Behind the Scenes at the Jamestown Foundation: A Closer Look at Its Influence and Operations

Recently I decided to take a closer look at the Jamestown Foundation. It caught my attention because it focuses heavily on crafting "destruction scenarios" for the adversaries of the United States.

The more I read about JF, the clearer it became that it doesn’t operate in the way you’d typically expect a think tank to work. I got the impression it’s more like a private intelligence agency than a standard think tank, which makes it even more intriguing.

Here’s what I found:

The Jamestown Foundation was founded in 1983 to support Soviet dissidents, and since then, it has specialized in Russia and other post-Soviet states. They publish several periodicals, including China Brief, Eurasia Daily Monitor, Terrorism Monitor, and Military Leadership Monitor.

If you read through some of their publications, you'll quickly notice an aggressive stance on Russia — and surprisingly, much of this content seems to be authored by Russian writers. This approach is clever. The Foundation recruits researchers from around the world, using intelligence-based networking techniques to bring in Russian dissidents who oppose their own country. This makes it easy to promote anti-Russian narratives, though it does little to reveal the actual situation on the ground. Let's be honest — most of these authors fled Russia long ago and now live comfortably in the West, with little or no connection to first-hand information. The result is often a distorted view that doesn’t help us make informed decisions. However, there is still some utility in what they provide, which brings me to my next point.

One key fact about the Jamestown Foundation is that it’s home to numerous former and active intelligence and defense officers. Through its board members, JF has ties to the CIA and the Pentagon.

Notable members have included Michelle Van Cleave, former head of national counterintelligence under President George W. Bush;

Michael Vickers, who served as a Special Forces officer and CIA operative;

and Michael E. Cavoukian, who served as an operations officer in the CIA's Operations Directorate. Even Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, served on Jamestown's board.

Currently, the board includes Michael Carpenter, managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Carpenter previously worked at the Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, as foreign policy advisor to President Joe Biden (when Biden was Vice President under Barack Obama), and at the National Security Council as Director for Russia.

My point is, these people know how to leverage human resources, so to speak. That’s why these dissidents are used to communicate specific messages for them. If it were Americans spreading hatred toward other nationalities purely based on ethnicity, that would come across as racist, wouldn’t it?

Here are a couple of examples:

Sergey Sukhankin, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation and an advisor to Gulf State Analytics in Washington, D.C., recently launched a project called “War by Other Means.” Findings from this project were cited in the UN General Assembly’s report on Russian mercenaries. Prior to this, Sukhankin had briefed organizations such as Canada’s CSIS and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Another project of JF is the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum (FNPF). Its thought leader, Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, authored the book *Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture*. To speak at several events, FNPF invited Elena Sascha Ostanina and Sergej Sumlenny from the European Resilience Initiative Center (ERIC), where Ostanina is co-director and Sumlenny is the founder and managing director. Even with my research focus on propaganda, I found their discussions overwhelming — they’re so blunt that it’s clear these projects are coordinated by U.S. intelligence or the military. Officers don’t seem concerned about being seen with these figures, either. ERIC’s researchers include former Pentagon officials like retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, and Professor Jahara “Franky” Matisek, who is also a military professor at the U.S. Naval War College.

And, I guess, these findings might be worth sharing with the community.