Help the Quincy Institute Grow a More Peaceful Future
Dear friend--
We’ve been working to transition the Biden team away from endless war and toward U.S. foreign policy more rooted in diplomacy, cooperation, and peace. We are making a real impact, but we need your support to grow a more peaceful tomorrow.
Among many other things, we are changing elite conceptions about America's role in the world, making clear the link between pundits’ near constant demonization of China and the rise in anti-Asian violence here at home, and working hard to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan. We are leaders in pressing for a return to diplomacy with Iran, and -- every day -- we challenge the conventional notion at the heart of U.S. foreign policy that war is normal and peace is exceptional.
Protecting Americans From Their Foreign Policy
Senior research fellow Jessica Lee has become a prominent public voice over the past months pushing back against the rise in anti-Asian racism in the U.S. Initially spurred on by President Trump, the demonization of China by many of Washington’s think tanks, the media, Members of Congress, and the new administration continues daily. As she recently wrote in Responsible Statecraft, “Washington’s over-the-top language about China is fueling an atmosphere of fear and anxiety, which boomerangs in the form of violence against Asian Americans.” Jess has been clear and compelling in dozens of panels and media interviews that U.S. foreign policy should not cause Asian Americans to live in fear in their own country.
When she’s not fighting for Asian-American civil rights, Jess writes extensively about the need for a new approach to North Korea, one that is rooted in diplomacy and follows the lead of our ally, South Korea. Her tireless advocacy is popularizing the idea that the U.S. should formally end the 70-year-old Korean War as part of a broader strategy toward peace and denuclearization. This is a novel idea in Washington!
Ending an Endless War
Adam Weinstein is a research fellow leading our efforts to end America’s longest active war -- in Afghanistan. Adam is an expert analyst on Afghan and Pakistani domestic politics. He also served as a U.S. Marine in 2012 in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan in support of Australia’s 2nd Commando Regiment.
Adam has worked non-stop since January to persuade the Biden administration to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 1, as negotiated by the Trump administration last year. He leads a coalition pressing the White House to take this off-ramp from the 20-year-long war, believing that if the Biden administration decides to unilaterally break the deal, the United States will quickly be sucked back into full scale combat again. Adam has shaped the public conversation in the media and among policy makers over the past three months through deft use of social media, numerous defense department and congressional briefings, dozens of media interviews, and publication of 13 op-eds, letters, and columns, including in Time, the New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune. He has appeared on TV, radio, and podcasts and four Quincy videos over the past three months, trying to prevent Afghanistan from becoming “Biden’s war.”
Changing Minds
Stephen Wertheim, a QI co-founder and the director of our Grand Strategy program, has led an extraordinary charge to fundamentally change the way Americans and others think and talk about our role in the world. Since his book Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy was published in late October, he has taken part in 54 talks and interviews on the thesis of his book -- namely that a small group of American elites made a decision to pursue global military dominance prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Policing the world might have made sense during the rise of totalitarian conquerors in the mid 20th century. But as he wrote in the New York Times, it ceased to do so after the Soviet Union collapsed, leading the United States to pursue and maintain global military dominance as an end unto itself.
The book has been reviewed in 16 publications to date, including the Wall Street Journal, and Stephen was the subject of full-length interviews in the Washington Post, Vox, and Teen Vogue among others. Prospect magazine named him one of the world’s fifty top thinkers reshaping our times in 2020, and The Spectator said Stephen’s was one of the best books of last year. He has been interviewed about the book by newspapers in Argentina, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, and Germany's Die Zeit hosted him for a debate with a Green Party leader. It is no exaggeration to say that through telling this history Stephen has provoked a fundamental rethink of America's place in the 21st century.
All of this impactful work -- and much more -- by our talented team advances our vision of a world where peace is the norm and war is the exception. Please take a moment and show your support by making a contribution today to help us grow more support for peace.
Senior research fellow Jessica Lee has become a prominent public voice over the past months pushing back against the rise in anti-Asian racism in the U.S. Initially spurred on by President Trump, the demonization of China by many of Washington’s think tanks, the media, Members of Congress, and the new administration continues daily. As she recently wrote in Responsible Statecraft, “Washington’s over-the-top language about China is fueling an atmosphere of fear and anxiety, which boomerangs in the form of violence against Asian Americans.” Jess has been clear and compelling in dozens of panels and media interviews that U.S. foreign policy should not cause Asian Americans to live in fear in their own country. 
Stephen Wertheim, a QI co-founder and the director of our Grand Strategy program, has led an extraordinary charge to fundamentally change the way Americans and others think and talk about our role in the world. Since his book Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy was published in late October, he has taken part in 54 talks and interviews on the thesis of his book -- namely that a small group of American elites made a decision to pursue global military dominance prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Policing the world might have made sense during the rise of totalitarian conquerors in the mid 20th century. But as he wrote in the New York Times, it ceased to do so after the Soviet Union collapsed, leading the United States to pursue and maintain global military dominance as an end unto itself.