WINEP was founded in 1985 by Barbi Weinberg of Los Angeles, CA.[7]Martin Indyk, an Australian-trained academic and former deputy director of research for AIPAC, was the first executive director.[8][9] Indyk described the think tank as "friendly to Israel but doing credible research on the Middle East in a realistic and balanced way."[10] The research was thus designed to be more independent and academic-quality.[11] At the time it was founded, the institute's research focused on Arab–Israeli relations, political and security issues, and overall U.S. Middle East policy.[1] In the 1990s, prompted by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Persian Gulf War, and changes in regional strategy, the institute expanded its research agenda to "focus on Turkey and the rise of Islamic politics."[1] It was during the Gulf War that the institute gained public recognition as a source for commentary and analysis. By 1992, it had a staff of 12–15 in-house research fellows, in addition to visiting scholars and support staff.[12] Under Indyk's leadership, the institute gained notability as a center for the study and discussion of Middle East policy, and attracted Arab intellectuals to its events.[13] Indyk would go on to serve in several U.S. diplomatic posts including U.S. ambassador to Israel, special envoy for Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council and assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Indyk is currently vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.[14]
In addition to ongoing research, TWI has provided in-depth analysis at key inflection points in Middle East policy, such as during presidential election years. Beginning in 1988, the institute convened bipartisan Presidential Study Groups that have offered policy papers for incoming administrations of either party. The inaugural PSG document informed the policy of the George H. W. Bush administration toward the Middle East peace process.[15] The institute has earned a reputation for solid scholarship, is committed to the peace process, and is a "staunch supporter of Israel" — a relationship with which it believes advances U.S. security interests.[3] It has bipartisan support in the US, though it is closer ideologically to the Democratic Party and generally opposes neoconservative policy.[16]
After the takeover of areas of Iraq by the Sunni militant group Daesh (ISIL) in 2014, The New York Times reported that Institute Lafer Fellow[17] Michael Knights [18] had alerted the U.S. National Security Council as early as 2012 to the rising level of insurgency among Iraq's Sunni minority. White House officials questioned his statistics and did not take action.[19]
The institute has been a forum for the discussion of key issues in U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia. In May 2016, it hosted the former Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud, alongside IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a rare joint public appearance.[20] Two years later, Dr. Mohammad Al-Issa, secretary-general of the Muslim World League, addressed the institute and advocated a more moderate and tolerant Islam.[21] Dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi participated in an institute forum in November 2016 in which he stated that Saudi Arabia should be "rightfully nervous about the Trump presidency," according to The Economist.[22] The magazine reported that Saudi authorities asked Khashoggi to stop writing after the institute appearance but the journalist chose to live in exile instead. He was assassinated in Istanbul in 2018 while visiting the Saudi consulate.
Activities
The Washington Institute is considered an academic think tank (akin to the Brookings Institution and Public Policy Institute of California), staffed largely by researchers holding doctorate degrees and generally not having a mission affiliated with a particular ideology, as opposed to an advocacy think tank, which is staffed by individuals with strong ideological leanings.[23] Academic think tanks focus on producing extensive research reports and books, whereas advocacy think tanks focus on marketing their ideas with condensed materials. Think tanks of all types typically also organize conferences, provide briefings to legislative committee staff, and testify as policy experts.[23]
The Washington Institute accesses the policy process from many angles: the written word, the spoken word, and personal contact. Institute experts research the region and brief officials in all branches of the U.S. government, both civilian and military.[1] In addition to producing printed long-form monographs, the institute issues time-sensitive policy briefs which are distributed electronically by e-mail and social media.[24] A Chicago Tribune editorial declared that institute-sponsored polls bring to light trends in popular thinking across the Middle East.[25]
While the institute frequently hosts off-the-record events with policymakers and scholars, its policy forums are public events featuring newsmakers and analysts that are attended by officials and journalists[26] and are broadcast live on-line.[27] The institute also holds an annual policy conference that convenes policymakers, journalists and diplomats in Washington, D.C., for in-depth discussion and debate on the key Middle East issues facing the United States.[28][29][30]
Institute scholars are public intellectuals who share their analysis frequently in major print and broadcast outlets.[31] All institute output is available through its website in both English[32] and Arabic.[33]
In addition to its permanent resident fellows—a group of experienced policymakers from government and academia—the institute also hosts visiting fellows from around the world. Visiting fellows include both young people beginning their foreign policy careers and veterans who take advantage of a year in Washington, D.C., to study the Middle East from an American vantage point. In cooperation with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and State Department, WINEP offers one-year fellowships that enable rising officers to immerse themselves in the geopolitics of the Middle East and the process of Washington policymaking.[34] The institute also supports a program for research assistants and interns that provides foreign policy experience for undergraduates and recent college graduates.[35] Several institute alumni now hold positions in the government, military, and academia internationally.[citation needed]
The institute's Scholar-Statesman Award[36] honors individuals "whose public service and professional achievements exemplify sound scholarship and a discerning knowledge of history." Recipients have included former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former CIA directors Michael Hayden and George Tenet.[37][38]
Despite its pro-Israel tilt, the institute hosted former senior military officials from the U.S., Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan in the 2010s.[39]
Reception
M.J. Rosenberg criticized the organization on Al Jazeera for having strong ties to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC and for being founded by a former AIPAC employee.[40]
In a December 2003 interview on Al Jazeera, Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American professor and director of Columbia University's Middle East Institute, sharply criticized WINEP, stating that it is "the fiercest of the enemies of the Arabs and the Muslims", and describing it as the "most important Zionist propaganda tool in the United States."[41] In response, Martin Kramer, the editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a visiting fellow at WINEP, defended the group, saying that it is "run by Americans, and accepts funds only from American sources," and that it was "outrageous" for Khalidi to denounce Arabs that visited WINEP as "blundering dupes."[42]
Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a 'balanced and realistic' perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel's agenda ... Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials, but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP's ranks."[43]
In 2011 WINEP Executive Director Robert Satloff criticized the New York Times' identification of the organization as pro-Israel, saying the moniker "projects two false impressions—first, that the institute does not value American interests above special pleading for a foreign power and second, that the institute must be 'anti' others in the region (Palestinians, Arabs)."[44]
In a 2014 study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Lauder Institute, of all think tanks worldwide, the Washington Institute was ranked 42nd on "Best Transdisciplinary Research Program at a Think Tank" and 42nd on "Think Tanks with Outstanding Policy-Oriented Public Programs".[45]
Stephen Martin Walt is an American political scientist currently serving as the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates its policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States. One of several pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the country, it has been called one of its most powerful lobbying groups.
Campus Watch is a web-based project of the Middle East Forum, a think tank with its headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to its website, Campus Watch "reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them." Critics of Campus Watch say that it is a pro-Israel lobbyist organization involved in harassing, blacklisting, or intimidating scholars critical of Israel.
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global economy, and economic development.
The Council for the National Interest ("CNI") is a 501(c)(4) non-profit, non-partisan anti-war advocacy group focused on transparency and accountability about the relationship of Israel and the United States and the impact their alliance has for other nations and individuals in other Middle East countries. Based in the United States and most active during the 2000s decade, the Council has highlighted Israel's disposition towards its neighbors, and how Middle Eastern nations, Palestinian rights and other aspects of Middle East life & relations are impacted by the Israel's policies and its financial, trade, and military relationships with the US. They have focused on popular sentiment and perceptions in the US and the between the two countries. They highlight how these policies have impacted the fate of Palestine and, treatment of Muslims within the US since the 1990s.
Dennis B. Ross is an American diplomat and author. He served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton, and was a special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ross is currently a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank, and co-chairs the Jewish People Policy Institute's board of directors.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is an American non-profit pro-Israel media-monitoring, research and membership organization. According to its website, CAMERA is "devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East." The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to The Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general anti-Israel bias".
Steven J. Rosen served for 23 years as one of the top officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He is often singled out in writings about AIPAC.
Martin Sean Indyk was an Australian-American diplomat and foreign relations analyst with expertise in the Middle East.
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is a book by John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, published in late August 2007. It was a New York Times Best Seller.
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is an American foreign policy magazine that focuses on the Middle East and U.S. policy in the region.
The Arab lobby in the United States is a collection of formal and informal groups and professional lobbyists in the United States paid directly by Gulf Arab states and private donors on behalf of the Arab states.
The Israel lobby are individuals and groups seeking to influence the United States government to better serve Israel's interests. The largest pro-Israel lobbying group is Christians United for Israel with over seven million members. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a leading organization within the lobby, speaking on behalf of a coalition of pro-Israel American Jewish groups.
The Jewish lobby are individuals and groups predominantly in the Jewish diaspora that advocate for the interests of Jews and Jewish values. The lobby references the involvement and influence of Jews in politics and the political process, and includes organized groups such as the American Jewish Committee, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, B'nai B'rith, and the Anti-Defamation League.
Dual containment was an official US foreign policy aimed at containing Ba'athist Iraq and Revolutionary Iran. The term was first officially used in May 1993 by Martin Indyk at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and officially announced on February 24, 1994 at a symposium of the Middle East Policy Council by Indyk, who was the senior director for Middle East Affairs of the National Security Council (NSC).
David Makovsky is the director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Project on the Middle East Peace Process. he serves as a adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in the Middle Eastern studies program.
The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America's Interests in the Middle East is a book written by Mitchell Bard, the head of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise and the director of the Jewish Virtual Library, published in August 2010. It was written in response to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's bestselling albeit controversial The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which focused on the role of the Israel lobby in shaping U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a non-profit neoconservative think tank and a registered lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., United States. It has also been described as a pro-Israel, anti-Iran lobby group due to its focus on Iran and opposition to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Nina Rosenwald is an American political activist and philanthropist. An heiress to the Sears Roebuck fortune, Rosenwald is vice president of the William Rosenwald Family Fund and co-chair of the board of American Securities Management. She is the founder and president of Gatestone Institute, a New York-based right-wing anti-Muslim think tank.
The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is an American think tank specializing in US foreign policy. Founded in 2019, the Quincy Institute has been described as advocating realism and restraint in foreign policy. The organization is located in Washington, D.C. and is named after former president John Quincy Adams.
1 2 "Pro-Israeli Group Offers Maps for Palestinian State". The New York Times. 2011-01-22. Archived from the original on 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2017-02-25. It speaks to the paralysis in the Middle East peace process that the most noteworthy development of the past week came when a mild-mannered analyst at a pro-Israel think tank unfurled three color-coded maps. The analyst, David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Breger, Marshall (2002). Mittleman, Alan; Licht, Robert; Sarna, Jonathan D (eds.). Jews and the American Public Square: Debating Religion and Republic. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Rowman & Littlefield. p.164. ISBN978-0-7425-2124-7. Archived from the original on 2023-12-06. Retrieved 2022-08-13. founded in 1985 as a pro-Israel but not specifically Jewish think tank.
Marrar, K. (2008). The Arab Lobby and US Foreign Policy: The Two-State Solution. Routledge Research in American Politics and Governance. Taylor & Francis. ISBN978-1-135-97071-0. Archived from the original on 2023-12-06. Retrieved 2022-08-12. Dennis Ross, from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a pro-Israel think tank closely aligned with AIPAC
Lockman, Zachary (2005). "Critique from the Right: The Neo-conservative Assault on Middle East Studies". CR: The New Centennial Review. 5 (1). Michigan State University Press: 81–82. doi:10.1353/ncr.2005.0034. ISSN1539-6630. JSTOR41949468. S2CID145071422. By contrast, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy ( WINEP), founded in 1985, quickly achieved a much higher profile and much greater influence. Describing itself as "a public educational foundation dedicated to scholarly research and informed debate on U.S. interests in the Middle East,"9 WINEP emerged as the leading pro-Israel think tank in Washington. Its founding director, Martin Indyk, had previously worked at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), founded in 1959 and by the 1970s by far the most well-funded, visible, and effective pro-Israel lobbying organization. Indyk and his colleagues at WINEP worked hard to strengthen Israel's standing in Washington as the key U.S. ally in the Middle East and to ensure that U.S. policy in the region coincided with the policies and strategies of the Israeli government
"The Israeli Lobby". Journal of Palestine Studies. 35 (3). University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies: 92. 2006-04-01. doi:10.1525/jps.2006.35.3.83. During the Clinton administration, Middle Eastern policy was largely shaped by officials with close ties to Israel or to prominent pro-Israel organizations; among them, Martin Indyk, the former deputy director of research at AIPAC and co-founder of the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP)
Mearsheimer, John J.; Walt, Stephen M. (2009). "The Blind Man and the Elephant in the Room: Robert Lieberman and the Israel Lobby". Perspectives on Politics. 7 (2). [American Political Science Association, Cambridge University Press]: 262. doi:10.1017/S1537592709090781. JSTOR40406929. S2CID7758818. Archived from the original on 2022-08-13. Retrieved 2022-08-13. Similarly, when Martin Indyk - formerly deputy director of research at AIPAC and co-founder of the pro-Israel Washington Institute of Near East Policy - is appointed one of Bill Clinton's key Middle East advisors, it strains credulity to exclude him from the "loose coalition" that "actively works" to promote the "special relationship."
↑ Thomas G. Mitchell (8 May 2013). Israel/Palestine and the Politics of a Two-State Solution. McFarland. pp.164–. ISBN978-0-7864-7597-1. Archived from the original on 6 December 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2020. In 1985 AIPAC's deputy director of Foreign Policy Research, Martin Indyk, a former Australian intelligence official, set up the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as a think tank designed to provide policy output that would influence the executive branch and the media. Indyk created WINEP with AIPAC's blessing and with funding from many AIPAC donors. It was designed to provide more academic-quality and independent research than AIPAC put out. WINEP concentrates on the internal affairs of Middle Eastern countries except for Israel and on the foreign and defense policies of these countries. It also provides Israel-friendly prescriptions for the peace process. WINEP has become a serious player in Washington and a supplier of foreign policy officials for both parties.
↑ John J Mearsheimer; Stephen M Walt (26 June 2008). The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Penguin Books Limited. pp.175–176. ISBN978-0-14-192066-5. Archived from the original on 6 December 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2020. Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a 'balanced and realistic' perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel's agenda … Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials, but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP's ranks... This situation highlights that the lobby is not a centralized, hierarchical organization with a defined membership... It has a core consisting of organizations whose declared purpose is to encourage the U.S. government and the American public to provide material aid to Israel and to support its government's policies, as well as influential individuals for whom these goals are also a top priority... a lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), or the leadership of organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and Christians United for Israel are part of the core.
↑ "Martin Indyk". The Washington Institute. Archived from the original on 2023-07-25. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
↑ "Martin S. Indyk". Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 2023-07-25. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
↑ Ottoway, David B. (March 24, 1989). "Mideast Institute's Experts and Ideas Ascendant; Latecomer's Go-Slow, Small-Steps Approach Finds Favor With Bush Administration". The Washington Post.
↑ Thomas G. Mitchell (2013). Israel/Palestine and the Politics of a Two-State Solution. McFarland. p.164.
↑ Diane Stone (1996). Capturing the Political Imagination: Think Tanks and the Policy Process. Frank Cass. p.275. ISBN9780714647166. Archived from the original on 2023-12-06. Retrieved 2018-07-13. Dedicated to providing research on the Middle East that is timely, of high quality and policy-relevant, the Washington Institute provides information and analysis on US interests in the Middle East. ... As a source of commentary and analysis, it became well known during the Gulf War.
↑ "Martin Indyk". The Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
↑ Quandt, William B. (2001). Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Inst. Press. p.293. ISBN0-520-22374-8.
↑ Alexander Murinson (2010). Turkey's Entente with Israel and Azerbaijan: State identity and security in the Middle East and Caucasus. Routledge. pp.71–72. ISBN9781135182434. Ideologically WINEP is closer to the Democratic Party. Generally, it opposes the 'neoconservative' agenda in Washington. ... The Washington Institute has acquired a reputation as the leading institute among think tanks with a regional focus. Specifically, it made major contributions to the search for a resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. ... It is the most influential think tank in Washington with a bipartisan agenda. ... Due to its privileged position within both Republican and Democratic White House administrations over the last three decades, the Washington Institute was able to go beyond influence; the American government on some occasions adopted WINEP's policy prescriptions.
1 2 Vincent N. Parrillo (2008). Encyclopedia of Social Problems, Volume 1. SAGE Publications. pp.1049–50. ISBN9781412941655. Archived from the original on 2023-12-06. Retrieved 2018-07-13. Political scientists generally differentiate think tanks based on the nature of their work. ... Examples of academic think tanks include the Brookings Institution, Public Policy Institute of California, and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ... Both academic and contract think tanks have a 'muted ideology' and as such tend not to have a mission affiliated with a particular political perspective. ... Lengthy research reports and books are more typical of the publications produced by academic and contract think tanks, while advocacy think tanks put more emphasis on producing policy briefs, summary reports, thought pieces, and newsletters.
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