Address: 38 Craven Street, London, WC2N 5NG
Telephone: 020 7340 4520
Website: http://www.henryjacksonsociety.org/
Executive Director: Dr. Alan Mendoza
Director, International Affairs: Robin Shepherd
Senior Director, Britain in the World: Robin Simcox
Senior Director, European Neighbourhood: Dr. Marko Attila Hoare
The Henry Jackson Society was created to defend interventionist foreign policy at a time when the invasion of Iraq had led many to criticise this approach. It swiftly attracted support from both neoconservatives and ‘liberal interventionists’. The society supports the spread of liberal democracy, by diplomacy if possible, and by military means if necessary, and is committed to Atlanticism. It also favours further European military integration through Nato, under British leadership. Signatories to its statement of principles include the MPs Michael Gove, Denis MacShane and David Willetts, the historian Andrew Roberts and former Iraq commander Colonel Tim Collins.
The society was founded in 2005 and is named after the late Henry “Scoop” Jackson, the former Democratic Senator for Washington State. Jackson was a strong supporter of the New Deal and a committed trade unionist but it was his cold warrior status and his outspoken criticism of détente with the Soviet Union that earnt the admiration of the society’s founders.
In recent times, it has supported independence for Kosovo and has pressed governments to take stronger action against the Mugabe regime. It has also called for the national veto on new Nato and EU members to be scrapped. The society is currently concerned with combating the isolationism it fears the recession will prompt.
