The Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a British-based advocacy organization closely aligned with the neoconservative political faction in the United States, was started in early 2005 to promote a "forward strategy" aimed at assisting democratization across the globe, according to its March 2005 statement of principles. The strategy includes ensuring the maintenance of a strong U.S. military, giving "two cheers to capitalism," and promoting the idea that "any international organization which admits undemocratic states on an equal basis is fundamentally flawed." One confusing aspect of the group is its name, which honors a controversial former U.S. senator from the state of Washington. "Scoop" Jackson, as he was familiarly known in the United States, was a highly influential Democratic senator whose staunchly anti-détente and hawkish “pro-Israel” positions made him a favorite of the burgeoning neoconservative movement in the 1970s.
According to the society, the 2006 book The British Moment, authored by several Cambridge-based scholars to support the Henry Jackson Society, is its "flagship" publication and "manifesto." HJS says the book "calls for a new way of thinking about British foreign, security, and defense policy in the 21st century and argues that the time is ripe for Britain to play a leading and progressive role in promoting democracy and human rights across the globe. The British Moment's authors argue it is time for Britain, and indeed, the rest of Europe, to reclaim the noble tradition of liberal interventionism and pursue an active strategy across the globe." Commenting on the book, Samuel Brittan wrote in the Financial Times: "There is a paradox about the whole enterprise. The British Moment comes wrapped in a Union Jack cover, and all the emphasis is on British policy. Why, then, take the name of a U.S. senator with a very mixed bag of views? Better to have called it the Palmerston Society after the 19th-century British prime minister who selectively favored 'small nations struggling to be free,' often with the aid of British gunboats" (August 14, 2006).
Another political observer, Luke McCallin, asked a similar question in noting Jackson's association with neoconservatism and the adoption of this label by many of the group's supporters. "If your goal is to urge European decision-makers to aggressively promote liberal values," asked McCallin, "why associate yourself with a tainted neoconservative label?" ("The Henry Who Society?" Right Web Analysis, October 18, 2006).
The list of signatories to the HJS statement of principles confirms its ideological persuasion. The list consists largely of elite UK policymakers from both the left and right, including close associates of former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. While most of the names might be unfamiliar to Americans, one name stands out: Irwin Stelzer. Identified on the statement of principles as the director of economic policy studies at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute, Stelzer is a long-standing associate of the U.S. neoconservative political faction whose close connection to right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch has helped foster rumors about his ability to influence high-level British politicians, including Blair (see "It's Crazy to Think that I'd Threaten Blair," Guardian, October 17, 2004).
One does not have to look far to find others of Stelzer's ilk attached to the HJS. According to the group's website, it counts as "international patrons" high-profile neoconservatives such as William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard; Bruce Jackson, president of the Project on Transitional Democracies; Robert Kagan, cofounder with Kristol of the Project for the New American Century; Clifford May of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Richard Perle, former Defense Policy Board chairman and coauthor with David Frum of the 2003 book An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror; Joshua Muravchik, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute; and former CIA director James Woolsey.
Like its ideological associates in the United States, HJS has been a vocal proponent of militarist policy prescriptions for the Middle East, pressuring policymakers in the United Kingdom and continental Europe to follow many of the proposals offered by the George W. Bush administration in its "war on terror." As part of this effort, it has served as a platform for key neoconservatives like Perle to hawk interventionist, regime change policies as a solution to problems in the Middle East. In a September 2007 interview with the Jackson Society, Perle lamented the lack of momentum to complete the job in Iraq and aggressively take on "threats" in Iran and Syria. On Iran, he argued that the U.S. failure to adequately court opposition figures in the country (a failure that he said rested largely on the shoulders of the State Department) was a "huge missed opportunity, spanning a number of years, [which] has left us, even today, without a credible political approach to regime change." He added: "In Iran, no one seriously, myself included, contemplates using ground troops to invade Iran. Precision air strikes aimed at destroying Iran's capacity to produce nuclear material could be effective, if it comes to that, but not an invasion."
Perle also associated criticism of neoconservatism with antisemitism: "Anti-Semites are always seeking a new template to express their views. Very early on when the Patrick Buchanans in the United States and the George Galloways in the UK began to enumerate the risks of neoconservatism, they did not mention the non-Jewish subscribers to neoconservative ideas, but only singled out the Jews. This speaks volumes."
Also in September 2007, the society published a "strategic briefing" authored by the rightist pro-Israel ideologue Meyrav Wurmser, cofounder of the controversial Middle East Media Research Institute, whose husband David Wurmser served as an adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. In the executive summary of the briefing, titled "Iran-Hamas Relations: The Growing Threat from a Radical Religious Coalition," Wurmser wrote: "Hamas' coup against the Palestinian Authority in Gaza in May 2007 was a monumental event, not just for the Palestinians, but also the Middle East. Iran, the proud sponsor of Hezbollah, launched a successful war against Israel in Lebanon during the previous summer, and was once again signally [sic] its intentions through the actions of its Palestinian client. As such, it has taken on the behavior of regional hegemon. Indeed, Iran's rhetoric in the past few years has made clear that its leadership views itself as the leader of a bloc of Third World countries that actively oppose the West and wish to harm its interests, in Iraq and elsewhere, in every conceivable way. One central aspect of Iran's ambitions is its growing alliance with Hamas, a relationship dating back to the first official meeting between both in December 1990. These ties grow closer and more intimate, particularly after August 2005, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power."
A central part of the Jackson Society's website is its "Policy and Research Areas," which includes sections on seven geo-strategic regions of the world: Britain in the world; Greater Europe; the Americas; Middle East; Africa; Asia Pacific; and Russia/Eurasia. Each of these sections provides links to editorials as well as background information about the society's positions on emerging issues in these regions. Despites the group's apparent association with neoconservatism, many of the views expressed here run counter to neoconservative thinking. HJS realizes, Simms writes, that the use of force cannot be completely discounted, but it hopes to promote strategies in which "the military option may just be implicit." Among its strategies are: being "open to seeing retreating regimes as partners," including Syria; recognizing that while "there may be a case for a limited air strike on Iranian nuclear facilities ... that will solve nothing in the long run and will probably do more harm than good;" and recognizing that as "the region becomes more democratic, Israeli human rights abuses and settlement policies should be subjected to closer scrutiny. Soon, Israel should be pressed for a full withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, or some other suitable boundary negotiated with the Palestinians, within the context of an overall democratization and pacification of the region" (Brendan Simms, HJS, March 31, 2005).
One HJS initiative was the October 2006 "open letter" to world leaders regarding the Darfur crisis in Sudan. The letter called on "governments to empower and fund the African Union, so that it has one last chance to deal with the crisis. Meanwhile, our leaders must apply as much pressure as may be required on the Sudanese regime in order to make it cooperate with the international community." It was signed by figures across the political spectrum.
Signatories to the HJS statement of principles include: Denis MacShane, who was Minister for Europe until the 2005 cabinet reshuffle; Paul Cornish, a member of the Royal Institute for International Affairs; Lord Powell, who was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's personal adviser on defense and foreign affairs and maintains extensive contacts in industry and business; Lord Trimble, the former leader of Northern Ireland's Ulster Unionists and a Nobel Peace Prize winner; and Robert Halfon, the political director of Conservative Friends of Israel. The Conservative Party is ably represented on the HJS list of signatories by a number of current members of parliament (MPs), including Michael Ancram, grandson of Lord Lothian who was a founding member of the Round Table, an imperial secret society that was set up at the end of the 19th century to promote Anglo-American values and policies. Other signatories are Tory MPs Edward Vaizey, Greg Pope, and Michael Gove.
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Contact Information
The Henry Jackson Society
Phone: 07974 812 782
Website: hjs.byteart.com
E-mail: communications@henryjacksonsociety.org
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