Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 02:34, 22 December 2024

Project for the New American Century (PNAC)

Formation	1997; 27 years ago (1997)
Founder	William Kristol, Robert Kagan
Dissolved	2006; 18 years ago (2006)
Type	Public policy think tank
Location	Washington, D.C.
Chairman	William Kristol
Directors	Robert Kagan Devon Gaffney Cross Bruce P. Jackson John R. Bolton

This article is part of a series on
Conservatism in the United States
Schools Compassionate Fiscal Fusion Liberal Libertarian Moderate Movement Neo- Paleo- Postliberal Populist Progressive Social Straussian Traditionalist
Principles American exceptionalism American nationalism Anti-communism Christian nationalism Civil religion Classical liberalism Communitarianism Constitutionalism Culture of life Pro-life Familialism Family values Federalism States' rights Gender essentialism Complementarianism Judeo-Christian values Individualism Law and order Limited government Meritocracy Natural aristocracy Militarism Peace through strength Moral absolutism Natural law Ordered liberty Patriotism Property rights Republicanism Right to bear arms Rule of law Supply-side economics Tradition
History Loyalists Southern chivalry Solid South New Humanism Southern Agrarians Old Right Conservative Manifesto Conservative coalition America First Committee McCarthyism United States in the 1950s Goldwater campaign New Right Reagan era Reagan Doctrine Reaganomics Neo- vs. paleoconservatism Redeemers Republican Revolution Tea Party movement Trump era First term Second term
Intellectuals Adams Anton Babbitt Bacevich Bell Bellow Berger Bloom Boorstin Bradford Buckley Burgess Burnham Calhoun Carl Chambers Conquest Deneen Eastman Eliot Francis Genovese Gottfried Hanson Hazony Himmelfarb Hoppe Hurston Jaffa Kendall Kimball Kirk Kirkpatrick Kreeft Kristol Kuehnelt-Leddihn Lasch Lind Lovecraft Loury Lukacs Mansfield Mencken Meyer Molnar Murray Nisbet Pangle Ransom Rieff Santayana Schaeffer Sowell Strauss Viereck Voegelin Weaver Weyl Wolfe
Politicians Abbott Adams (John) Adams (John Quincy) Bolton Buchanan Pat Bush (George H. W.) Bush (George W.) Calhoun Cheney Clay Cleveland Coolidge Cruz DeSantis Dirksen Eisenhower Gingrich Goldwater Harding Hawley Helms Hoover (Herbert) Huckabee Jordan Lodge Luce McCain McCarthy (Joseph) McConnell McKinley Nixon Palin Paul (Rand) Paul (Ron) Pence Pierce Randolph Reagan Romney Rubio Rumsfeld Ryan Sanders Santorum Sherman Taft (Robert) Taft (William) Taylor Thurmond Trump Vance Wallace Wolfowitz Washington
Jurists Alito Barrett Bork Burger Colson Frelinghuysen George Goldsmith Gorsuch Harlan II Kavanaugh Kennedy Luttig Meese O'Connor Parker Rehnquist Roberts Sanford Scalia Sessions Sutherland Taft (William) Thomas (Clarence) Vermeule Whittaker
Commentators Ahmari Beck Bongino Breitbart Buchanan (Pat) Buckley Caldwell Carlson Cass Chodorov Coulter D'Souza Derbyshire DiLorenzo Douthat Dreher Elder Fleming Goldberg Grant Griffin Van den Haag Hannity Hart Hegseth Herberg Hoover (Margaret) Ingraham Jones Kelly Kirk Knowles Krauthammer Lahren Levin Limbaugh Mac Donald Metaxas Neuhaus Ngo North Novak O'Reilly Owens Podhoretz Pool Portnoy Prager Robertson Shapiro Shlaes Sullivan Walsh Watters Whittle Will Wintrich Woods
Activists Abramoff Agostinelli Ahmanson Andreessen Atwater Bannon Bennett Bezmenov Blum Bozell Cohn Coors Dans Dobson Dolan Drudge Falwell Feulner Gabriel Horowitz Kauffman Krikorian Kirk Kristol LaHaye Lindbergh Leo McEntee Mercer (Rebekah) Mercer (Robert) Miller Murdoch Musk Political views O'Keefe Park Phillips Prager Reed Regnery Roberts Rove Rufo Rusher Scaife Schlafly (Andrew) Schlafly (Phyllis) Stone Starbuck Thiel Viguerie Thomas (Ginni) Washington Weyrich Wood Yenor
Literature The Federalist Papers (1788) Democracy in America (1835–1840) Notes on Democracy (1926) I'll Take My Stand (1930) Our Enemy, the State (1935) The Managerial Revolution (1941) Ideas Have Consequences (1948) God and Man at Yale (1951) The Conservative Mind (1953) The Conscience of a Conservative (1960) A Choice Not an Echo (1964) Losing Ground (1984) A Conflict of Visions (1987) The Closing of the American Mind (1987) The Bell Curve (1994) The Revolt of the Elites (1995) The Death of the West (2001) The Blank Slate (2002) Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005) Hillbilly Elegy (2017) The Benedict Option (2017) Why Liberalism Failed (2018)
Concerns Abortion American decline Cancel Culture Culture war Multiculturalism "Disparate impact" controversy CRT controversy DEI controversy Griggs v. Duke Power Co. Higher ed. bubble Go woke, go broke ESG "Woke capitalism" Homeschooling Immigration reduction Illegal immigration Immigration and crime Border crisis Intelligence and public policy Constitutional interpretations Originalism Textualism Managerial state Mudsill theory Second Amendment Sub-replacement fertility Unitary executive
PartiesActive American Party American Independent Party Conservative Party of New York State Constitution Party Republican Party Defunct Anti-Masonic Party Constitutional Union Party Democratic Party (historically, factions) Boll weevils Bourbon Democrats Conservative Democrats Dixiecrats Reagan Democrats Southern Democrats Rhode Island Suffrage Party Federalist Party National Republican Party Native American Party Whig Party
Think tanks Acton Institute AdTI AEI CSP Center for the National Interest Claremont Institute CEI CSPC EPPC FRI Gatestone Institute Heartland Institute The Heritage Foundation Heritage Action Mandate for Leadership Project 2025 Hoover Institution Hudson Institute ISI James Madison Program Leadership Institute Manhattan Institute Mises Institute PRI Project for the New American Century (Defunct) Ripon Society R Street Institute Rockford Institute SPN Sutherland Institute Tax Foundation Witherspoon Institute
Media Newspapers Chicago Tribune The Epoch Times New Hampshire Union Leader The Jewish Voice The New York Observer New York Post The Remnant The Wall Street Journal (editorial board) The Washington Times Journals American Affairs The American Conservative The American Spectator American Thinker City Journal Claremont Review of Books Commentary Compact Chronicles The Dispatch First Things The Imaginative Conservative Jewish World Review Modern Age National Affairs The National Interest National Review The New American The New Atlantis The New Criterion Policy Review (defunct) Public Discourse Southern Partisan Spectator USA Tablet Taki's Magazine Telos Washington Examiner The Weekly Standard (defunct) TV channels CBN Fox Business Fox News Newsmax TV One America News Network VOZ Websites Babylon Bee Breitbart News The Bulwark Campus Reform The Center Square Conservative Review Daily Caller Daily Signal Daily Wire Discover the Networks The Federalist FrontPage Magazine Front Porch Republic Gateway Pundit Hot Air Human Events Independent Journal Review InfoWars Jihad Watch LifeZette NewsBusters PJ Media Rare RedState The Dispatch Townhall Twitchy Washington Examiner The Washington Free Beacon The Western Journal WorldNetDaily Other Blaze Media Encounter Books Evie Magazine The First Imprimis The Political Cesspool Passage Publishing PragerU RealClearPolitics Red Scare Regnery Publishing RSBN The Rubin Report Sinclair Broadcast Group
Other organizations Economics ATR Club for Growth FreedomWorks (defunct) NFIB NTU Tea Party Patriots USCC Gun rights GOA NAGR NRA Second Amendment Caucus Identity politics ACT! CWA Council of Conservative Citizens GAG IWF LCR Moms for Liberty Nativist CIS FAIR Immigration Restriction League NumbersUSA Oath Keepers Three Percenters Religion ADF Court cases ACLJ AFA The American TFP Chalcedon Foundation CCA Christian Voice Eagle Forum FCR The Fellowship FFC Focus on the Family Foundation for Moral Law Liberty Counsel Moral Majority (defunct) NOM NRLC PTMC Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Thomas More Law Center Watchdog groups AIM Econ Journal Watch Franklin News Foundation JW MRC O'Keefe Media Group Project Veritas (defunct) Youth/student groups NJC TPUSA Young Americans for Freedom Young America's Foundation YAL Miscellaneous The 85 Fund AHI ACU Bradley Foundation TCC CNP CPAC Freedom Caucus Hillsdale College IFF JBS John M. Olin Foundation Liberty Fund LU NAS Philadelphia Society Regent University RSC Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal TPPF Other AFL Atlas Network CN ConservAmerica Donors Trust FedSoc Gab Gettr NCPAC PJI Parler Republican Main Street Partnership The Right Stuff SACR YRNF Ziklag
Movements Asian and Pacific Islander Black Christian right Reconstructionism Classical education movement Paideia Dark Enlightenment Female Green Hispanic and Latino LGBT Libertarian republicans Militia movement Monarchism Mormon White Horse Prophecy Theodemocracy Parental rights movement Fathers' rights Patriot movement Christian Radical right Reactionary feminism Right-libertarianism Paleolibertarianism Secessionism Neo-Confederates in Texas Trumpism Never Trump
Related Agenda 47 America First Bibliography of US conservatism Conservative talk radio Dunning School GOP factions History of US conservatism Modern timeline List of American conservatives NatCon Colloquialisms "Barstool conservatism" "Cuckservative" "Don't immanentize the eschaton!" Republicans pounce RINO "South Park Republican"
Conservatism portal United States portal
v t e

The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a neoconservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., that focused on United States foreign policy. It was established as a non-profit educational organization in 1997, and founded by William Kristol and Robert Kagan. PNAC's stated goal was "to promote American global leadership". The organization stated that "American leadership is good both for America and for the world", and sought to build support for "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity".

Of the twenty-five people who signed PNAC's founding statement of principles, ten went on to serve in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. Observers such as Irwin Stelzer and Dave Grondin have suggested that the PNAC played a key role in shaping the foreign policy of the Bush Administration, particularly in building support for the Iraq War. Academics such as Inderjeet Parmar, Phillip Hammond, and Donald E. Abelson have said PNAC's influence on the George W. Bush administration has been exaggerated.

The Project for the New American Century ceased to function in 2006; it was replaced by a new think-tank named the Foreign Policy Initiative, co-founded by Kristol and Kagan in 2009. The Foreign Policy Initiative was dissolved in 2017.

Origins and operation

The Project for the New American Century developed from Kristol and Kagan's belief that the Republican Party lacked a "compelling vision for American foreign policy", which would allow Republican leaders to effectively criticize President Bill Clinton's foreign policy record.

During mid-1996, Kristol and Kagan co-authored an article in Foreign Affairs titled "Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy" – referring to the foreign policy of President Ronald Reagan. In the article, they argued that American conservatives were "adrift" in the area of foreign policy, advocated a "more elevated vision of America's international role", and suggested that the United States' should adopt a stance of "benevolent global hegemony." In June 1997, Kristol and Kagan founded the PNAC in order to advance the goals they had first laid out in Foreign Affairs, echoing the article's statements and goals in PNAC's founding Statement of Principles.

According to Maria Ryan, the individuals who signed the PNAC's statements and letters were not employees or members of the group, and "supporters of PNAC's initiatives differed from case to case." While its permanent staff was relatively small, the organization was "especially well connected", with some of its statements and letters attracting the support of prominent conservatives and neoconservatives.

In this regard, Stuart Elden has stated that "The influence that PNAC had was astonishing", and noted that

The number of figures associated with PNAC that had been members of the Reagan or the first Bush administration and the number that would take up office with the administration of the second President Bush demonstrate that it is not merely a question of employees and budgets.

Statement of Principles

PNAC's first public act was to release a "Statement of Principles" on June 3, 1997. The statement had 25 signers, including project members and outside supporters (see Signatories to Statement of Principles). It described the United States as the "world's pre-eminent power", and said that the nation faced a challenge to "shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests". To this goal, the statement's signers called for significant increases in defense spending, and for the promotion of "political and economic freedom abroad". It said the United States should strengthen ties with its democratic allies, "challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values", and preserve and extend "an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles". Calling for a "Reaganite" policy of "military strength and moral clarity", it concluded that PNAC's principles were necessary "if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next".

In September 2000 PNAC released "Rebuilding America's Defenses" a report that promotes "the belief that America should seek to preserve and extend its position of global leadership by maintaining the preeminence of U.S. military forces". The report states, "advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool".

Calls for regime change in Iraq

In 1998, Kristol and Kagan advocated regime change in Iraq throughout the Iraq disarmament process through articles that were published in the New York Times. Following perceived Iraqi unwillingness to co-operate with UN weapons inspections, core members of the PNAC including Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, R. James Woolsey, Elliott Abrams, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Zoellick, and John Bolton were among the signatories of an open letter initiated by the PNAC to President Bill Clinton calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein. Portraying Saddam Hussein as a threat to the United States, its Middle East allies, and oil resources in the region, and emphasizing the potential danger of any weapons of mass destruction under Iraq's control, the letter asserted that the United States could "no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections". Stating that American policy "cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council", the letter's signatories asserted that "the U.S. has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf". Believing that UN sanctions against Iraq would be an ineffective means of disarming Iraq, PNAC members also wrote a letter to Republican members of the U.S. Congress Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott, urging Congress to act, and supported the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (H.R. 4655) which President Clinton signed into law in October 1998.

In February 1998, some of the same individuals who had signed the PNAC letter in January also signed a similar letter to Clinton, from the bipartisan Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf.

In January 1999, the PNAC circulated a memo that criticized the December 1998 bombing of Iraq in Operation Desert Fox as ineffective. The memo questioned the viability of Iraqi democratic opposition, which the U.S. was supporting through the Iraq Liberation Act, and referred to any "containment" policy as an illusion.

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, the PNAC sent a letter to President George W. Bush, specifically advocating regime change through "a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq". The letter suggested that "any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq", even if no evidence linked Iraq to the September 11 attacks. The letter warned that allowing Hussein to remain in power would be "an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism." From 2001 through the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the PNAC and many of its members voiced active support for military action against Iraq, and asserted leaving Saddam Hussein in power would be "surrender to terrorism".

Some have regarded the PNAC's January 16, 1998, letter to President Clinton urging "the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power", and the involvement of multiple PNAC members in the Bush Administration as evidence that the PNAC had a significant influence on the Bush Administration's decision to invade Iraq, or even argued that the invasion was a foregone conclusion. Writing in Der Spiegel in 2003, for example, Jochen Bölsche specifically referred to PNAC when he claimed that "ultra-rightwing US think-tanks" had been "drawing up plans for an era of American global domination, for the emasculation of the UN, and an aggressive war against Iraq" in "broad daylight" since 1998. Similarly, BBC journalist Paul Reynolds portrayed PNAC's activities and goals as key to understanding the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration after September 11, 2001, suggesting that Bush's "dominant" foreign policy was at least partly inspired by the PNAC's ideas.

Some political scientists, historians, and other academics have been critical of many of these claims. Donald E. Abelson has written that scholars studying "PNAC's ascendancy" in the political arena "cannot possibly overlook the fact" that several of the signatories to PNAC's Statement of Purposes "received high level positions in the Bush administration", but that acknowledging these facts "is a far cry from making the claim that the institute was the architect of Bush's foreign policy".

Rebuilding America's Defenses

One of the PNAC's most influential publications was a 90-page report titled Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces, and Resources For a New Century. Citing the PNAC's 1997 Statement of Principles, Rebuilding America's Defenses asserted that the United States should "seek to preserve and extend its position of global leadership" by "maintaining the preeminence of U.S. military forces." The report's primary author was Giselle Donnelly, then going by the first name Thomas. Donald Kagan and Gary Schmitt are credited as project chairmen. It also lists the names of 27 other participants who contributed papers or attended meetings related to the production of the report, six of whom subsequently assumed key defense and foreign policy positions in the Bush administration. It suggested that the preceding decade had been a time of peace and stability, which had provided "the geopolitical framework for widespread economic growth" and "the spread of American principles of liberty and democracy". The report warned that "no moment in international politics can be frozen in time; even a global Pax Americana will not preserve itself.

According to the report, current levels of defense spending were insufficient, forcing policymakers "to try ineffectually to 'manage' increasingly large risks". The result, it suggested, was a form "paying for today's needs by shortchanging tomorrow's; withdrawing from constabulary missions to retain strength for large-scale wars; 'choosing' between presence in Europe or presence in Asia; and so on". The report asserted that ll of these were "bad choices" and "false economies", which did little to promote long-term American interests. "The true cost of not meeting our defense requirements", the report argued, "will be a lessened capacity for American global leadership and, ultimately, the loss of a global security order that is uniquely friendly to American principles and prosperity".

Rebuilding America's Defenses recommended establishing four core missions for US military forces: the defense of the "American homeland", the fighting and winning of "multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars", the performance of "'constabular' duties associated with shaping the security environment" in key regions, and the transformation of US forces "to exploit the 'revolution in military affairs'". Its specific recommendations included the maintenance of US nuclear superiority, an increase of the active personnel strength of the military from 1.4 to 1.6 million people, the redeployment of US forces to Southeast Europe and Asia, and the "selective" modernization of US forces. The report advocated the cancellation of "roadblock" programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter (which it argued would absorb "exorbitant" amounts of Pentagon funding while providing limited gains), but favored the development of "global missile defenses" and the control of "space and cyberspace", including the creation of a new military service with the mission of "space control". To help achieve these aims, Rebuilding America's Defenses advocated a gradual increase in military and defense spending "to a minimum level of 3.5 to 3.8 percent of gross domestic product, adding $15 billion to $20 billion to total defense spending annually. That amount is at least 17% to 19% or $355 billion to $386 billion of the US federal tax revenue in 2000 with annual increases of 4–6%.

Critics

Rebuilding America's Defenses

Written before the September 11 attacks and during political debates of the Iraq War, a section of Rebuilding America's Defenses titled "Creating Tomorrow's Dominant Force" became the subject of considerable controversy: "Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." Journalist John Pilger pointed to this passage when he argued that the Bush administration had used the events of September 11 as an opportunity to capitalize on long-desired plans.

Some critics went further, asserting that Rebuilding America's Defenses should be viewed as a program for global American hegemony. Writing in Der Spiegel in 2003, Jochen Bölsche claimed that Rebuilding America's Defenses "had been developed by PNAC for Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Libby" and was "devoted to matters of 'maintaining US pre-eminence, thwarting rival powers and shaping the global security system according to US interests'". British MP Michael Meacher made similar allegations in 2003, stating that the document was "a blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana", which had been "drawn up for" key members of the Bush administration. Academic Peter Dale Scott subsequently wrote

" ideology was summarized in a major position paper, Rebuilding America's Defenses, in 2000. This document advocated a global Pax Americana unrestrained by international law ..."

Other academics, such as Donald E. Abelson and Phillip Hammond, have suggested that many of these criticisms were overblown, while noting that similar statements about PNAC's origins, goals, and influence "continue to make their way into the academic literature on the neo-conservative network in the United States". Hammond, for example, notes that though Rebuilding America's Defenses "is often cited as evidence that a blueprint for American domination of the world was implemented under cover of the war on terrorism", it was actually "unexceptional". According to Hammond, the report's recommendations were "exactly what one would generally expect neoconservatives to say, and it is no great revelation that they said it in publicly available documents prior to September 2001". Similarly, Abelson has written that "evaluating the extent of PNAC's influence is not as straightforward" as Meacher and others maintain" as "we know very little about the inner workings of this think tank and whether it has lived up to its billing as the architect of Bush's foreign policy".

Focus on military strategies, versus diplomatic strategies

PNAC fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht stated: "We have no choice but to re-instill in our foes and friends the fear that attaches to any great power. ... Only a war against Saddam Hussein will decisively restore the awe that protects American interests abroad and citizens at home".

Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Record of the Strategic Studies Institute, in his monograph, Bounding the Global War on Terrorism and William Rivers Pitt, in Truthout argued that PNAC's goals of military hegemony were overly ambitious given what the military can accomplish, that they failed to recognize "the limits of US power", and that favoring the pre-emptive exercise of military force instead of diplomacy could have "adverse side effects." Paul Reynolds made similar observations.

End of the organization

By the end of 2006, PNAC was "reduced to a voice-mail box and a ghostly website single employee ... left to wrap things up", according to a correspondent at the BBC News. In 2006 former executive director of the PNAC Gary Schmitt said PNAC had never been intended to "go on forever", and had "already done its job", suggesting that "our view has been adopted". In 2009 Robert Kagan and William Kristol created a new think tank, the Foreign Policy Initiative, which scholars Stephen M. Walt and Don Abelson have characterized as a successor to PNAC. From September 5, 2018, till January 13, 2019, the PNAC homepage went back online without any further explanation.

People associated with the PNAC

Project directors

These are listed on the PNAC website:

Project staff

• Other director(s):
  • Ellen Bork, Deputy Director
  • Timothy Lehmann, Assistant Director
• Other associates:
  • Senior fellows:
    • Giselle (formerly Thomas) Donnelly, Senior Fellow
    • Reuel Marc Gerecht, Senior Fellow
    • Gary Schmitt, Senior Fellow

• Research associates:
  • Michael Goldfarb, Research Associate
• Comptroller:
  • Dov Zakheim, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (2001–04)

Former directors and staff

• John R. Bolton, Director, former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs (2001–05) and United States Ambassador to the United Nations (2005–06), former National Security Advisor of the United States (2018–19), former senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
• Daniel McKivergan, Deputy Director
• Christopher Maletz, former Assistant Director
• Richard N. Perle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under the Reagan administration, an AEI associate, and member (and former chairman) of the Defense Policy Board

Signatories to Statement of Principles

See also

• American Century
• American imperialism
• Liberal internationalism
• Wilsonianism
• Center for a New American Security
• Committee on the Present Danger
• Committee for the Liberation of Iraq
• A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm

References

1. The following refer to or label PNAC as a neoconservative organization:
   • Albanese, Matteo (2012). The Concept of War in Neoconservative Thinking. Ipoc Press. p. 72. ISBN 9788867720002. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
   • Ryan, Maria. Neoconservatism and the New American Century. Palgrave Macmillan.
   • Feldman, Stephen. Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court. NYU Press. p. 67.
   • Brownstein, Ronald (April 17, 2003). "War With Iraq/Political Thought: Those Who Sought War are Now Pushing Peace". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
   • Greenberger, Robert S; Legget, Karby (March 21, 2003). "Bush Dreams of Changing Not Just Regime but Region". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
   • Maddox, Bronwen (July 14, 2004). "Nation-Builders must not lose their voice". The Times. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
   • Salvucci, Jim (August 25, 2003). "Bush Uses Crisis to Push Preset Agenda". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
2. ^ First Impressions, Second Thoughts: Reflections on the Changing Role of Think Tanks in U.S. Foreign Policy Archived November 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Abelson, Critical Issues of Our Time, v. 8, Center for American Studies, University of Western Ontario, 2011
3. Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, David Rothkopf, PublicAffairs, 2006
4. Home page of the Project for the New American Century, accessed March 4, 2015.
5. ^ Elliott Abrams, et al., "Statement of Principles", June 3, 1997, newamericancentury.org, accessed May 28, 2007.
6. ^ "About PNAC", newamericancentury.org, n.d., accessed May 30, 2007: "Established in the spring of 1997, the Project for the New American Century is a non-profit, educational organization whose goal is to promote American global leadership. The Project was an initiative of the New Citizenship Project (501c3); the New Citizenship Project's chairman is William Kristol and its president is Gary Schmitt."
7. Statement of Principles of the Project for a New American Century:
8. United States Foreign Policy and National Identity in the 21st Century, Kenneth Christie (ed.), Routledge, 2008
9. ^ Max Boot, "Neocons", Foreign Policy No. 140 (January–February 2004), pp. 20–22, 24, 26, 28 JSTOR
10. ^ Parmar, Inderjeet (2008). "Chapter 3: A Neo-Conservative-Dominated US Foreign Policy Establishment?". In Christie, Kenneth (ed.). United States Foreign Policy and National Identity in the 21st Century. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-415-57357-3.
    • "The PNAC's 33 leaders were highly connected with the American state – displaying 115 such connections: 27 with the Department of Defense, 13 with State, 12 with the White House, 10 with the National Security Council, and 23 with Congress."
    • "The PNAC may be considered strongly integrated into the political and administrative machinery of US power; certainly, it is not an outsider institution in this regard."
11. ^ Funabashi, Yichi (2007). The Peninsula Question: A Chronicle of the Second Korean Nuclear Crisis. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. ISBN 978-0-8157-3010-1.
    • "Of the twenty-five signatories of the PNAC's Statement of Principles ... ten went on to serve in the George W. Bush administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, among others."
12. Stelzer, Irwin (2004). Neoconservatism. London: Atlantic Books. p. 5.
    • (on PNAC, founded by Kristol): "Its other founders included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliot Abrams, all of whom were destined for key positions in the Bush administration – with the exception of Kristol."
    • "No one can doubt that PNAC was an important contributor to the Bush administration's foreign policy. To suggest, however, that it is a part of some secret effort to overthrow traditional American foreign policy is not true."
13. Hammond, Phillip (2007). Media, War and Postmodernity. Routledge. p. 72. Rebuilding America's Defences, September 2000.
    • "Critics have made much of the fact that US actions after 9/11 seemed to follow neoconservative thinking on foreign and security policy formulated before Bush took office", p. 72.
    • "In particular, Rebuilding American Defenses ... is often cited as evidence that a blueprint for American domination of the world was implemented under of cover of the War on Terrorism", p. 72.
14. ^ Parmar, Inderjeet (2008). "Chapter 3: A Neo-Conservative-Dominated US Foreign Policy Establishment?". In Christie, Kenneth (ed.). United States Foreign Policy and National Identity in the 21st Century (PDF). New York and London: Routledge. p. 49. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 25, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
    • "It is often argued that the neo-cons hijacked the Bush administration – particularly through the influence of PNAC."
15. Grondin, David (2005). "Mistaking Hegemony for Empire: Neoconservatives, the Bush Doctrine, and the Democratic Empire". International Journal. 61 (1): 227–241. doi:10.2307/40204140. JSTOR 40204140.
    • "There can be no question that the September 2002 'National security strategy of the United States of America,' announcing a Bush doctrine predicated upon military prevention, regime change, and enhanced defence spending, has been heavily influenced by neoconservative writings. Among these have been works published under the aegis of the 'Project for a new American century,' including Rebuilding America's Defenses (by Donald Kagan, Gary Schmitt, and Thomas Donnelly), and Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy (by William Kristol and Robert Kagan)." pp. 231–232.
16. ^ Parmar, Inderjeet (2008). "Chapter 3: A Neo-Conservative-Dominated US Foreign Policy Establishment?". In Christie, Kenneth (ed.). United States Foreign Policy and National Identity in the 21st Century. Routledge Studies in US Foreign Policy. Routledge. p. 49.
17. Hammond, Phillip (2007). Media, War and Postmodernity. Routledge. p. 72. Rebuilding America's Defences, September 2000.
18. Abelson, Donald E (2006). Capitol Idea: Think Tanks and US Foreign Policy. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0773531154. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
19. ^ Ryan, Maria (2010). Neoconservatism and the New American Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-10467-9. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
20. Kristol, William; Kagan, Robert (July 1, 1996). "Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy". Foreign Affairs. 75 (4): 18. doi:10.2307/20047656. JSTOR 20047656.
21. Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty, Stuart Elden, Univ of Minnesota Press, 2009, p. 15
22. "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century". cryptome.org. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
23. Donnelly, Kagan (September 2000). "Rebuilding America's Defenses. Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century" (PDF). New American Century. Archived from the original on November 12, 2002. Retrieved March 20, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
24. Kristol, William; Kagan, Robert (January 30, 1998). "Bombing Iraq Isn't Enough". The New York Times.
25. Kristol, William; Kagan, Robert (February 26, 1998). "A 'Great Victory' for Iraq". The Washington Post.
26. ^ Wedel, Janine (2009). Shadow Elite. New York: Basic Books. p. 170.
27. ^ "Open Letter to President Bill Clinton", January 26, 1998, accessed May 28, 2007.
28. Elliott Abrams, et al.,Letter to Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott, May 28, 1998, newamericancentury.org, accessed May 30, 2007.
29. Arin, Kubilay Yado (2013): Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy. (Wiesbaden: VS Springer) .
30. "Public Law 105–338—Oct. 31, 1998. Iraq Liberation Act of 1998" Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, January 27, 1998, accessed June 20, 2014.
31. Hoff, Joan (2007). A Faustian Foreign Policy from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139468596.
32. " Memorandum to Opinion Leaders, From: Mark Lagon, Subject: Iraq", January 7, 1999, newamericancentury.org, web.archive.org, accessed May 30, 2007.
33. William Kristol, et al., Letter to George W. Bush, September 20, 2001, newamericancentury.org, n.d., accessed June 20, 2014.
34. For example, William Kristol, "Liberate Iraq", The Weekly Standard, May 14, 2001, online posting, newamericancentury.org, accessed May 28, 2007.
35. Neil MacKay, "Former Bush Aide: US Plotted Iraq Invasion Long Before 9/11", The Wisdom Fund, Scottish Sunday Herald January 11, 2004, accessed June 1, 2007.
36. Gary Schmitt, "State of Terror: War by any other name ...", The Weekly Standard November 20, 2000, newamericancentury.org, web.archive.org, accessed June 1, 2007.
37. Gary Schmitt, "Memorandum: To: Opinion Leaders, From Gary Schmitt, Subject : Iraq–al Qaeda Connection", August 6, 2002, newamericancentury.org, web.archive.org, accessed June 1, 2007.
38. Gary Schmitt, "Memorandum: To: Opinion Leaders, From William Kristol, Subject: Iraq and the War on Terror", August 21, 2002, newamericancentury.org, web.archive.org, accessed June 1, 2007.
39. "Chronology: The Evolution of the Bush Doctrine", The War Behind Closed Doors. Frontline, WGBH-TV (Boston, Massachusetts), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), online posting February 20, 2003, accessed June 1, 2007.("Home page" includes menu of links to "Analysis", "Chronology", "Interviews", and "Discussion" as well as link to streaming video of the program.)
40. ^ Paul Reynolds, "Analysis: Power Americana: The US Appears to Be Heading to War with Iraq Whatever Happens, with Implications for the Future Conduct of American Foreign Policy", BBC News, March 2, 2003, accessed May 29, 2007.
41. Margie Burns, "Warriors Behind the Scenes Coached the Stars On Stage", The Washington Spectator, May 1, 2004, accessed June 1, 2007, updated November 16, 2013. (1 of 3 pages.)
42. Hammond, Philip (2007). Media, War and Postmodernity. Routledge. ISBN 9781134188345. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
    • "Critics have made much of the fact that US actions after 9/11 seemed to follow neoconservative thinking on foreign and security policy formulated before Bush took office." "In particular, Rebuilding American Defenses is often cited as evidence that a blueprint for American domination of the world was implemented under of cover of the War on Terrorism."
43. Abelson, Donald E. (2006). Capitol Idea. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. ISBN 9780773575974. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
    • Abelson quotes British MP Michael Meacher on Rebuilding America's Defenses: "The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in Power.
44. ^ Ebrahim Afsah, "Creed, Cabal, or Conspiracy – The Origins of the Current Neo-Conservative Revolution in US Strategic Thinking" Archived February 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, The German Law Journal, No. 9 (September 2003), n. 5, citing Jochen Bölsche, "Bushs Masterplan – Der Krieg, der aus dem Think Tank kam", Der Spiegel March 4, 2003.
45. Abelson, Donald E (2006). Capitol Idea: Think Tanks and US Foreign Policy. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. pp. 218–219. ISBN 9780773575974.
46. Hammond, Philip (2007). Media, War and Postmodernity. Routledge. ISBN 9781134188345. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
47. ^ "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces, and Resources For a New Century" (PDF). September 2000. Archived from the original on August 17, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
48. Archived April 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine "The President's Real Goal in Iraq", Jay Bookman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 29, 2002
49. At the end of the list of "Project Participants", on p. 90 of Rebuilding America's Defenses, there appears the following statement: "The above list of individuals participated in at least one project meeting or contributed a paper for discussion. The report is a product solely of the Project for the New American Century and does not necessarily represent the views of the project participants or their affiliated institutions."
50. John Pilger, "John Pilger Reveals the American Plan", New Statesman, December 16, 2002, accessed June 20, 2014.
51. Jochen Bölsche, "Bushs Masterplan – Der Krieg, der aus dem Think Tank kam", Der Spiegel March 4, 2003; English translation, "This War Came from a Think Tank", trans. Alun Breward, published in Margo Kingston,"A Think Tank War: Why Old Europe Says No", The Sydney Morning Herald, March 7, 2003, accessed May 28, 2007.
52. Donald E. Abelson, Capitol Idea: Think Tanks and U. S. Foreign Policy; McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006; p. 213.
53. The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America, Peter Dale Scott, University of California Press, 2008, p. 192
54. Hammond, Philip (2007). Media, War and Postmodernity. Routledge. ISBN 9781134188345. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
55. Abelson, Donald E. (2006). Capitol Idea. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. ISBN 9780773575974. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
56. "Why Did We Invade Iraq?". LobeLog Foreign Policy. April 28, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
57. "Jeffrey Record bio". Australian Army Research Centre. August 1, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
58. Shah, Anup (April 24, 2004). "The Bush Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strikes; A Global Pax Americana". globalissues.org. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
59. Pitt, William Rivers (February 21, 2003). "Of Gods and Mortals and Empire". Truthout. Archived from the original on August 22, 2005. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
60. Record, Jeffrey (January 12, 2004). "Bounding the Global War on Terrorism" (PDF). The Washington Post. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
61. ^ Paul Reynolds, "End of the Neo-con Dream: The Neo-conservative Dream Faded in 2006", BBC News, December 21, 2006, accessed May 29, 2007.
62. "Would You Buy a Used Foreign Policy from these Guys?", Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy, March 31, 2009
63. WebArchive Snapshot, January 13, 2019
64. Gary J. Schmitt is currently Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Director of its program in Advanced Strategic Studies.
65. "Daniel McKivergan", newamericancentury.org, web.archive.org, accessed May 30, 2007.

External links

• Project for the New American Century – partially archived copy, with some working links
• Project For The Old American Century – critical website
• Preserving Pax Americana: Defense Reform for the Unipolar Moment by Thomas Donnelly
• Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century – PNAC September 2000 Report
• Kristol, William; Kagan, Robert (1996). "Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy" (PDF). Foreign Affairs. 75 (4). Council on Foreign Relations: 18–32. doi:10.2307/20047656. ISSN 0015-7120. JSTOR 20047656. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 6, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2011.

• 1997 establishments in Washington, D.C.
• 2006 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.
• Conservative organizations in the United States
• Organizations established in 1997
• Organizations disestablished in 2006
• Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
• Causes and prelude of the Iraq War
• Neoconservatism
• Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.
• Political and economic think tanks in the United States