Right Web

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Founded in 2007, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that has supported long-term U.S. military intervention abroad, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. ISW claims to be “a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization” devoted to advancing “an informed understanding of military affairs through reliable research, trusted analysis, and innovative education.”[1]

As of December 2011, ISW did not publicize on its website the members of its board of directors. However, according to 2008 tax documents, the organization has had five board members: Elizabeth Cheney (chair), daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney and founder of the right-wing advocacy group Keep America Safe; William Kristol, editor of the neoconservative flagship magazine the Weekly Standard; Jack Keane, a retired four-star general who coauthored with Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute “Choosing Victory,” a 2007 study that served as a blueprint for the so-called “surge” in Iraq; and Dennis Showalter, a military historian. ISW’s founding president is Kimberly Kagan, a historian who is married to Frederick Kagan.[2]

A non-exhaustive Right Web investigation of Form 990 U.S. tax records revealed nearly $700,000 in donations from charitable foundations during 2007-2009. Donations included nearly $180,000 from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a premier neoconservative advocacy group, as well as $60,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a right-wing foundation that has funded other militarist outfits like the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum, earning it a spot among the top funders of the anti-Islamic discourse in the United States according to a 2011 report by the Center for American Progress. The Marcus Foundation, which has also supported MEMRI, contributed another $250,000 to ISW during this period. (For a full list of Right Web’s findings, click here.)

Since its founding in early 2007, ISW and its president Kim Kagan have consistently advocated long-term U.S. military engagement in geographic regions closely associated with the “war on terror.” The organization’s work focuses almost exclusively on Iraq and Afghanistan, producing reports, backgrounders, and commentaries on U.S. policy and the two wars.

ISW describes its Iraq Project as an effort to educate the public about the future of Iraq and Iraqi-U.S. relations. It couches the initiative in language suggesting the necessity of a future U.S. presence inside the country. “Both Iraqi and U.S. military personnel believe that the Iraqi Security Forces will need additional training beyond 2011, but the mechanism for security this continued partnership is still uncertain,” according to ISW’s website. “As this matter is debated both in Washington and Baghdad, we must understand the security requirements in Iraq after this year and account for U.S. strategic interests in Iraq post-2011.”[3] ISW describes its flagship publication on Iraq, the Iraq Report, as an effort “to mediate between the military and the American public and leadership by translating the specialist information provided by the military into language and formats accessible to a more general audience.”[4]

ISW’s Afghanistan Project focuses on the details of counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and to a lesser extent on the impact of radicalism across the border in Pakistan. It bills the project as an effort to “document the pattern of enemy activity in the southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan; the spread of enemy networks into western and northern Afghanistan; and military operations by Coalition and Afghan forces.” ISW describe one related project as an effort to “analyze the Taliban’s information operations (IO) campaign and present more effective strategies to counter enemy propaganda.”[5]

ISW also conducts an education campaign that seeks to “educate civilians in the history of war and the fundamental language and concepts which they need in order to discuss war with professionals.” According to the group’s website, “The educational program, in conjunction with ISW's research and publications, aims to close the gap between the military’s way of understanding and describing war and the American people’s ability to follow it.”[6]

In the run up to the March 2010 election in Iraq, ISW President Kim Kagan wrote an op-ed with her husband Frederick Kagan in the Wall Street Journal calling for a prolonged U.S. presence in Iraq, citing Iranian influence in the upcoming elections as justification for abandoning a timeline for withdrawal. “Success remains possible, but only if the Obama administration abandons the campaign rhetoric of ‘end this war’ and commits itself to helping Iraqis build a just, accountable, representative government,” the Kagans said. “It needs to establish long-term security ties that will bind our two states together, including the continuing deployment of American military forces in Iraq if the Iraqis so desire.”[7]

ISW often provides a podium to military brass who have advocated for military escalations in U.S. engagements, including General Petraeus, who told an audience at ISW in January 2010 that, “In fact, far more important than the surge of 30,000 additional U.S. troops was the surge of ideas that helped us to employ those troops, and that surge of forces enabled the employment of the new ideas that were indeed the key to making the progress that has been achieved in Iraq over the course of the last three years.” Petreaus went on to compliment his hosts, saying “At that time, Kim was in a different location, but the founder of the ISW guided together with Fred and a number of other heroes a study and analysis that did indeed have a strategic impact unlike that of any other study or analysis that I can think of,” referring to the 2007 report that gave political traction to the surge theory in Iraq.[8] (For more on ISW and its relationship to the U.S. military, see Michael Flynn, “The Surge of Ideas,” Right Web, June 2010.)

ISW events and publications tend to reflect evolving trends in militarist opinion and advocacy. In early 2010, for example, it demonstrated the shift in the neoconservatives’ attitude toward one of their long-time tactical allies in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi. In a February event at ISW, Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, described Chalabi as being, “clearly influenced by Iran.”[9] The Kagans, once staunch supporters of the Iraqi exile-cum-politician, quickly backed away from Chalabi. They issued a statement saying that they had never been “involved with the Bush Administration interactions with exiled leaders and the restoration of civilian government in Iraq” and that they “have never supported Ahmad Chalabi nor advocated for him to play any role in Iraqi politics.”[10]

ISW played an important role promoting the 2007 “surge” in Iraq. In 2009 it released a film called “The Surge: the Untold Story,” a 34-minute documentary that detailed the progress of the Iraq surge and included interviews with key players in the war and the surge strategy, including Gen. Raymond Odierno and Amb. Ryan Crocker.[11]

Kagan, representing the Institute for the Study of War, has also delved into the issue of U.S. policy in Iran. In February 2008 she coauthored a report published by the American Enterprise Institute that discussed the extent of Iranian influence across the Middle East. Titled “Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” the report warns, "Much as America might desire to avoid war with Iran, continued Iranian interventions ... might ultimately make that option less repulsive than the alternatives."

However, the report also reflected on the part of the authors an evolution away from “openly beating the war drums,” as journalist Khody Akhavi writes, “toward an attempt to highlight the extent of Iranian influence in the region. The conclusion to be drawn is that, even without the nuclear issue at the forefront, Iran continues to exert a negative impact on U.S. interests.”[12]

Kagan also published a report in 2007 that concludes that U.S. diplomatic engagement with Iran would be counterproductive, supporting a speech made by then-President Bush alleging that Iran was supporting the arming of “Shia extremists.”[13]

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.