EXC: Presidential Debate Commission Chief Held ‘Off-The-Record’ Meetings With Chinese Communist Propagandists, And Xi Jinping.

Kenneth Wollack, a Co-Chair of the Commission of Presidential Debates, participated in several “off-the-record” dialogues with Chinese Communist Party officials and influence groups, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.

Wollack – also the Chairman of the publicly-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) board – was one of ten principal delegates for what was called the inaugural U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue, hosted by the EastWest Institute “in partnership” with the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastWest_Institute

Formation 1980
Founder John Edwin Mroz
Ira D. Wallach
Type Public policy think tank
Tax ID no. 13-3091844
Headquarters 10 Grand Central, 155 E. 44th Street, Suite 1105
Location
New York, NY
President Bruce W. McConnell
Website eastwest.ngo

The EastWest Institute (EWI), originally known as the Institute for East-West Security Studies and officially the Institute for EastWest Studies, Inc., was an international not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank focusing on international conflict resolution through a variety of means, including track 2 diplomacy and track 1.5 diplomacy (conducted with the direct involvement of official actors), hosting international conferences, and authoring publications on international security issues. The organization employed networks in political, military, and business establishments in the United States, Europe, and the former Soviet Union.

EWI was founded by John Edwin Mroz and Ira D. Wallach in 1980 as an independent, global organization that promotes peace by creating trusted settings for candid, global discourse among leaders to tackle intractable security and stability challenges.[1] Mroz served as president and CEO of the institute for 34 years until his death, in 2014. EWI has a long-standing track record of convening dialogue and backchannel diplomacy to develop sustainable solutions for major political, economic and security issues. The organization’s initial success was rooted during the Cold War—in fact, EWI hosted the first ever military-to-military dialogue between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries. From its roots as a European-American initiative to bridge the divisions between Europe and Eurasia, Mroz built the institute into one of the world’s pre-eminent non-governmental change-agent institutions.

After four decades of distinctive service, the organization discontinued operations effective January 31, 2021. This decision was taken at the conclusion of a four-month strategic assessment in light of increasing challenges resulting from the global pandemic and related financial challenges facing many nonprofit organizations.[2]

EWI’s initiatives focused on a number of different areas including cybersecurity,[3] preventive diplomacy, strategic trust-building (which encompasses Russia-United States relations and China-United States Relations), Economic Security, and Regional Security (focusing on specific areas such as Southwest Asia).

History
The Institute for East-West Security Studies was founded in 1980, when then CEO John Edwin Mroz and Ira D. Wallach set out to study means of addressing areas of political dispute across the Iron Curtain.[4]

In 1984, EWI hosted the first track 2 military-to-military discussions between the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries. These talks, focusing heavily on the establishment of confidence-building measures (CBMs) between the two parties, ultimately resulted in an agreement requiring each side to alert the other of troop movements.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the eruption of conflicts in Southeastern Europe, EWI worked to foster economic stability in the region, encouraging cross-border cooperation and training leaders for democratic states. In the 2000s (decade), EWI’s operations expanded geographically to China, Southwest Asia and the Middle East, focusing on issues like cybersecurity, economic security, and countering violent extremism.

Since 2008, EWI has partnered with the China Association for International Friendly Contact to organize forums, termed the U.S.-China Sanya Initiative, between retired People’s Liberation Army officers and retired U.S. military personnel.[5][6] The Sanya Initiative is supported by the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a Hong Kong-based nonprofit established by billionaire Tung Chee-hwa.[7]

In May 2009, EWI released its Joint Threat Assessment on Iran, produced by senior U.S. and Russian experts convened by the institute. The assessment, which concluded that the planned system would not protect against an Iranian nuclear threat,[8] helped inform the Obama administration’s decision to scrap the ballistic missile defense plan proposed by the Bush administration and replace it with a plan of its own.[9]

In 2016, the Institute helped set up an information portal which allows operators of critical infrastructure to share security information internationally.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edwin_Mroz

John Edwin Mroz
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John Edwin Mroz (May 1, 1948 – August 15, 2014) was the founder, president, and CEO of the EastWest Institute, best known for his diplomatic efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[1]

Career
Mroz was born on May 1, 1948 in Lowell, Massachusetts. He grew up in nearby Westfield, Massachusetts, where his father was a dentist. He completed his BA at the University of Notre Dame, followed by an MA at Northeastern University, and an MALD at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.[2] He was married to Karen Linehan Mroz (1972-2014).

In 1980 Mroz and Ira D. Wallach set out to address areas of political dispute across the Iron Curtain by forming the Institute for East West Security Studies (later renamed the EastWest Institute), an international not-for-profit, non-partisan “think and do” tank focusing on international conflict resolution through a variety of means, including track 2 diplomacy and track 1.5 diplomacy (conducted with the direct involvement of official actors), hosting international conferences, and authoring publications on international security issues.[3]

In 1980 he published Beyond Security: Private Perceptions Among Arabs and Israelis, which examined the persistence of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

In 1981 the State Department under the Reagan Administration took the diplomatic initiative and established a secret contact with the PLO through Mroz, which was aborted after the start of the 1982 Lebanon War.[4] The substance of the talks between Mroz and Yasser Arafat was PLO recognition of Israel in return for U.S. recognition of the PLO.[5]

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the institute changed its name to the EastWest Institute, and widened its focus, consulting with European governments on the reunification of Germany and other post-Communist challenges.

Mroz served as an advisor to more than 20 governments including the United States, Germany, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland and the Russian Federation, as well as the G-8, the European Commission, the African Union, NATO, and the Council of Europe. He received numerous international awards including the Das Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Officer’s Cross), Germany’s highest award to a non-citizen in recognition of the role he and his institute played in facilitating German reunification.[6]

Mroz was an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations and appeared frequently on BBC, CNN, ABC and other news programs around the world. He spoke regularly before business and professional groups including Institutional Investor, Fortune Global Forum, the Young Presidents’ Organization, WPO, CEO, the Russell 20-20, the International Chamber of Commerce World Congress, the Eurasian Media Forum, Davos, and the World Future Society

Mroz died on August 15, 2014 in Manhattan, New York from complications of a blood cancer and macrophage activation syndrome (MAS).

Publications
He wrote regularly in the international press on global change and international security affairs. Mroz contributed to Foreign Affairs, as well as to journals and books on leadership and management including chapters in the Peter Drucker Foundation’s Organization of the Future (Jossey-Bass, 1997) and Leaders of the Future (Jossey-Bass, 2006). His work as a global change agent has been described in numerous volumes including Leaders Who Make a Difference (Jossey-Bass, 1999).[7]

Mroz was also the author of a landmark book on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Beyond Security: Private Perceptions Among Arabs and Israelis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_D._Wallach

ra D. Wallach
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For other people named Ira Wallach, see Ira Wallach (disambiguation).

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Ira David Wallach (June 3, 1909 – January 6, 2007) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was head of Central National-Gottesman, the largest privately held marketer of paper and pulp products.

Contents
1 Life and career
2 Activism and philanthropy
3 References
4 External links
Life and career
Born to a Jewish family in New York City, he earned his B.A. and law degrees from Columbia University.[1] He served as a Navy lieutenant in World War II.

In 1938, he married Miriam Gottesman Wallach, the daughter of D.S. Gottesman.[2] they had four children: James Wallach, Kenneth L. Wallach, Sue Wallach Wachenheim, and Kate Wallach Cassidy. He joined Gottesman & Company as Executive Vice President in 1946. He served as CEO from 1956 to 1979. During his tenure, the company grew to become the world’s largest private marketer of wood pulp, paper and newsprint. He later served as chairman, then senior vice chairman until his death.

Activism and philanthropy
Ira David Wallach was born in New York City on June 3, 1909. He earned bachelor’s and law degrees from Columbia University and was a Navy lieutenant in World War II.

In 1946 he joined Gottesman & Company, as it was then known, as executive vice president. He was the chief executive and a director of the company from 1956 to 1979, later serving as chairman and then senior vice chairman, the title he held at his death. During his tenure, the company, which is based in Purchase, N.Y., grew from a relatively small wood pulp distributor, into the world’s preeminent privately owned marketer of pulp and paper, with offices in 26 U.S. cities, 17 countries and representatives in 40 international locations. Wallach was a man who refused accolades, and was much admired and adored by his company’s employees.

In 1980, Wallach co-founded the Institute for East West Security Studies, now known as the EastWest Institute, a research group that focuses on international political, economic and security issues.

In a career of more than 70 years, he was a lawyer and businessman with interests in philanthropy and in global economic and political affairs. With his wife Miriam, he created a charitable foundation whose beneficiaries included the New York Public Library, Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Wallach was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War and many policies of the Nixon administration. He was named in a White House memorandum listing Nixon’s “political opponents”, one step down from the notorious “enemies list” — people who were singled out for tax audits and other problems.

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