Neocon Europe

Welcome to Neocon Europe, your guide to Neoconservatives in Europe, including transatlantic propaganda networks from the Cold War to the War on Terror.

• What is a Neocon?, gives an introduction to the neoconservative movement, while Neoconservatives in Europe - is a guide to the the European roots of the neocons, and their longstanding involvement in transatlantic politics.

• Our Neocon Links page guides you to further reading and research resources and What is Neocon Europe? gives information about this website.

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Neoconservatives were famously described by Irving Kristol as liberals who had been 'mugged by reality'.^[1] Kristol is one among many intellectual guides for the Neocon movement. Others have included Leo Strauss and James Burnham. Some intellectuals dissociated themselves from the movement such as Francis Fukuyama.

The Democracy and Security International Conference in Prague in 2007 was a key moment in the formation of the Neoconservative International. It was co-organised by the Prague Security Studies Institute, the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and the Spanish Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies.

Perhaps the most well known Neocon grouping is the Project for the New American Century. However, associated with it are two key US think tanks the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. Both of these have been significant in helping to export Neoconservative ideas and policies to Europe, along with the covert CIA effort the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

Amongst their most important progeny have been the now defunct Institute for the Study of Conflict and the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies. More recently they have been joined by a host of other think tanks such as the Policy Exchange, Centre for Social Cohesion and Open Europe.

One key strand of neoconservative networks in Europe reflects the movement's origins on the left, and the post-war role of Americans such as Jay Lovestone, Joseph Godson and Roy Godson in running Atlanticist networks among European left intellectuals and the labour movement. In the US this tradition coalesced around the Social Democrats USA, the Coalition for a Democratic Majority and the National Endowment for Democracy. In contemporary Europe, its influence is reflected in institutions such as Democratiya and the Euston Manifesto

Some American neoconservatives, notably those associated with Frank Gaffney and his Center for Security Policy have sought to promote their anti-Muslim 'Eurabia' discourse, through alliances with the European far-right. This includes groups with fascist antecedents like Vlaams Belang as well as populist politicians like Geert Wilders, who have sought to distinguish themselves from the former group. Key institutions uniting American neoconservatives with the European far-right include the International Free Press Society and the CounterJihad Europa and Stop Islamisation of Europe networks.

Israeli connections run through the Neocon nexus from the Herzliya Conference, chaired by former Mossad agent Uzi Arad, to Natan Sharansky's One Jerusalem and Case for Freedom. These organisations are also connected to Devon Gaffney Cross who runs the Pentagon funded PR outfit the Policy Forum on International Security Affairs, set up in the UK in 2003. Also active are International Media Intelligence Analysis a project of Réalité EU.

Neoconservative networks are active throughout Europe, though they tend to cluster where there is support or most work to be done. Thus the UK and the Czech Republic are important nodes in the nexus. Italy and Germany have also been important and the US based Aspen Institute has offices in both countries: the Aspen Institute Italia and the Aspen Institute Berlin. The Italian Fondazione Magna Carta is an important entity as is the German Marshall Fund of the United States, with offices littered across Western and Eastern Europe.

The table below lists all the countries and territories monitored by Neocon Europe.

References

1. ↑ Sidney Blumenthal 'Mugged by reality': Once the warrior queen of neoconservatism, Jeane Kirkpatrick died a critic of Bush's unilateralism. Her death illuminates the conflicting legacies of the movement she helped found. Salon, 2006-12-14