Abstract:
The present case study analyzes the network supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation as one of the most influential American foundations in the confrontational foreign policy of the United States against political Islam, especially that related to the Islamic Revolution. Paying attention to the role of foundations in consolidating American hegemony is often one of the hidden layers that is less noticed. It is the aim of this research to take a step to fill that gap. Examining the framing of some key productions under the support of this foundation shows two main trends modeled on the Cold War experience: confronting the strategic culture of Islamic resistance and promoting a so-called moderate Western-oriented Islam. In the theoretical dimension, the article has used the " elite model of the public policy-making process" to understand the importance and position of foundations in the policymaking process in America. Based on this model and by examining the foundation's annual reports on international grantmaking, the network of institutions and individuals supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation in line with the above two goals, consisting of the RAND Corporation, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Hudson Institute and the American Enterprise Institute, The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, America Abroad Media, and the National Endowment for Democracy were recognized. Also, the Smith Richardson Foundation has a network relationship with the US Department of Defense and US security intelligence agencies through the RAND Corporation. The analysis of some productions supported by the foundation shows a trend espoused by the network supported by this foundation, which is based on reverse excommunication (rejecting political Islam as a true religion) and promoting an Islam compatible with Western values.
Machine summary:
Based on this model and by reviewing the foundation's annual reports of financially supported projects, the network of institutions and individuals supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation in pursuit of the two aforementioned goals was identified, consisting of the RAND Corporation, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hudson Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, America Abroad Media Institute, and the National Endowment for Democracy.
The Role of Foundations in America's Foreign Policy from Theory to Practice Philanthropic foundations 6 are institutions emerging from the world of capitalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in which large American capitalists act to use a portion of their capital in the form of these 1 8 1 Saghaye-Biria 2 Fukuyama 3 Huntington 4 Nafisi 5 Khalaji 6 Philanthropic foundations foundations act to exert political, cultural, and economic influence at national and international levels.
The final years of the Cold War in the 1980s and the foundation's role in shaping the neo-conservative movement in America and promoting Reagan's free economy policies and the fight against communism; and the years following the September 11, 2001 attacks and the active participation of the Smith Richardson Foundation in directing and supporting the idea of "the battle of ideas" against political Islam and Islamic resistance, especially the Islamic Republic.
The Smith Richardson Foundation, by providing support for Islamophobic projects to isolate and control so-called radical/extremist Islamic movements on one hand, and creating a type of non-political, Eurocentric Islam on the other, plays an important role in adopting a new strategy in the United States' confrontational policy against political Islam, especially political Islam arising from the Islamic Revolution.
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