A Warrior and a Wonk
Author(s): Erica Lovley
Original Post: Who is Nate Fick?
Type: News Article
Date: 10/20/2009
He’s on GQ’s list of the 50 Most Powerful People in D.C. He served in Baghdad as a Marine captain — and wrote a New York Times best-selling book about the experience. David Simon, co-creator of HBO’s “The Wire,” produced a miniseries based on his platoon.
So just who is Nate Fick?
At age 32, he’s the CEO of Center for a New American Security, the fledgling defense think tank that’s staking ground on counterinsurgency, North Korean nuclear negotiations and even global warming.
Fick has his work cut out for him. CNAS was founded by two former Clinton administration officials, Kurt Campbell and Michele Flournoy, who left the think tank when they were tapped to work for President Barack Obama. More than 10 employees followed suit.
On top of that, critics were increasingly characterizing CNAS as a manufacturing plant for the Obama administration, a liability for an organization that bills itself as nonpartisan and independent.
John Podesta, Obama’s chief adviser during his presidential transition and creator of the powerful liberal think tank Center for American Progress, has aided CNAS in a number of projects. Fick spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and served on Obama’s transition team for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sits on the board of directors. Then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was the keynote speaker at CNAS’s inception last year.
On the ideological spectrum, it’s a far cry from Liz Cheney’s new defense think tank, Keep America Safe, which argues that “the current administration too often seems uncertain, wishful, irresolute and unwilling to stand up for America, our allies and our interests.” Joining Cheney on the board are The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol and Debra Burlingame, sister of pilot Charles “Chic” Burlingame III, whose plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Fick, who recently hired Sen. John McCain’s foreign policy adviser, Richard Fontaine, is still struggling to solidify CNAS’s reputation as an independent organization. “We are trying to actively demonstrate that we are an independent voice,” he said. “There are at least four Republicans on our board. We were harshly critical of drone attacks in Pakistan. We were called into the Pentagon because the Obama administration strongly disagreed.”
But not everyone is convinced.
“Think tanks develop into a more mature institution when they are willing to say unpleasant things about their friends. But CNAS hasn’t done that yet, and they haven’t really had the opportunity to,” said American Enterprise Institute defense studies head Tom Donnelly. “That’s a benchmark of whether they can withstand the test of time.”
Fick, who is married and lives in the District, is currently the only defense think tank head who has battlefield experience in both the Iraq and the Afghanistan wars. But in a community where seniority rules — to the point where young officers ask hairdressers for premature-gray highlights — this relative baby face will have to earn his stripes. And the organization has the benefit of senior brass who are attached to its efforts. CNAS’s president is retired Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, a counterinsurgency expert who specialized in advising Iraqi and Afghan forces. Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, was the keynote speaker for CNAS’s summer conference on Afghanistan and Pakistan. The organization is backed by a mix of government, private and corporate donors, including defense contractor Honeywell, The Boeing Co. and four branches of the military.
“I would ask that [critics] instead judge our products,” Fick said of the think tank. “If we’re not turning out good work, then I’m to blame.”
That work is starting to materialize. The Defense Department is including the effects of global warming in its annual review of defense strategies, and CNAS’s energy security and climate change project has helped lay groundwork that could be useful. Scholars there move up the ladder quickly, which may give them exposure and responsibility more quickly than at other think tanks.
“There have been a plethora of new security-oriented think tanks that have come out since Sept.11, but CNAS is head and shoulders the best of the lot,” said Boston University international relations professor Andrew Bacevich, who has been a staunch critic of CNAS’s counterinsurgency work. “Their strengths derive from the fact that their founding vision was one that was realistic, hardheaded and pragmatic.”
For Fick’s part, outreach may be the key to success. “We’re out to show how important it is to engage everyone,” said Fick. “If we’re going to go to war as a country, then we all need to go to war.”
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Topic(s): Natural Resources + National Security = Natural Security, Iraq, National Security Leaders Event Series, Regional Security Challenges, Terrorism & Irregular Warfare, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Military Forces & Operations, U.S. National Security Strategy, WMD & Nuclear Proliferation
Project(s): Afghanistan, Asia-Pacific Security , Energy Security and Climate Change, Future of the U.S. Military, Iran: U.S. Strategic Options, Governance in a Time of Political Transition, National Security Leaders Forum, Special Operations Forces, The Iraq Inheritance, Voices from the Field, Project Base Camp, Veterans' Health, Contested Commons, Civilian Capacity, Nuclear Negotiations in North Korea, War Game: Clout and Climate Change, Next Generation National Security Leaders Program
People: Nathaniel C. Fick
