fellow's Garden in Peterhouse and a formal dinner in Clare Hall. [6] The Society’s Westminster launch took place on 22 November 2005 in the Jubilee Room of the House of Commons. It was hosted by Michael Gove and Gisela Stuart. [7]

Aims and Objectives

Senator Henry 'Scoop' Jackson

Its statement of principles has been revised from its earlier, more forthright presentation of neocon themes, to a more oblique and ambiguous rendering of the same themes. It advocates a ‘forward strategy’ involving 'diplomatic, economic, cultural, and/or political means' to spread liberal democracy; and the maintenance of a strong military by US, EU and 'other democratic powers' armed with 'expeditionary capabilities with a global reach' so it can preempt threats and carry out humanitarian interventions. Furthermore, it supports 'necessary furtherance of European military modernisation and integration under British leadership'; believes that 'only modern liberal democratic states are truly legitimate'. Reiterating a familiar neocon grievance, it questions the legitimacy of 'the political or human rights pronouncements of any international or regional organisation which admits undemocratic states'; and invokes an old Irving Kristol line in giving 'two cheers for capitalism', while accepting that the state has a role in providing services and in maintaining the environment. For all its celebrations of liberal democracy, it does not rule out engagement with 'repressive regimes' which, it insists, can 'only be temporary'. It ends by affirming a 'strong commitment to individual and civil liberties in democratic states, even and especially when we are under attack' [8].

In its earlier version it read: "liberal democracy should be spread across the world; that as the world’s most powerful democracies, the United States and the European Union—under British leadership—must shape the world more actively by intervention and example; that such leadership requires political will, a commitment to universal human rights and the maintenance of a strong military with global expeditionary reach; and that too few of our leaders in Britain and the rest of Europe today are ready to play a role in the world that matches our strength and responsibilities."

In the Guardian Neil Clark quoted HJS as explaining that the "forward strategy" involved spreading "liberal democracy across the world" through "the full spectrum of 'carrot' capacities, be they diplomatic, economic, cultural or political, but also, when necessary, those 'sticks' of the military domain".[9]

Co President Brendan Simms wrote in July 2006 that the Society's aim "is not to justify the mistakes of the past, but to stake a claim for intellectual hegemony for the future":

If you have some liberal views on domestic politics, but are prepared to concede that George Bush might be broadly right on foreign policy. If you are concerned at the spread of a conversational consensus in Britain and Europe which involves saying things like "I don't know how anybody with any intelligence can vote for Bush", even if you would not have voted for Bush yourself. If you know that we have taken many wrong turnings since the removal of Saddam Hussein, but do not feel that the whole enterprise was wrong from the start. If you feel all or some of these things; or might be persuaded of them, then the Henry Jackson Society is for you, and we invite you to join us.[10]

The British Moment

The Henry Jackson Society's July 2006 pamphlet, The British Moment.

In July 2006, the Henry Jackson Society published The British Moment: The Case for Democratic Geo-Politics in the Twenty-First Century, a manifesto, published by the Social Affairs Unit, which argued "it is time for Britain, and indeed, the rest of Europe, to reclaim the noble tradition of liberal interventionism and pursue an active strategy across the globe."[11]

The Weekly Standard wrote of the book that ""Scoop Jackson" Democrats like Sen. Joe Lieberman are increasingly rare, and increasingly abhorred by their own party. But in Europe, a Scoop revival may be stirring." A short of account of the book' launch concluded with the admonition: "Now if only a Scoop revival would take hold among our Democratic friends here in the States."[12]

People

Organising Committee

Prior to its registration as a charity the Henry Jackson Society was run by its Organising Committee. The earliest record of the members of the Organising Committee available in the Internet Archive is from 26 January 2006 and lists the following members:

Signatories of the Statement of Principles

Staff

HJS Staff
London
Alan Mendoza – Executive Director Robin Shepherd - Director, International Affairs Marko Attila Hoare – Section Director, European Neighbourhood
Robin Simcox – Section Director, Britain in the World Tufail Ahmad – Section Director, South Asia James Coady – Section Director, European Union
Camilla Hagelund – Section Director, Russia & Eurasia Joe Rolling – Section Director, South East Asia & Australasia Peter Cannon – Section Director, Latin America
Ben Caldecott – Section Director, East Asia Yaniv Ofek – Associate Fellow, Middle East Corine Wood-Donnelly – Associate Fellow, Africa
Marc Sidwell – Associate Fellow, Governance, Strategy & Terrorism Niccolo Pantucci – Associate Fellow, North America Claudia Schwartz – Associate Fellow, Middle East
Timothy Stafford – Associate Fellow, North America Rosalba Junginger, Research Assistant Kyra Choucroun, Research Assistant
Georgina Duffin – Research Assistant Kimberley Trewhitt, Research Assistant Kate McCormick - Research Assistant
Marcel Thach – Research Assistant
Brussels
Alexandros Petersen – Section Director, North America, Russia & Eurasia
Jerusalem
Barak M. Seener – Section Director, Middle East
Washington D.C.
Sarah Platts – Program Director, Washington D.C. Eric Danko - Strategic Relations Manager Brooke Goldstein, Associate Fellow, Governance, Strategy and Terrorism
Karla Jones – Associate Fellow and Director of Development
Cambridge
Brendan Simms – President John Bew – Vice-President James Rogers – Associate Fellow, European Union
Gideon Mailer – Section Director, Africa Matthew Jamison – Executive Secretary
Tristan Stubbs – Section Director, Environment and Economy

[15]

Former Staff

Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky | Deep Kisor Datta-Ray | Katharine Slocombe | Duncan Crossey | Tomas Weiss | Benjamin Charlton


International Patrons

Bruce P. Jackson, President, The Project on Transitional Democracies Robert Kagan, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace William Kristol, Editor, The Weekly Standard; PNAC
Vytautas Landsbergis – Member of European Parliament; President of Lithuania, 1990-1992 Clifford D. May, President, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Michael McFaul, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Senior Advisor, National Democratic Institute
Joshua Muravchik, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute Richard Perle, Former American Assistant Secretary of Defense Jack Sheehan, Defense Policy Board; Former NATO General, Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic
R. James Woolsey, Jr., Former Director of the CIA Thomas Cushman – Founding Editor and Editor-At-Large, Journal of Human Rights Max Boot, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, The Council on Foreign Relations
Martin Bútora – Slovak Ambassador to the USA, 1999-2003; Co-Founder, Institute for Public Affairs, & Public Against Violence Michael Danby – Australian Labor Member of Parliament for Melbourne Ports Jean Bethke Elshtain – Contributing Editor, The New Republic
Carl Gershman – President, National Endowment for Democracy Dore Gold – Former Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel Hubertus Hoffmann – President, The World Security Network
Richard D. Kahlenberg – Author Max Kampelman Herbert London – President, Hudson Institute
Stephen J. Solarz – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-NY), 1975-1993 Michael Stürmer – Chief Correspondent, Die Welt Alejandro Toledo – President of Peru, 2001-2006
Elbegdorj Tsakhia – Leader, Mongolian Democracy Movement; Prime Minister of Mongolia, 1998, 2004-2006

Featured lecturers

2008

David Alton (Lord), Vincent Brossel, Lynn Lee and In Ho Park[16] | Ron Silver [17] | Raphael Perl [18] | Herbert London [19] | Alexander Lennon [20] | Haim Koren [21] | Rob Singh and Timothy Lynch[22] | Jonathan Paris[23] | Marc Ginsberg[24] | Shmuel Bar[25] | Mithal al-Alusi[26] | Ahmet Davutoglu[27] | Daniel Kimmage[28] | Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart from the Institute of State Effectiveness[29] | Thomas Cushman [30] | Joseph S. Nye, Jr.[31] | Stephen Solarz[32] | Keith Pavlischek Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington DC[33] | Edward Lucas[34] | Omar Fadhil [35] | Ilan Berman [36] | Martin van Creveld [37] | Patrick Clawson [38] | Shai Feldman [39] | Emanuele Ottolenghi [40] | Carl Gershman [41]

2007

Farah Pandith [42] | John Bolton [43] | Ariel Cohen [44] | Raymond Tanter [45]

Financial statements

Henry Jackson Society Financial Statements made up to 31 December 2007
Henry Jackson Society Financial Statements made up to 31 December 2008

Affiliations

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

c/o Dr. Brendan Simms
The Henry Jackson Society
Peterhouse
Cambridge CB2 1RD
United Kingdom
Website: www.henryjacksonsociety.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6786954801

Resources

Internet Archive Wayback Machine, henryjacksonsociety.org

Profiles

Articles & Commentary

References

  1. ↑ "The Henry Jackson Society" guardian.co.uk, accessed 6 March 2009
  2. ↑ Henry Jackson Society Manifesto, The British Moment: The Case for Democratic Geopolitics in the Twenty-first Century, Amazon.co.uk, Accessed 27-May-2009
  3. ↑ Internet Archive, Henry Jackson Society, Past Events > The Henry Jackson Society Is Now Launched!, 26 January 2006
  4. ↑ Internet Archive, Henry Jackson Society, Organisational Committee, 26 January 2006
  5. ↑ Internet Archive, henryjacksonsociety.org, 26 January 2006
  6. ↑ Internet Archive, Henry Jackson Society, Past Events > The Cambridge Launch of The Henry Jackson Society, 26 January 2006
  7. ↑ Internet Archive, Henry Jackson Society, Past Events > The Westminster Launch of The Henry Jackson Society, 26 January 2006
  8. ↑ Statement of Principles
  9. ↑ Neil Clark, 'Cameron is no moderate: He supports the Iraq war and tax cuts, opposes EU social policies and has neocon associations', The Guardian Monday 24 October 2005.
  10. ↑ Brendan Simms, What is the Henry Jackson Society?, Social Affairs Unit, 28 July 2006.
  11. ↑ The British Moment, Henry Jackson Society, 10 July 2006.
  12. ↑ Scoop Lives!, The Scrapbook, The Weekly Standard, 24 July 2006.
  13. ↑ Internet Archive, [http://web.archive.org/web/20060126204321/http://www.henryjacksonsociety.org/ Henry Jackson Society, Organising Committee, 26 January 2006]
  14. ↑ Source: Henry Jackson Society Signatories of the Statement of Principles
  15. ↑ HJS Staff, Henry Jackson Society, (Accessed: 20 April 2009)
  16. ↑ HJS Event: North Korea's freedom agenda: How past example can lead to future resolution, 16 October 2008.
  17. ↑ Life Imitating Art: Will the 'West Wing election' mirror reality or can we expect a surprise result?, HJS Event, 8 October 2008, House of Commons. Room facilitated by Bruce George.
  18. ↑ Trends of Terror: Looking to the Future, 2 October 2008. Room facilitated by Lord Harris of Haringey
  19. ↑ Fighting Religious Radicalism in a Secular Age, 23 September 2008. Room facilitated by Nadine Dorries
  20. ↑ US Foreign Policy & Democracy Promotion, 16 September 2008. Room facilitated by Denis MacShane
  21. ↑ [Arabic Language Media and Extremism: Challenges & Opportunities], Event Date: 15 September 2008. Room facilitated by Theresa Villiers.
  22. ↑ Henry Jackson Society event: "After Bush: The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy", House of Commons, 10 July 2008. Room facilitated by Stephen Crabb
  23. ↑ Henry Jackson Society event: "UK Counter–Radicalisation Strategy: A shift from accommodation to confrontation?", House of Commons, 2 July 2008. Room facilitated by Stephen Hammond. Event co-sponsored by the Centre for Social Cohesion. Present at the event: Anthony Glees, Gary Kent. There were several diplomats present: Dr. Moto (Japanese embassy), and a Danish representative working on Muslim radicalization in Denmark.
  24. ↑ Event at House of Commons: "Obama, McCain and US Policy in the Middle East", 30 June 2008. Commons room obtained thanks to: Chris Bryant
  25. ↑ Event at House of Commons, 26 June 2008. Commons room obtained thanks to: Gisela Stewart
  26. ↑ Event at House of Commons, 23 June 2008. Commons room obtained thanks to: Gisela Stewart
  27. ↑ Event at House of Commons, 11 June 2008. Commons room obtained thanks to: Bob Laxton
  28. ↑ Event at House of Commons, 22 May 2008. Speech co-hosted by the Centre for Social Cohesion; Commons room obtained thanks to: Patrick Mercer
  29. ↑ Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World, Lecture 21 May 2008, NB: By kind invitation of Tony Baldry MP
  30. ↑ Liberal Democratic Challenge to the UN: A League of Democracies? event: 19 May 2008; Accessed: 14 May 2008. Notice that Cushman suggests that there is a "liberal" challenge to the UN. In reality, the UN and its human rights arm are a pet hate of the neocons and zionists. A more sincere title would be "A Neocon challenge to the UN".
  31. ↑ The Powers to Lead - Effective Leadership in the 21st Century
  32. ↑ The US Presidential Election and Foreign Policy – event 7 May 2008; Accessed: 14 May 2008. NB: venue was sponsored "by kind invitation of Mike Gapes MP".
  33. ↑ Battling the Misconceptions in the War of Ideas Against Islamism, 11 March 2008
  34. ↑ HJS announcement for:"Russia Post-Presidential Election" 17 March 2008
  35. ↑ Iraq Policy and Extremism: An Iraqi Perspective, Undated, Accessed: 1 March 2008
  36. ↑ Iran After the National Intelligence Estimate, 5 March 2008.
  37. ↑ On Counterinsurgency: How to win in the age of asymmetric warfare, 26 February 2008.
  38. ↑ Lessons from Progress in Iraq, 25 February 2008
  39. ↑ Israel and the Palestinians Post Annapolis & Bush's Middle East Visit, 18 February 2008
  40. ↑ Iran's Nuclear File - What can Europe do?, HJS, 6 February 2008.
  41. ↑ A Forward Strategy for Democracy Promotion in 2008 and Beyond, 21 January 2008.
  42. ↑ HJS Event Transcript: Farah Pandith, HJS, 27 December 2007
  43. ↑ HJS Event Transcript: John Bolton, HJS, 24 December 2007
  44. ↑ HJS Event Transcript: Ariel Cohen, HJS, 24 December 2007
  45. ↑ HJS Event Transcript: Raymond Tanter, HJS, 28 December 2007
  46. ↑ HJS-CSC joint event: talk by Jonathan Paris, 2 July 2008.
  47. ↑ Chechnya Peace Forum Events, accessed 4 September 2010
  48. ↑ Global Power Europe (Accessed: 1 March 2008)
  49. ↑ Greater Surbiton (Accessed: 1 March 2008)
  50. ↑ Worldview(Accessed: 1 March 2008)
  51. ↑ YPFP London (Accessed: 1 March 2008)
  52. ↑ NGO Coalition Member
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