The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is a non-interventionist foreign policy advocacy organization founded in 2019 with support from two major political donors, liberal George Soros and libertarian Charles Koch. ¹

It officially launches in Fall 2019, though its existence was announced by the Boston Globe months earlier. ² Institute staff were listed on the website as of August 17, 2019. ³

The Institute is named for former President John Quincy Adams, who opposed interventionist military and foreign policies. ⁴

Funding

Soros and Koch each provided $500,000 in initial funding for the think tank. Approximately $800,000 was provided by other donors. The Boston Globe reported that the goal is to have the think tank secure $3.5 million in total funding by 2021. ⁵

Mission

The Institute’s mission is to advocate for a restrained U.S. foreign policy to Congress, the public, and other stakeholders. ⁶

Its five guiding principles concentrate on philosophies which limit U.S. foreign policy engagements. ⁷ The philosophies include, but are not limited to, diplomacy-first foreign policies, “respect[ing]…international laws and norms,” seeking to “coexist with competitors,” military force “as a last resort,” and Congress engaging in its constitutional roles related to war and foreign affairs.

Leadership

Major Supporters

George Soros is a billionaire investor and leading funder of liberal political advocacy groups and campaigns. He is founder of the Open Society Foundations.

Charles Koch is an energy magnate and billionaire funder of libertarian and conservative advocacy and campaigns. He co-founded the Koch Foundation and its related advocacy networks with his brother David.

Staff

The Institute has primarily hired left-leaning senior staff. ⁸ President Andrew Bacevich is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University. A retired U.S. Army Colonel, he was a vocal critic of the Iraq War. His son died in the Iraq conflict in 2007. ⁹¹⁰

Research director Eli Clifton was previously a journalist for left-leaning organizations such as ThinkProgress and The Nation Institute (now rebranded TYPE Media Center). He supported the Obama administration’s Iran Deal. ¹¹

Board of Advisors chair Suzanne DiMaggio was a senior fellow at the left-leaning New America think tank. She is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with expertise on Middle East and Asia, and has led diplomatic dialogue related to Iran and North Korea. She facilitated the Obama administration’s secret talks with Iran and the Trump administration’s dialogue with North Korea. ¹²

Executive vice president Trita Parsi worked for the United Nations Security Council and founded the National Iranian American Council. His book Losing an Enemy – Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Democracy praised the Obama administration’s Iran deal as averting war and preventing development of an Iranian nuclear weapon. ¹³ Parsi’s Twitter feed includes re-Tweets of claims that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are racist, that China’s rise in the international arena is a result of its people, not its leadership, and that China is not a threat to the U.S. ¹⁴

Stephen Wertheim is a research scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. He holds the position of research director with the Institute. Wertheim has conducted extensive research on World War I and World War II-era foreign policy philosophies and strategies. ¹⁵

Wertheim and Parsi co-authored an op-ed in The Guardian in 2019 which argued that leading Democrats’ criticisms of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) anti-Semitic and other controversial comments regarding U.S. international affairs were misguided. ¹⁶

1. Stephen Kinser, “In an astonishing turn, George Soros and Charles Koch team up to end US ‘forever war’ policy,” June 30, 2019. Accessed August 17, 2019.  https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/06/30/soros-and-koch-brothers-team-end-forever-war-policy/WhyENwjhG0vfo9Um6Zl0JO/story.html
2. Stephen Kinser, “In an astonishing turn, George Soros and Charles Koch team up to end US ‘forever war’ policy,” June 30, 2019. Accessed August 17, 2019. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/06/30/soros-and-koch-brothers-team-end-forever-war-policy/WhyENwjhG0vfo9Um6Zl0JO/story.html
3. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Bios, Accessed August 17, 2019. https://quincyinst.org/bios/
4. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Accessed August 17, 2019. https://quincyinst.org/
5. Stephen Kinser, “In an astonishing turn, George Soros and Charles Koch team up to end US ‘forever war’ policy,” June 30, 2019. Accessed August 17, 2019.

   https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/06/30/soros-and-koch-brothers-team-end-forever-war-policy/WhyENwjhG0vfo9Um6Zl0JO/story.html

6. Philanthropy News Digest, “Soros, Koch partner to launch foreign policy think tank,” July 8, 2019. Accessed August 17, 2019. https://trust.guidestar.org/soros-koch-partner-to-launch-foreign-policy-think-tank
7. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Principles Accessed August 17, 2019. https://quincyinst.org/principles/
8. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Bios, Accessed August 17, 2019. https://quincyinst.org/bios/
9. Andrew Bacevich, “Rescinding the Bush Doctrine,” March 1, 2007. Accessed August 18, 2019. http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/01/rescinding_the_bush_doctrine/
10. Brian MacQuarrie, “Son of professor opposed to war is killed in Iraq,” May 15, 2007. Accessed August 18, 2019. http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/15/son_of_professor_opposed_to_war_is_killed_in_iraq/
11. Eli Clifton, “Who are the billionaires attacking Obama’s Iran diplomacy?” February 3, 2015. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/article/who-are-billionaires-attacking-obamas-iran-diplomacy/
12. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Suzanne DiMaggio, Accessed August 18, 2019. https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1592
13. Trita Parsi, “Losing an enemy: Obama, Iran, and the triumph of diplomacy,” August 1, 2017. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/Losing-Enemy-Obama-Triumph-Diplomacy/dp/0300218168
14. Trita Parsi, Twitter profile, Accessed August 18, 2019. https://twitter.com/tparsi?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
15. Stephen Wertheim, Profile, Accessed August 18, 2019. http://www.columbia.edu/~saw2156/profile.html
16. Trita Parsi, Stephen Wertheim, “Democratic party elites silence Ilhan Omar at their peril,” February 16, 2019. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/16/democratic-party-elites-silence-ilhan-omar