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Supported by the Azerbaijani regime and a network of lobbyists, Brenda Shaffer used oil money to build her academic credentials, then in turn used those credentials to promote Azerbaijan’s agendas in the US, researcher Till Bruckner writes on the website of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

According to Bruckner’s article, Shaffer first walked into Congress in 2001 to testify before the House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations. She was introduced as the director of the Caspian Studies Program and a post-doctoral fellow in the international security program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She asked the lawmakers to repeal a section of the Freedom Support Act that barred direct US aid to the Azerbaijani government.

What lawmakers did not know was that the Caspian Studies Program was set up in 1999 through a $1 million grant from the US Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce and a consortium of oil and gas companies led by Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron, all of which had commercial interests in the region. The chamber of commerce is a pro-Azerbaijan pressure group whose Board of Directors includes a vice president of SOCAR, the Azerbaijan state-owned energy company, and top lobbyists for BP and Chevron, Bruckner points.

At an event hosted by the Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce in 2000, the former dean of the Kennedy School, Graham Allison, introduced Azerbaijan’s then-President Heydar Aliyev, who told his listeners that “I cheer the opening of a new chair at Harvard University relating to Azerbaijan and (the) Caspian area. I am thankful for the assistance of American-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce rendered for it.”

Until December 2014, Allison was listed online as a member of the chamber’s Board of Trustees. “It is unclear whether Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, James A. Baker III, Brent Scowcroft and John Sununu are aware that they also are members of the group’s ‘Honorary Council of Advisors’, as the organization’s website claims,” the author of the investigation points. He adds that as a chamber of commerce, the Azerbaijan organization is incorporated as a 501(c)(6) non-profit, which allows it to conceal its donors from the public. Neither its 2011 nor its 2012 filing report any direct expenditures for lobbying by external actors. Through his investigation, Bruckner found that the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan, a heavyweight outfit with strong Congressional ties and traction, is also registered as a 501(c)(6).

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan America Alliance, an outfit chaired by former Indiana Rep. Dan Burton, is registered as a ‘social welfare organization’. This form of incorporation allows the Alliance to shield its donors from public view while it attempts to influence legislation and even participate in political campaigns and elections, including by supporting individual candidates.

Shaffer led the Caspian Studies Program until 2005. During her tenure, she wrote 14 op-eds for leading US and Israeli newspapers including the International Herald Tribune and the Jerusalem Post. Most called on American policy makers to pay more attention to the region. One exhorted the US to stop funding for Nagorno Karabakh. In May 2006, journalist and lobbying expert Ken Silverstein dropped a bombshell in the form of a short piece entitled “Academics for Hire” in Harper’s Magazine. It accused prominent academics of performing “intellectual acrobatics on behalf of the [Caspian] region's rulers”. Shaffer was singled out for especially harsh criticism.

Bruckner emailed to the New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, and Wall Street Journal a link to the article that broke the story, and asked them to explain how they screened op-ed contributors, and encouraged them to publish a clarification beneath Shaffer’s op-eds. The Times quickly posted a clarification that said: “This Op-Ed, about tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, did not disclose that the writer has been an adviser to Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company. Like other Op-Ed contributors, the writer, Brenda Shaffer, signed a contract obliging her to disclose conflicts of interest, actual or potential. Had editors been aware of her ties to the company, they would have insisted on disclosure.” The Post also published a clarification.

Reuters ran three op-eds by Shaffer in 2013. One of them advised US policy makers on how to handle Syria. Even though Syria and Israel are technically in a state of war, readers were not informed that the author was the member of an Israeli government steering committee. Reuters declined to add a clarification about Shaffer’s outside interests, Bruckner highlights.

Her opinion piece in the Journal simultaneously took a swipe at Palestine and discouraged US support for Armenia in the Nagorno Karabakh dispute. No correction was published after Bruckner’s email. Instead, on Nov. 30, 2014 the Journal posted another Shaffer op-ed online, identifying her as “a visiting researcher and professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies.” Bloomberg’s Businessweek ran a story quoting her, without mentioning her link with SOCAR. Veteran journalists Jackie Northam from National Public Radio and Roger Boyes from the London Times have also recently quoted Shaffer.

In 2013, Shaffer took part in a panel discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about Azerbaijan’s prospects is a case in point, which happened two days after the comical elections in Azerbaijan. According to an official U.S. State Department report, “Flaws in the conduct of the… presidential election included a repressive political environment leading up to election day, lack of a level playing field among candidates, [and] significant shortcomings throughout all stages of election-day processes.” Shaffer expressed hope that with elections over, Azerbaijan would take “even more bolder steps towards democracy. It will do a better job… if it has the US on its side… If you really care about democracy in Azerbaijan… be a partner there, be a friend there.”

In contrast to much of the US media, some think tanks distanced themselves from Shaffer once her SOCAR connection became known. The Wilson Center, which lists her as an expert on its website, explained in an email: “Ms. Shaffer has no Wilson Center affiliation.” The academic institutions that have lent Shaffer credibility over the years continue to support her. Foreign Affairs journal, noted for its strong influence among policy-makers, published a contribution by Shaffer that discussed a proposed pipeline to carry gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. The journal’s editor did not respond to Bruckner’s emails pointing out Shaffer’s apparent conflict of interest.

During an October 2014 public discussion at Columbia University during which she shared the podium with an official SOCAR representative, a participant asked Shaffer about her links with the state-owned energy company, and whether Congress had been aware of that relationship when she testified. In a testy exchange, Shaffer insisted that her scholarly independence had not been compromised, and that “my students benefit from the fact that I have been on every side of the table.”

In email exchanges with Bruckner, several regional experts reported having detected bias in Shaffer’s output in the past. "Scholars in academia do not regard her work as really academic," wrote Manouchehr Shiva, who did research in Azerbaijan under a Fulbright scholarship in 2005-2006 and continues to follow developments there. “The sponsoring institution has a responsibility to prevent cases like Shaffer’s,” said Gerald Robbins of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Related:
Newrepublic.com: Brenda Shaffer polishes image of Azerbaijan autocracy not disclosing her ties with government
Radio Liberty: Brenda Shaffer’s testy respond to question about her ties with SOCAR
Brenda Shaffer was accused of lobbying in favor of Azerbaijan