The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is a think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues. The organization’s leadership is made up of former Democratic administration officials and politicians. CNAS has focused heavily on environmental security issues, including climate change. 1
Funding
In fiscal year 2020, the following groups made contributions to the Center for a New American Security: 2
| Donor | Amount |
|---|---|
| Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation | $500,000+ |
| Quadrivium Foundation | $500,000+ |
| Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc. | $500,000+ |
| U.S. Department of State | $500,000+ |
| Neal Blue | $250,000-$499,999 |
| The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation | $250,000-$499,999 |
| U.S. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy | $250,000-$499,999 |
| U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of Net Assesment | $250,000-$499,999 |
| Bank of America Corporation | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Brighton Marine | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Carnegie Corporation of New York | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Chevron Corporation | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Cisco Systems, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Comcast | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Craig Newmark Philanthropies | $100,000-$249,999 |
| DataRobot, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Carol Deane | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Democracy Fund | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Drue and H.J. Heinz 11 Charitable Trust | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Embassy of Japan to the United States of America | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Facebook, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Georgetown University | $100,000-$249,999 |
| The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Carl and Nancy Glaeser | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Goldman Sachs Gives Annual Giving Fund | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Goldman-Sonnefeldt Foundation, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Google, LLC | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Huntington Ignalls Industries, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Korea Foundation | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Leidos Holdings, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Leonardo DRS | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Lockheed Martin Corporation | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Luminate Foundation, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Microsoft Corporation | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Prudential Financial, Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Rockefeller Brothers Fund Inc. | $100,000-$249,999 |
| John Rosenwald | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Eric and Wendy Schmidt | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Doug Silverman | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Robert Bosch Stiftung | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Michael Zak | $100,000-$249,999 |
| Amazon Web Services, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| BAE Systems, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Doug and Kim Beck | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Bell Textron, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation | $50,000-$99,999 |
| BP America, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Citigroup, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Deloitte | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Equinor USA | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Exxon Mobil Corporation | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Government of Canada, Department of National Defence | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Heinz Family Foundation | $50,000-$99,999 |
| International Business Machines Corporation | $50,000-$99,999 |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| L3Harris Technologies, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Long & Kimmy Nguyen Family Foundation | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Palantir Technologies, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Ploughshares Fund | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Qualcomm, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Raytheon Company | $50,000-$99,999 |
| The Roche Family Foundation, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Semiconductor Industry Association | $50,000-$99,999 |
| U.S. National Intelligence Council | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Visa, Inc. | $50,000-$99,999 |
| Applied Materials Inc. | $25,000-$49,999 |
| The Bank Policy Institute | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Beacon Global Strategies, LLC | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Michael Beckley | $25,000-$49,999 |
| BGR Group | $25,000-$49,999 |
| The Boeing Company | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Bovin Family Foundation | $25,000-$49,999 |
| H. Perry Boyle | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Crowel & Morning LLP | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Elbit Systems of America, LLC | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Gates Policy Initiative | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Institute for War & Peace Reporting | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Japan Bank For International Corporation | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Marubeni America Corporation | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Mastercard, Inc. | $25,000-$49,999 |
| McKinsey & Company | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Morningstar Philanthropic Fund | $25,000-$49,999 |
| NEC Corporation of America | $25,000-$49,999 |
| New York State Health Foundation | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Norwegian Institute of International Affairs | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Walter Parkes | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Pioneer Natural Resources Company | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Dale Ponikvar | $25,000-$49,999 |
| SoftBank Group | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Strategic Project Solutions, Inc. | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Sumitomo Corporation | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Todd Zabelle | $25,000-$49,999 |
| Total USA | $25,000-$49,999 |
In January 2023, bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange company FTX released its creditor matrix listing all former vendors and investors, with CNAS being listed as one of said groups. According to CNAS’s director of communications Shai Korman, the company had received a $25,000 grant from FTX in 2022 for, “general support of CNAS’s independent research on national security.” 3 In an interview with The Incercept, Korman confirmed that the organization had returned FTX’s donation, “in full.” 4
Between 2019 and 2023, the CNAS received $3,985,000 in grants from the U.S government including the U.S Department of State, the U.S Department of Defense, and the U.S Department of Energy. The CNAS also received $6,665,000 from Pentagon Contractors in that same period of time including Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumann. Finally, the organization received $2,805,001 in funding from foreign governments including Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the European Union. 5 6
Leadership
The Center for a New American Security’s board of directors includes:
- Richard Armitage, a former diplomat who served as U.S. deputy secretary of state from 2001 to 2005 under president George W. Bush
- Douglas A. Beck, vice president of the Americas and Northeast Asia regions for Apple, Inc.
- Denis A. Bovin, senior advisor to Evercore Partners, an international investment banking firm
- Richard J. Danzig, served as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 1998 to 2001 under president Bill Clinton
- Michèle Flournoy, a former government official who served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2009 to 2012 under president Barack Obama
- Richard Fontaine, president of CNAS from 2012-2019 and was a foreign policy advisor to former Arizona senator John McCain
- Carl D. Glaeser-Glaeser is an operating executive who is Managing Partner at Palladian Capital Partners
- Admiral Cecil Haney, a retired U.S. Navy Admiral who served as commander of U.S. Strategic Command and the U.S. Pacific Fleet
- USN (Ret.), David J. Hogan, a long-time international investment banker who worked at Saudi International Bank for 13 years
- Secretary Jeh Johnson, a former government official who served as U.S. secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017 under president Barack Obama
- Joseph Liberman, an American politician who served as a U.S. senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in 2000
- Robert Mandell, an American attorney who served as U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg from 2011 to 2016
- James Murdoch, the CEO of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019 and is the liberal son of Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch
- Admiral John Richardson, USN (Ret)-Richardson is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and the former chief of Naval Operations
- Robert Roche, a liberal political activist who was appointed in 2010 to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations by president Barack Obama
- David Schwimmer, the CEO of London Stock Exchange, previously spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs
- Karen D. Seitz, founder and managing director of Fusion Partners and the former head of the Pensions, Endowments and Foundations Group for the Securities Division of Goldman, Sachs, & Co.
- Michael Sonnenfeldt, an American philanthropist and political activist who served as the co-chair of senator Joe Lieberman’s 2004 presidential campaign.
- Douglas Silverman, co-founder and managing partner of Senator Investment Group
- Jane Wales, the vice president of the Aspen Institute and served as Special Assistant to the President in the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 1996.
- Michael J. Zak, venture capitalist and founder of Cornell’s program on China & Asia-Pacific Studies
Executive Team
Richard Fontaine is the CEO of CNAS. From 2012 to 2019, Fontaine served as the Center’s president. He had previously been a foreign policy advisor to former Arizona Senator John McCain and held positions in the State Department, the National Security Council, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Anna Saito Carson is the vice president of development at CNAS. Before joining, Carson was director of corporate relations, strategic planning and development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
References
- Parthemore, Christine, Jay Gulledge, Richard Weitz, and Whitney M. Parker. “The Age of Consequences.” Center for a New American Security (en-US), November 1, 2007. https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/the-age-of-consequences-the-foreign-policy-and-national-security-implications-of-global-climate-change.
- “CNAS Supporters.” Accessed February 22, 2021. https://www.cnas.org/support-cnas/cnas-supporters.
- Fang, Lee, Ken Klippenstein, and Daniel Boguslaw. “NEW FTX FILING PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN ON SAM BANKMAN-FRIED’S MASSIVE INFLUENCE-PEDDLING OPERATION.” The Intercept, January 30, 2023. https://theintercept.com/2023/01/30/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-lobbying-pr/
- Fang, Lee, Ken Klippenstein, and Daniel Boguslaw. “NEW FTX FILING PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN ON SAM BANKMAN-FRIED’S MASSIVE INFLUENCE-PEDDLING OPERATION.” The Intercept, January 30, 2023. https://theintercept.com/2023/01/30/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-lobbying-pr/
- “Center for a New American Security.” Think Tank Funding Tracker, Accessed January 13, 2025.https://thinktankfundingtracker.org/think-tank/center-for-a-new-american-security/
- Schaffer, Michael. “‘Dark Money’ Is Tainting Washington Think Tanks. A New Report Shows It’s Worse Than You Think.” Politico, January 3, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/03/foreign-money-think-tanks-00196252