{"id":2017739,"date":"2023-08-31T05:20:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T09:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/israel-lobby-author-takes-cash-from-putin-approved-think-tank\/"},"modified":"2023-08-31T05:21:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T09:21:29","slug":"israel-lobby-author-takes-cash-from-putin-approved-think-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/israel-lobby-author-takes-cash-from-putin-approved-think-tank\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of \u2018Israel Lobby\u2019 receives funding from \u2018Putin-endorsed\u2019 think tank."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fisrael-lobby-author-takes-cash-from-putin-approved-think-tank%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2017739&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>John\u200b Mearsheimer enjoys close \u2063ties with pro-Moscow propagandists<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<p>      John \u2064J. Mearsheimer, left,\u2063 and Piotr Dutkiewicz at the Valdai conference in \u2064Sochi, Russia\u2063 (AP)<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The realist scholar <strong>John Mearsheimer<\/strong>, best \u200bknown for his tome <em>The Israel Lobby<\/em>, has a curious \u2063acknowledgment in the preface of his latest book, \u200c <em>How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mearsheimer\u2063 expresses gratitude to\u200c the <strong>Valdai Discussion Club<\/strong> for a\u200b grant that funded his research. What is the Valdai Discussion \u200dGroup? The Moscow-based think tank, which has been described as a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/posteverything\/wp\/2016\/10\/26\/is-there-value-in-valdai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Putin-approved<\/a>&#8221; organization, hosts the Russian \u200dequivalent of Davos, gathering global elites \u200cto hear the latest talking points from the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<p>The\u200d Valdai \u2062Discussion Club, which says its goal\u2062 is to &#8220;promote\u200b dialogue between Russian and international intellectual elite,&#8221; is staffed\u200d by \u200dformer Russian state media \u2063figures \u200cand regularly hosts Russian president Vladimir Putin, as \u200cwell as other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/you-are-our-champion-novak-djokovic-gets-heros-welcome-in-serbia\/\" title=\"'You Are Our Champion': Novak Djokovic Gets Hero\u2019s Welcome in Serbia\">high-ranking government officials<\/a>.\u2064 The group was founded by the Russian International Affairs Council, a think tank launched by Russia\u2019s \u200dMinistry\u2063 of Foreign\u200b Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>Mearsheimer is a University\u200c of Chicago professor and the co-author of <em>The Israel Lobby<\/em>, a \u20622007\u2064 book that \u200dargues pro-Israel forces in \u200dthe United States control American foreign policy, to the\u2062 country&#8217;s \u2063detriment.<\/p>\n<p>Mearsheimer&#8217;s grant from the Valdai Discussion Club is notable\u200d given his contention that one particular foreign \u2064government exerts too\u2062 much \u200cinfluence in the\u2062 United States. In <em>The Israel Lobby<\/em>, published in 2007, Mearsheimer argued that pro-Israel forces in the United States control American foreign policy, to \u200cthe country&#8217;s detriment. He has since been a mainstay in the anti-Israel advocacy world, even endorsing \u200bthe work of\u2064 an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/national\/archive\/2011\/09\/john-mearsheimer-endorses-a-hitler-apologist-and-holocaust-revisionist\/245518\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/national\/archive\/2011\/09\/john-mearsheimer-endorses-a-hitler-apologist-and-holocaust-revisionist\/245518\/&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1693525621776000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3zPz2lnbH7SX1u1zmV6bWU\">alleged<\/a> &#8220;Hitler apologist \u2062and Holocaust revisionist.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Russia appears to be more than just another nation-state for Mearsheimer, a non-resident\u200b fellow at the <strong>anti-interventionist<\/strong> Quincy Institute\u200d for \u2064Responsible \u200dStatecraft. His work blaming \u200dthe West\u2062 for Russia&#8217;s aggression \u200dtoward Ukraine has been highly influential in the United\u2064 States. After Russia invaded Ukraine without provocation last year, \u200bMearsheimer&#8217;s 2014 <em>Foreign Affairs<\/em> \u200d paper, &#8220;Why the Ukraine\u2064 Crisis Is the West\u2019s Fault,&#8221; was widely cited by those who\u200d sought to limit U.S. involvement in the war. Updated versions of \u2064his argument\u2014that NATO&#8217;s expansion into Russia&#8217;s sphere of influence directly caused the invasion\u2014appeared in\u2062 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foreignaffairs.com\/ukraine\/playing-fire-ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.foreignaffairs.com\/ukraine\/playing-fire-ukraine&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1693525621776000&#038;usg=AOvVaw0QOOSR094elmEW23dxM99u\">Foreign Affairs<\/a><\/em>, the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/by-invitation\/2022\/03\/11\/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.economist.com\/by-invitation\/2022\/03\/11\/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1693525621776000&#038;usg=AOvVaw0W79nfDOvvGQXmlcohbEGT\">Economist<\/a><\/em>, and \u200dthe <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/q-and-a\/why-john-mearsheimer-blames-the-us-for-the-crisis-in-ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/q-and-a\/why-john-mearsheimer-blames-the-us-for-the-crisis-in-ukraine&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1693525621776000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3U_RXF1keEvYrJ_2g_dUlY\">New Yorker<\/a><\/em>  and were\u200b favorably cited\u200b in left-leaning publications like <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/2022\/03\/can-we-have-an-intelligent-adult-conversation-about-russia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/2022\/03\/can-we-have-an-intelligent-adult-conversation-about-russia&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1693525621776000&#038;usg=AOvVaw0QeB-TDMrE71f3MWTQlhqr\">Current\u200d Affairs<\/a><\/em>, the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/russia-ukraine-new-york-times\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/russia-ukraine-new-york-times\/&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1693525621776000&#038;usg=AOvVaw1-LliF7Lnv3xDonO0g3QJx\">Nation<\/a><\/em>, \u200band the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2023\/03\/russia-ukraine-war-pundits-history-international-relations\/673293\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2023\/03\/russia-ukraine-war-pundits-history-international-relations\/673293\/&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1693525621776000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3zg_UGLTHDLxJYsjFauZSr\">Atlantic<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Mearsheimer has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/israel-lobby-author-takes-cash-from-putin-approved-think-tank\/\" title=\"Author of \u2018Israel Lobby\u2019 receives funding from \u2018Putin-endorsed\u2019 think tank.\">long enjoyed ties<\/a> to the \u2064Valdai Discussion Club\u2064 and participated in its\u2062 annual gatherings \u200cthat take aim at American \u200bleadership across \u200dthe globe. Mearsheimer, for instance, \u200ctraveled\u2064 to Sochi \u2064in \u20632016 to hob-knob \u2064with\u200c Russian oligarchs at the Discussion Club\u2019s yearly confab, which\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/russia-hosts-experts-officials-who-criticize-america-at-annual-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">featured<\/a> \u200d Putin\u200c as \u2064a speaker that year.<\/p>\n<p>During the conference, Mearsheimer <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/russia-hosts-experts-officials-who-criticize-america-at-annual-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argued<\/a> that the United \u2063States had &#8220;foolishly driven Russia in the arms of the Chinese.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a result of \u200cthe U.S. unipolar positions, \u2063the \u2063United States tries to move NATO\u200c further and further eastwards, antagonizing Russia,&#8221; Mearsheimer\u200b said. &#8220;American elites, both Republican and Democratic, failed to appreciate Russia&#8217;s security concerns.\u200c Americans just refused to understand that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Political scientist Daniel Drezner, a Russia\u200d expert who attended the 2016 conference, described \u200bit\u2063 as the &#8220;Russian equivalent\u2062 to\u200b Davos&#8221; \u2062and reported that the \u200dconference program described \u2064the collapse\u200c of \u200bthe Soviet Union as\u200d &#8220;the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russian-lawmakers-declare-fall-of-soviet-union-greatest-geopolitical-catastrophe-of-20th-century\/\" title=\"Russian Lawmakers Declare Fall of Soviet Union \u2018Greatest Geopolitical Catastrophe of 20th Century\u2019\">greatest geopolitical catastrophe<\/a> of the 20th century.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mearsheimer received a \u20632019 award from the Valdai Discussion Club\u200d for his book, <em>The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International\u200c Realities<\/em>, \u2062which resulted in the grant that he \u2062says helped finance \u2063research for\u200d his latest book.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry also has \u200dpromoted \u200cMearsheimer\u2019s work, including last year when the\u200c propaganda outfit <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/russia-promotes-israel-lobby-author-to-defend-invasion-of-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">featured<\/a> the author\u2019s writings to justify Putin\u2019s deadly invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Mearsheimer did not respond to a\u2063 <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> request for comment on how much \u2062money he received from\u200b the Valdai Discussion Club, which also did not respond \u200bto a request for\u200c comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Mearsheimer, a realist scholar, has close connections with pro-Moscow propagandists. In his latest book, &#8220;How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy,&#8221; he acknowledges these ties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":2017740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2017739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2017739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2017739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2017739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2017739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}