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Jamie Fly, a former adviser to the George W. Bush administration, is the executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) and a blogger for the Weekly Standard, two premier neoconservative institutions.[1] Fly’s experience includes serving in both the National Security Council and the Defense Department during the Bush presidency, stints at the Claremont Institute and the American Enterprise Institute, and working as a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations.[2]   

Founded in 2009 by several high-profile neoconservative figures—including William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Dan Senor—FPI is similar in its aims and operations to the now-defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a letterhead organization associated with AEI that played an important role in advocating the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.[3] As a successor to PNAC, FPI is devoted to promoting an aggressive U.S. security posture in the post-George W. Bush era.

As FPI’s executive director, Fly is frequently quoted in the press on a variety of U.S. foreign policy issues, including increased defense spending, the need to “win” in Afghanistan, and regime change in countries like Iran and North Korea.[4]

Fly also teams up with representative from like-minded organizations to promote policy agendas. In October 2010, for example, Fly co-authored “Maintaining Defense Spending Critical to US-UK Special Relationship” with Alan Mendoza of the UK-based Henry Jackson Society, a group widely regarded as a bastion of neoconservatism in Europe. They argued that “Restoring appropriate funding levels to defense budgets” was the best way to “signal the firm commitment of both nations to our common defense and freedom.” They added, “The threat of tyranny did not disappear after the Cold War, but rather fragmented into new, asymmetrical dangers which span the wide spectrum of conflict. The free world still looks to the United States and the United Kingdom for leadership as we meet the challenges of global terrorism, cyber war, new and resurgent powers, piracy, and economic security. Strategic thinking and budgetary decisions should not focus on rebuilding our militaries based upon the current needs of the war in Afghanistan today, but on our ability to confront the growing threats of tomorrow.”[5]

Fly has used his perch at the Weekly Standard blog to promote a variety hawkish perspectives, including pressing a hardline on Iran, criticizing President Barack Obama for “engaging” “terrorists,” and excoriating the international community for criticizing the mid-2010 Israeli commando attack on the Palestine flotilla, which resulted in the deaths of several activists.[6]

According to his biography on the FPI website, during his time in the Bush administration Fly “was Director for Counterproliferation Strategy at the National Security Council, where his portfolio included the Iranian nuclear program, Syria, missile defense, chemical weapons, proliferation finance, and other counterproliferation issues. In the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he was an Assistant for Transnational Threats Policy, where he helped to develop U.S. strategy related to the proliferation of missiles as well as nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. For his work in the Department of Defense, he was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.”[7]

His other professional experience includes being “a Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2002-2004, where he worked on European and national security issues. He has worked at the World Bank and interned at the American Enterprise Institute, the American Embassy in London, and the United States Senate. He blogs regularly at The Weekly Standard blog and Foreign Policy’s Shadow Government blog and his articles and reviews have been published in Commentary, National Review, Politico, The Weekly Standard, Forbes.com, USNews.com, and National Review Online. Mr. Fly was a 2004 German Marshall Fund Manfred Wörner fellow, 2009 Claremont Institute Lincoln fellow, and he participated in the 2004 Aspen Institute's Transatlantic Young Leaders Program in Berlin, the 2006 Atlantik Brücke German-America Young Leaders Conference, and the 2006 Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance.”[8]

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.