Think Tanked

Personnel Files: China Expert Pollack to Brookings

In a release today, the Brookings Institution announced that China expert, Jonathan Pollack, will join the think tank on December 1 as a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program and will be affiliated with the John L. Thornton China Center.

Pollack, previously at the U.S. Naval War College, is no stranger to think tanks after spending time at the RAND Corporation.

From the release:

“Jonathan brings exceptional expertise on Chinese and East Asian politics and security to the first class research team at Brookings’s Thornton China Center,” said Martin Indyk, vice president and director of Foreign Policy at Brookings. “At a time when regional tension is on the rise in Asia, we look forward to his timely and critical analyses of China’s national security policies, its relations with its Asian neighbors, and the policy implications for the United States.”

Prior to his appointment at Brookings, Pollack served as professor of Asian and Pacific studies and chairman of the Asia-Pacific Studies Group at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Pollack’s research at the college primarily focused on Chinese national security strategy, U.S.-China relations, and U.S. strategy in Asia and the Pacific.

“I am delighted to have Jonathan join the center. His research and writing will add considerable breadth and depth,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, senior fellow and director of the John L. Thornton China Center. “I am certain that his knowledge and insights will expand the center’s capacity to provide comprehensive, cutting-edge analysis of China and its growing influence in Asia and beyond.”

Prior to joining the War College faculty in 2000, Pollack worked at the Rand Corporation, where he served in a number of senior research and management positions. During his tenure at Rand, he served as chairman of the political science department, corporate research manager for international policy, and senior advisor for international policy. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan, and was a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard University. Pollack currently serves on a congressionally mandated review panel which is tasked with examining future U.S. missile defense policy options.

Pollack has authored or edited over two dozen books and research reports. His latest book, No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, and International Security, will be published in early 2011 by Routledge Press for the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

AEI's Charles Murray Makes FP Global Thinkers Book List

As an accompaniment to the Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers list, the editors asked their Top 100 to name the books they're reading.

The American Enterprise Institute's W.H. Brady Scholar, Charles Murray, found his spot on the list of 20 books at #15 with Human Accomplishment.

The recommendation was made by AEI's Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Harvard economist and Hoover senior fellow Niall Ferguson.

Personnel Files: Guillermo Zuloaga Joins Cato

Guillermo Zuloaga, president of Venezuela's Chavez-opposing Globovision TV, has joined the Cato Institute as a fellow in free speech. Zuloaga, who fled to the United States in June, is seeking asylum from what appears to be trumped up charges that include Zuloaga's alleged assassination plot of Chavez.

From the release:

Zuloaga, now in exile, has become an international symbol of press freedom for maintaining Globovision's independence in the face of severe harassment of the company's journalists, himself and his family by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government.

"We are delighted and honored to be working with Guillermo, who has paid a high price to exercise and defend free speech in Venezuela at a time when Hugo Chavez is intensifying his authoritarian project and when most other television stations are state-owned or have lost their independence," said Ed Crane, president of the Cato Institute.

At Cato, Zuloaga's work will highlight the growing threats to free speech in Latin America and the ways in which the Venezuelan and other democratically elected governments are undermining press freedom.

"I hope that my association with Cato will help bring attention to the rapid deterioration of basic liberties in Venezuela and shed light on the critical role that a free press plays in restraining authoritarianism in Venezuela and beyond," said Zuloaga.

CAP's Larry Korb Talks START on MSNBC with Olbermann

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

AM Briefing: 11/30/10

WikiLeaks shows Obama's foreign policy's a mess (LA Times)

Or that State is on top of its game (LA Times)

And Assange should be punished (New York Post)

The Republican Case (National Review)

Metro areas for growth (San Francisco Chronicle)

Rewarding North Korea (LA Times)

Slippery Turkey (National Review)

RAND: Deradicalizing Extremists Needs More Attention

The RAND Corporation announced today the release of "Deradicalizing Islamist Extremists," a new study by the think tank. The study shows that it's not enough to get extremists to disengage from terrorist activity and that the deradicalization process needs more emphasis for succesful anti-terrorism results.

From the release:

"Getting militants to refrain from violence is only part of the process," said Angel Rabasa, lead author of the study and a senior political scientist with RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Ideally, the goal is to get the individual to change his belief system, reject the extremist ideology and embrace a moderate worldview. This is difficult with Islamist extremists, because the requirements of the ideology are regarded as religious obligations."

But deradicalization may be necessary to permanently defuse the threat posed by these groups, Rabasa said. If a militant agrees to stop fighting purely for practical reasons—such as a condition for one's release from prison—when the circumstances change, the person may once again return to terrorist acts.

The RAND study indentifies and analyzes the processes through which militants leave Islamist extreme groups, assesses the effectiveness of deradicalization programs and summarizes the policies that could help to promote and accelerate the processes of deradicalization.

The best-designed deradicalization and counter-radicalization programs in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe leverage local cultural patterns to achieve their objectives, Rabasa said. For that reason, these programs cannot simply be transplanted from one country to another.

Deradicalization programs have two other important goals. One is to obtain intelligence on extremist organizations and the second is to discredit the extremist ideology. Challenging the extremist ideology with an alternative interpretation of Islam is not only likely to effect a more permanent change in the militant's worldview and to reduce the risk of recidivism, but it also helps to weaken the appeal of radical Islamism. An important indicator of success is convincing rehabilitated militants to speak out against extremist groups and ideology.

Because counter-radicalization or deradicalization programs are embedded in a war of ideas, the counter-ideological component of these programs is extremely important. Most Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian programs use a form of theological dialogue in which mainstream scholars and sometimes even former radicals engage extremists in discussions of Islamic theology in an effort to convince the militants that their interpretation of Islam is wrong.

However, because many of these programs are focused on eliminating the domestic terrorism threat, they may forbid terrorism in the home state because the government is Islamic, but condone it elsewhere.

[...]

The research was conducted within the International Security and Defense Policy Center of the RAND National Security Research Division. The division conducts research and analysis on defense and national security topics for the U.S. and allied defense, foreign policy, homeland security and intelligence communities, and foundations and other non-governmental organizations that support defense and national security analysis.

Download "Deradicalizing Islamist Extremists" at RAND. 

AEI's Roger Bate on Counterfeit Drugs in Africa

AM Briefing: 11/29/10

Does Obama have fight in him? (Washington Post)

The veteran vote for conservatives (National Review)

The reason McCain is wrong on DADT (LA Times)

State bankruptcy is better than federal bailouts (National Review)

What will Cuomo do on Nassau? (New York Post)

Max Boot on WikiLeaks (Commentary)

Extend Bush tax cuts and reform the system (National Review)

Ivo Daadler: Afghanistan Will Not Stand Alone

AM Briefing: 11/24/10

TSA is overreacting (Politico)

Hanson: Obama's contextualizing and apologizing will get people killed (National Review)

Putting the GOP & Latinos together (Politico)

Finding a Washington reaction to North Korea (New York Post)

Cliff May's thankful (National Review)

Loving libertarian wonks (FrumForum)

We missed a Marion Barry moment? (National Review)