American Committee for East–West Accord

The American Committee for East–West Accord (ACEWA) is the name of two related organizations that have existed during separate periods of American history whose goals have been to promote, in the United States, conciliation with the Soviet Union and, later, the Russian Federation.

Original organization (1974–1992)

The American Committee for East–West Accord was informally organized in 1974, and chartered three years later, in 1977. Founding members included George F. Kennan, Stephen F. Cohen, Jerome Wiesner, and Theodore Hesburgh. The group, which was composed of businessmen, journalists, academics, and former elected officials, advanced the position that "common sense" should determine U.S. trade policy with the USSR, specifically, that the U.S. should avoid economic boycotts and sanctions against the Soviet Union as such measures rarely worked. Instead, it argued, expanding American-Soviet trade would help advance the cause of détente. It also supported the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), increased scientific and cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union, and less confrontational rhetoric about the USSR.[1][2][3]

According to the committee, its underlying perspective was support for the "resolute abandonment of the stale slogans and reflexes of the Cold War ... and a determination not to be governed by the compulsions of military competition".[4]

One of the committee's earliest activities was production of the film Survival ... or Suicide which presented a cinematic treatment of the effects nuclear war would have on daily life.[5]

Reestablished organization (2015–present)
American Committee for East–West Accord
AbbreviationACEWA
Formation2015
TypeLobbying organization[6][7][8]
Legal status501(c)3 organization[9]
HeadquartersNew York, NY, United States[9]
Founding Director
Stephen F. Cohen
Executive Editor
James Carden
Budget (2015[10])
$30,000[10]
Websiteeastwestaccord.com

History

Stephen F. Cohen reestablished the American Committee for East–West Accord in 2015 with the assistance of Gilbert Doctorow.[11] A formal launch event was held in November of that year.[12] In addition to Cohen and Doctorow, other members of the group's board of directors include Donald McHenry, William vanden Heuvel, Bill Bradley, Chuck Hagel, Jack F. Matlock Jr., and John E. Pepper, Jr.[12][13][11] Cohen was quoted by Zoë Schlanger, in Newsweek (from Cohen's Nation article entitled "Distorting Russia") as objecting to what he termed "media malpractice" in covering Russia as approaching the terminology in use during the Cold War.[7]

The impetus for reforming the committee was, according to its executive editor James Carden, the perception that "anyone who has had the temerity to question whether NATO’s relentless expansion eastward to Russia’s borders has contributed to the crisis [in Ukraine], can look forward to being labeled a 'useful idiot', a 'dupe', or a 'Kremlin apologist'. The trend towards character assassination in lieu of substantive debate has been one of the defining features of the debate over US–Russia policy".[14]

Finances

According to an article in The Daily Beast, the organization is "partly funded by Katrina vanden Heuvel's family." (vanden Heuvel waws married to Stephen F. Cohen)[15] Another article by Cathy Young published in The Daily Beast said that vanden Heuvel's father was listed as ACEWA's president in its incorporating papers and that the address for the foundation which he founded (the Melinda and William J. vanden Heuvel Foundation) was also listed on the committee's tax filing in March 2014.[10]

Personnel

According to a Daily Beast article by Casey Michel, Carden called Michel a "snievling shit" through a Linkedin exchange and threatened him with physical violence after Michel pointed out that Carden contributed to the Kremlin-funded Russia Direct outlet.[15] MIchel said that Carden later apologized.[15]

In 2017, Carden asserted that Moscow's alleged actions of political interference were "no different from what the U.S. government has done to promote its interests abroad."[16] This assertion was disputed by Clint Watts, a former FBI agent, counterterrorism specialist and fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who said "the idea that the U.S. engages in such activities was preposterous."[16]

Co-founder Gilbert Doctorow has been critical of the United States,[17] the West,[17] Russian opposition (including Boris Nemtsov,[18] the 2011–2013 Russian protests,[19] and Andrei Kozyrev[20]) and other Russian entities (including the Carnegie Moscow Center[21] and Lilia Shevtsova)[21] in his works. An article on the ThinkProgress website by Casey Michel in February 2018 commented that ACEWA had removed any mention of Doctorow from its website and speculated that the action may have resulted from "Doctorow’s recent decision to defend" Russia Insider, "a pro-Kremlin site notorious for publishing rank anti-Semitism."[22] Carden said that the decision to remove Doctorow's material was due to “web maintenance [that] was called for in light of recent events” and added that "it had nothing to do at all with Russia Insider”[22] while Cohen said that the decision to remove Doctorow's material was to "clarify that [there was] no ongoing ACEWA relationship with Doctorow after he left the Board" in March 2017.[22]

Purpose

The organization was established with the intent of encouraging discussion and debate in the U.S. at a time when the United States has started drifting into a new Cold War with Russia.[23]

Reaction

The organization has been criticized by Nina Khrushcheva,[24] Lilia Shevtsova,[25] Mark Galeotti[26] and Michael McFaul (former US ambassador to Russia)[27] and has been described by Cathy Young as having a "decidedly pro-Putin lineup."[10] Young also criticized the works of co-founder Gilbert Doctorow, which she described as pro-Kremlin and serving up a "steady diet of frank Kremlin apologism and vitriolic attacks on Putin foes."[10]

See also

References
  1. Baldwin, David (1985). Economic Statecraft. Princeton University Press. p. 6. ISBN 0691101752.
  2. The Language of Foreign Affairs. DIANE. 1987. p. 4. ISBN 0941375110.
  3. "Graduate Student Ben Wallace Digitizes the Cold War". Ohio University Libraries. Ohio University. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  4. Sanders, Jerry (1983). Peddlers of Crisis: The Committee on the Present Danger and the Politics of Containment. South End Press. p. 179. ISBN 0896081818.
  5. Thomas, Stephen (September 1979). "Survival ... or Suicide". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists .
  6. "American Committee for East West Accord Ltd (ACEWA)". lobbyfacts.eu.
  7. Schlanger, Zoë (March 10, 2014). "The American Who Dared Make Putin's Case". Newsweek. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  8. Cohen, Stephen (August 27, 2014). "Fallacies of US policy may be leading to war with Russia". The Nation. The Nation. In addition to grassroots support, we even had our own lobbying organization in Washington, the American Committee on East-West Accord, whose board included corporate CEOs, political figures, prominent academics and statesmen of the stature of George Kennan.
  9. "American Committee for East-West Accord Ltd". Charity Navigator. Charity Navigator. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  10. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast.
  11. Carden, James (June 8, 2015). "Could This New Group Stop the Rush to Cold War?". The Nation. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  12. Carden, James (June 8, 2015). "Could This New Group Stop the Rush to Cold War?". The Nation. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  13. "Board of Directors". American Committee on East–West Accord. American Committee on East–West Accord. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  14. Carden, James (July 1, 2015). "Taking on Russia". World Policy. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  15. Michel, Casey (January 13, 2017). "How Putin Played the Far Left". The Daily Beast.
  16. Dorell, Oren (September 7, 2017). "Alleged Russian political meddling documented in 27 countries since 2004". USA Today.
  17. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. Doctorow’s peculiar outlook can be gleaned from his 2014 Nation article on U.S. and Russian media coverage of the Ukraine crisis. In it, he chides far-left academic Noam Chomsky for being slow to condemn “American bullying of Russia” because of “distaste for what he construed as Mr. Putin’s authoritarian regime” and praises Russian journalism for “emerging from pro-Western wishful thinking.”
  18. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. Doctorow’s commentary on the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov last February not only played up the theory of an anti-Putin provocation—either by Ukraine or by fellow oppositionists—but slammed the murdered man for “actively courting the enemy in what may easily be described before the dock as treason.”
  19. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. The massive protests against election-rigging in late 2011 and the spring of 2012 are portrayed as a “seditious movement” financed with “U.S. dollars.”
  20. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. Yeltsin-era Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev, the main target of the piece, is accused of “courting sedition” with a New York Times op-ed calling for regime change in Russia—and of being a de facto U.S. agent with “American handlers” during his tenure as minister. (Doctorow also calls Kozyrev “delusional” and makes unsubstantiated references to his past “mental breakdown.”)
  21. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. A 2013 blogpost brands the Carnegie Center Moscow think tank as “a nest of sedition,” singling out foreign policy analyst and then-Carnegie associate Lilia Shevtsova as the culprit.
  22. Michel, Casey (February 16, 2018). "Why is this Russia 'expert' writing for an anti-Semitic outlet?". ThinkProgress. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  23. http://jordanrussiacenter.org/event-recaps/american-committee-east-west-accord-encourages-debate-u-s-russian-relations/#.W-G5DK2ZPq0
  24. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. Like several other analysts, however, Khrushcheva voiced concern that the group’s potential positive role was compromised by some of its members’ knee-jerk tendency to blame all tensions on the West while excusing the Kremlin’s and Vladimir Putin’s actions.
  25. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. Shevtsova voiced concern that ACEWA will advocate accommodation and “dialogue on Putin’s terms,” which means accepting the demand that Ukraine must stay in Russia’s “sphere of influence.”
  26. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. he feels the group is “depressingly unbalanced in their assumption of moral and geopolitical parity between the U.S. and Russia, as well as their unwillingness to describe what is happening in Ukraine as an act of aggression engineered by Moscow.”
  27. Young, Cathy (October 11, 2015). "Putin's New American Fan Club?". The Daily Beast. On all three policy goals stated on ACEWA’s website—restoring the 1991 Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which deals with vulnerable nuclear material; preserving the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty; and protecting “educational and related exchange programs”—the ball is in Moscow’s court. Says McFaul, “Russia decided to end Nunn-Lugar, Russia appears to be violating the INF treaty, and Russia is cutting [or] disrupting exchanges.”
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