Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies

The Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies (IASPS), a Israel-based think tank with an affiliated office in Washington, D.C., was founded in 1984 by its president, Professor Robert J. Loewenberg. William R. Van Cleave is the director of the Division for Research in Strategy. A profile of "strategic fellow" Paul Michael Wihbey described IASPS as "a think tank based in Israel that aims to shift America's dependency on oil from the Gulf nations -- hostile towards Israel -- to other parts of the world."

Mission
IASPS' "main focus is 'limited government' as Aristotle intends: 'men think the constitution enslaves them but it is their salvation.' The great philosopher of the Western tradition also noted that philosophy or the use of man's intellect 'is his divinest part.' Accordingly, IASPS pursues the limitation of Israeli socialist statism supported by US aid, by means of free market reform and a robust missile defense. The link between these economic and geostrategic policies reflects a critique of those policies which stand in opposition to limited government and affect an undermining of the elementary truths of human order. At the purely political level, IASPS policies stand in opposition to those supportive of statism and the diminution of the balance of power," its website states.

"The Institute pursues its policy initiatives by training Israel's best university graduates in economics and strategic studies. These young people, in addition to serving as research aides in the Israeli parliament (Knesset) and the U.S. Congress, are becoming Israel's first independent policy community. This is to say their research (published in two series, one called Policy Studies, the other called IASPS Research Papers in Strategy) is not devised to get around already existing policies which are obstacles to economic growth and nation-state power (i.e., to be merely political documents). Rather, their research is to find and to articulate ways how to treat the circumstances created by these obstacles. Thus, the policy assignment for IASPS's policy analysts is to fix the obstacles that prevent constructive change and growth and at the same time to fix the circumstances that have been created by them," its website states.

Funders
According to Media Transparency, IASPS funders include:


 * Sarah Scaife Foundation
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

Staff
The IASPS website lists the following Staff members:


 * Robert Loewenberg, President
 * Zev Golan, Executive Director, Jerusalem
 * Robert Heiler, Executive Director, Washington
 * Ophira Kamar, Secretary, Jerusalem
 * William R. Van Cleave, Director, Division for Research in Strategy
 * David Yerushalmi, Of-Counsel

Research staff
The IASPS website lists the following Research Staff members.


 * Robert Loewenberg
 * William R. Van Cleave
 * Yakir Plessner
 * Yossi Laster
 * Paul Michael Wihbey
 * Zev Golan
 * Robert E. Heiler
 * Yuval Levin

PNAC "blueprint"
"On February 1st, 2002, the US Department of State released parts of a speech of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, who was briefed by the Washington-Israel ThinkTank IASPS, once a blueprint for PNAC." The PNAC is the organization known as the Project for the New American Century.

Contact information
Web: http://www.iasps.org and http://www.israeleconomy.org Publications: http://www.israeleconomy.org/pub.htm Publications

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Global Water & Energy Strategy Team
 * Paul Michael Wihbey
 * Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000

External resources

 * Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies Neocon Europe, accessed 14 May, 2009.

External articles

 * Oil War in Africa Next!, Globalfreepress.com (Repost), July 7, 2003.