George Soros and Charles Koch are teaming up to change U.S. foreign policy


You know when some movie franchises run out of ideas by the fourth or fifth installment, so they have the protagonist and antagonist team up to battle some new villain? Well, that's kind of what's happening in the world of Washington think tanks.
Billionaires George Soros, whom The Boston Globe calls "an old-fashioned New Deal liberal," and Charles Koch, one half of the conservative, small-government-touting Koch brothers, are joining forces to finance a new think tank called the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an homage to former President John Quincy Adams. The organization's goal is to end the United States' "forever war" and adopt an entirely new approach to foreign policy, one defined not by threat of force, but diplomacy and restraint.
The moniker makes sense considering Adams once said that the U.S. "goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Globe called the pairing between Koch and Soros one of the "most remarkable partnerships in modern American political history." The think tank will reportedly invite progressives and anti-interventionist conservatives to help draw up new foreign policy plans. Trita Parsi, a co-founder and the former president of the National Iranian American Council said the the organization will challenge American foreign policy "in a way that has not been done in at least the last quarter-century." So far, the think tank has garnered some positive responses.
The Quincy Institute plans to open in September. Read more at The Boston Globe.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
September 6 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include profiting from authoritarianism, and the National Guard entering the CDC
-
Should Britain withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights?
Talking Point With calls now coming from Labour grandees as well as Nigel Farage and the Tories, departure from the ECHR 'is starting to feel inevitable'
-
5 outspoken cartoons about Epstein survivors taking center stage
Cartoons Artists take on cover-ups, Trump surrounded, and more
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'
Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearing
Speed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mount
Speed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own list
speed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battle
Speed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
-
Florida aims to end all state vaccine requirements
Speed Read Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to cut vaccine access and install anti-vaccine activists at the FDA and CDC
-
US kills 11 on 'drug-carrying boat' off Venezuela
Speed Read Trump claimed those killed in the strike were 'positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists' shipping drugs to the US
-
Trump vows to send federal forces to Chicago, Baltimore
Speed Read The announcement followed a California judge ruling that Trump's LA troop deployment was illegal