Responsible Statecraft

U.S. anti-interventionist (transpartisan restraint)

Background

Responsible Statecraft launched in 2019 as the editorial arm of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which was founded the same year with seed funding from George Soros's Open Society Foundations and the Charles Koch Foundation — an unusual left-right philanthropic alliance that attracted significant media attention at the time. The institute is named after President John Quincy Adams and was co-founded by scholars and former officials including retired Army colonel and Boston University history professor Andrew Bacevich, Iran policy analyst Trita Parsi, and historian Stephen Wertheim. Its editorial mission is to promote diplomacy, military restraint, and what it calls an end to 'endless wars.' The outlet has faced criticism from multiple directions: Republican Sen. Tom Cotton accused it in 2020 of antisemitism over its coverage of pro-Israel lobbying, a charge institute leadership rejected as absurd; and in 2022, two staff members resigned in protest over what they called the institute's insufficient condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with one saying Quincy experts 'completely ignore the dangers and horrors of Russia's invasion.' Media Bias/Fact Check rates Responsible Statecraft as left-center biased and mostly factual, noting selective emphasis on anti-interventionist perspectives. Kelley Beaucar Vlahos serves as Editor-in-Chief. Under the Trump second term, the outlet has offered nuanced coverage — crediting the administration for some restraint-oriented foreign policy moves while criticizing areas it views as failures of that standard.

Sources

1. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft – Wikipedia
2. About Responsible Statecraft
3. Responsible Statecraft – Bias and Credibility – Media Bias/Fact Check
4. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft – Media Bias/Fact Check
5. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft – Rockefeller Brothers Fund
6. Five restraint successes — and five absolute fails — in 2025 | Responsible Statecraft
7. Can a New Think Tank Put a Stop to Endless War? | The Nation
8. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft – InfluenceWatch

Profile compiled 2026-07-19; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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