Bruce P. Jackson

Bruce Pitcairn Jackson is considered to be a neo-conservative.

Jackson is reputed to have been involved with U.S. Military Intelligence (1979-90), as well as the International Institute for Strategic Studies and on the advisory board of the New Atlantic Initiative. Jackson is a former vice president in the weapons division of Lockheed Martin (1993-2002).

He has served as the Chairman of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and as chair of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

According to John B. Judis, Jackson played a key role both in establishing the CLI and in lining up Eastern European nations to join the Bush administration's coalition of the willing that supported the invasion of Iraq. "In the late 1990s, while working for Lockheed Martin, Jackson avidly promoted the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe," he writes. "This year Jackson was able to parlay his NATO connections into support for the administration's war plans for Iraq. As the Bush administration was desperately searching for allies, Jackson helped draw up a declaration from the foreign ministers of the 'Vilnius Ten,' the 10 Eastern European countries that are up for NATO membership. ... Jackson set up the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq with Randy Scheunemann as its president. Scheunemann is another envoy without accountability. While working closely with Jackson on the NATO committee, he has been a registered lobbyist for Latvia, Macedonia and Romania, and a consultant on Iraq policy to Rumsfeld. Jackson and Scheunemann's biggest success was probably the Vilnius Ten declaration, which was the product of a dinner Jackson attended in late January at the Slovak embassy in Washington with representatives of those nations. ... Jackson's particular contribution was to tell the Vilnius Ten foreign ministers that signing the declaration would help win U.S. approval of their membership in NATO." [1]

Jackson and Scheunemann are also closely connected to the Vilnius Ten through the Project on Transitional Democracies:

"Bruce Jackson is the founder and President of the Project on Transitional Democracies. The Project is a multi-year endeavor aimed at accelerating the pace of reform in post-1989 democracies and advancing the date for the integration of these democracies into the institutions of the Euro-Atlantic.

"From 1979 to 1990, Bruce Jackson served in the United States Army as a Military Intelligence Officer. From 1986 to 1990, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in a variety of policy positions pertaining to nuclear forces and arms control. Upon leaving the Department of Defense in 1990, Mr. Jackson joined Lehman Brothers, an investment bank in New York, where he was a strategist in the firm's proprietary trading operations. Between 1993 and 2002, Mr. Jackson was Vice President for Strategy and Planning at Lockheed Martin Corporation.

"During 1995 and 1996, Mr. Jackson was National Co-Chairman of the Bob Dole/Dole for President Finance Committee. In 1996, he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention where he served on the Platform Committee and the Platform's subcommittee for National Security and Foreign Policy. During the 2000 Presidential Campaign, he was a delegate committed to Governor George W. Bush and chaired the Foreign Policy Subcommittee of the Republican Platform Committee.

"Mr. Jackson is the President of the U.S. Committee on NATO, a non-profit corporation formed in 1996 to promote the expansion of NATO and the strengthening of ties between the United States and Europe. During the 2002-2003, he served as the Chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. He continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Project for the New American Century, a non-profit corporation involved in educating American opinion on foreign policy and national security."

• International Advisory Board, Orange Circle

Headlines

"BRUCE JACKSON TO LEAD A NEW INITIATIVE FOR EUROPEAN DEMOCRACIES, NEDB, 11 March 2002:

"President of the US Committee on NATO Bruce Jackson is leaving Lockheed Martin in August 2002 to devote himself full-time to the cause of promoting democracy in a united Europe. Bruce Jackson, who since 1993 has been Vice President for Strategy and Planning at Lockheed Martin Corporation, will lead a new non-profit organization, The Project on Transitional Democracies. Building on the success of NATO enlargement, it will focus on promoting Euro-Atlantic values in countries still in transition to democracy. The organizaton will start operations in Summer of 2002. Jackson will continue to serve as the President of the US Committee on NATO - a bipartisan non-profit group which since 1994 has been promoting the ideals of Europe whole and free."

According to Jackson's U.S. Committee on NATO biography, "Mr. Jackson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Security Policy, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Center of International Studies at Cambridge University. He also serves on the International Advisory Board of the New Atlantic Initiative and the Board of Directors of the Project for the New American Century, a non-profit corporation involved in educating American opinion on foreign policy and national security. His articles on defense and foreign policy have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The National Interest, Policy Review, Polityka, Gazeta Wyborzca, and numerous other publications."

Note: Name of "Center for Strategic and International Studies" (CSIS) was incorrectly stated as "Center for International and Strategic Studies".

PLEASE NOTE: There is conflict in the information cited about regarding the year of the U.S. Committee on NATO's founding. The Project on Transitional Democracies article says that it was founded in 1996. The March 2002 news release says 1994. Possibly only the incorporation was in 1996 but the group itself existed in 1994?

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Henry Jackson Society
• Project for the New American Century, PNAC

External links

• John B. Judis, "Minister Without Portfolio," American Prospect, May 1, 2003.
• RightWeb Profile
• Stephen Gowans, "War, NATO expansion and the other rackets of Bruce P. Jackson", What's Left, November 25, 2002.