I’m off to join another secret cabal

Blogging will be intermittent for the next week, as I’m travelling again. [Don’t you have one of those fancy wifi laptops that lets you post at Starbucks?–ed. Alas, the big blogger money seems to escape me.] This time, I’m off to the United Kingdom. First a brief lecture at the University Cambridge, followed by a ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Blogging will be intermittent for the next week, as I'm travelling again. [Don't you have one of those fancy wifi laptops that lets you post at Starbucks?--ed. Alas, the big blogger money seems to escape me.] This time, I'm off to the United Kingdom. First a brief lecture at the University Cambridge, followed by a four-day conference of the British-American Project (BAP), which is an organization that annually brings thirtysomethings from both sides of the Atlantic together to discuss issues of the day. Or so they would have you believe. A quick Google search reveals that several conspiracy web sites allege sinister motivations behind this conference. For example, this site characterizes BAP as, "a small and extremely covert group." But wait, there's more:

Blogging will be intermittent for the next week, as I’m travelling again. [Don’t you have one of those fancy wifi laptops that lets you post at Starbucks?–ed. Alas, the big blogger money seems to escape me.] This time, I’m off to the United Kingdom. First a brief lecture at the University Cambridge, followed by a four-day conference of the British-American Project (BAP), which is an organization that annually brings thirtysomethings from both sides of the Atlantic together to discuss issues of the day. Or so they would have you believe. A quick Google search reveals that several conspiracy web sites allege sinister motivations behind this conference. For example, this site characterizes BAP as, “a small and extremely covert group.” But wait, there’s more:

The aim of these men [who founded the BAP] was to set up a group of rising elites, indoctrinate them with what was basically Bilderberg propaganda, and then pick the cream of them to become major players in the Bilderberg movement…. Nearly every BAP member during the eighties and early nineties is now in a position of considerable fame or influence, and a large proportion of these are inclined to support the kind of aims that Bilderberg strives for. In essence, BAP was an ingenious method of indoctrinating next generation elites.

For another good conspiracy-sounding descriptions of the BAP, click here. Your intrepid blogger promises to infiltrate this suspicious-sounding organization and report the truth! [What if they offer you a “position of considerable fame or influence”?–ed. It would take a lot more than that to destroy my hard-earned reputation for intellectual integrity in the blogosphere!! What if they offer you a “position of considerable fame or influence” and a private candlelit dinner with Jennifer Garner?–ed. Yeah, that’s about my price.]

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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