USIP Attacked and Shuttered by DOGE

WASHINGTON (03-19) – An important part of the intellectual, cultural, and national security landscape of think tanks here in Washington was assaulted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last week in attempting the takeover of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a private non-profit corporation. After initially being repelled at the building’s entrance by armed USIP security personnel on Friday, DOGE returned on Monday, March 17 in gaining entry to the building after a standoff between the building’s security and the FBI assisted by the DC METRO Police.

After their takeover, DOGE fired USIP Acting Director and CEO, George E. Moose, a former diplomat, then closed and locked the building swiftly, installing Board of Directors-elected Kenneth Jackson as acting president.

Workers barred from the building were told to work from home with the only exception being Jackson and some DOGE staffers.

The recently fired Moose reiterated that the private non-profit corporation is not part of the federal government or a federal agency and, therefore, the government has no “entitlement” to come in and take it over. He stated that the DOGE takeover was “illegal” as they have no jurisdiction over the Institute.

The iconic building now has taped private property signs on all of the locked exterior doors indicating that trespassers will be arrested and prosecuted if they attempt to enter. An inside source revealed that “only a few people” were in the cavernous building today, presumably busy dismantling USIP as part of achieving “government efficiency” at a private non-government institution.

USIP was founded in 1984 by Congress and according to their website is “a nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad. Our work helps keep America safe, reducing the risk that the United States will be drawn into costly foreign wars that drive terrorism, criminal gangs and migration.”

For the 2025 fiscal year the institute requested a Congressional allocation of $55,459,000 in funding towards achieving their mission whose “cost-effective programs are force multipliers, demonstrating the positive impact of democratic values for resolving conflict, enlarging the U.S.-led coalition of allies and friendly nations, and helping to counter the malign influence of U.S. adversaries.”

When compared to the cost of war and violent conflict, the allocation is a mere pittance for what it attempts to counter and can be thought of as a lesser expensive peace- oriented national interest insurance policy.

With President Trump’s involvement in attempting to bring about brokered peace deals between Israel and Hamas along with Russia’s war in Ukraine, keeping a peace institute open and functioning at all costs would be in America’s best interest. To instead deconstruct a valuable institution dedicated to resolving war and violent conflict in countries where U.S. strategic interests are at stake is not Making America Great Again.

Operating on the ground in some of the world’s most dangerous places, USIP provides valuable expertise in “training, guidance, resources and analysis for those working to prevent or reduce violent conflict.” By combining “research, analysis and field experience to strengthen the capacity of policymakers and other professionals to respond on some of the most critical global challenges of the 21st Century” its work is invaluable.

To that effort, the Institute frequently presents numerous vibrant and highly relevant contemporaneous public programs, research papers, and studies on a wide variety of subjects concerning national and international issues that are attended by government officials, diplomats and others including non-governmental personnel concerned with all topics related to the purview of the institute’s mandate.

The work undertaken by the private institute in our conflicted world is of upmost importance to policy makers in Washington and across the globe. Its shuttering will have a major impact on its important and vital work that is constantly changing and evolving as world events change often and frequently.

DOGE with its “slash and burn” tactics in shutting down USIP exhibits how little they understand about the valuable and complex undertakings of the agency and its importance in a complicated and fragile world steeped in conflict and war.

To date, DODGE efforts have amounted to little more than grandstanding photo ops with chainsaws, numerous false narratives, astronomical savings accounting errors, immense disruption, incalculable personal loss and national reputational damage accompanied by its most successful accomplishment yet, namely the wholesale destruction of our government.

Its claims without evidence of billions of dollars in savings amounts to little more than pure “vaporware” and bravado.

Former Director Moose has promised that he will fight the shuttering of USIP in court, but unless the court issues an injunction to stop DOGE and barring a lengthy court battle, much ground will be lost in their efforts towards creating a more peaceful world with fewer violent conflicts and war.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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