Frank Gaffney

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. (born April 5, 1953) is an American defense policy analyst and founder of the Center for Security Policy (CSP). He founded the CSP in 1988, serving as its president until 2023, and thereafter as executive chairman. In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked for the federal government in multiple posts, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy from 1983 to 1987, and seven months as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan administration. He was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1987. In later years, he has been described as an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist.

Gaffney was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1953 to Virginia Gaffney (née Reed) and Frank J. Gaffney. His father was a classical music aficionado and long-time partner at the law firm of Thorp, Reed & Armstrong, which was founded by his wife's father, Earl Reed; in 2013, it merged with Clark Hill PLC. Gaffney's grandfather, Joseph Gaffney, was a city solicitor in Philadelphia. In the early 20th century, as a known Catholic in Philadelphia, he faced opposition from nativist Protestant groups who alleged that Catholics were "gaining control of American institutions while rewriting the nation's history".

Gaffney attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service in 1975. In 1978, he received an MA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

Gaffney began his government career in the 1970s, working as an aide in the office of Democratic Senator Henry M. Jackson, under Richard Perle. From August 1983 until November 1987, Gaffney held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the Reagan administration, again serving under Perle.

In April 1987, Gaffney was nominated to the position of Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He served as the acting Assistant Secretary for seven months. During this time, despite his official post, he was excluded by senior Reagan administration officials from the then-ongoing arms control talks with the Soviet Union. Gaffney was ultimately forced out of the Pentagon; The Washington Post reported in November 1987 that, within four days of Frank Carlucci's appointment as Secretary of Defense, "Gaffney's belongings were boxed and he was gone". Following his departure from government, he immediately set about criticizing Ronald Reagan's pursuit of an arms control agreement with the USSR.

In 1988, Gaffney established the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a Washington, D.C.–based national security think tank that has been widely described as engaging in conspiracy theorizing by a range of individuals, media outlets and organizations. Its activities are focused on exposing and researching perceived jihadist threats to the United States. The Center has been described as "not very highly respected" by BBC News and "disreputable" by Salon. It has faced strong criticism from people across the political spectrum, but has also had its reports cited by political figures such as US President Donald Trump and former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. In 2010 Gaffney became a trustee of the Center for Security Policy. CSP has been described as an "extremist think tank" by the Center for New Community. In 2016, the CSP was classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a "hate group". The SPLC describes Gaffney as "one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes". Gaffney and the CSP have also been described as influential parts of the counter-jihad movement.

On March 16, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz announced he would name Frank Gaffney to be one of his National Security Advisors. Cruz said that Gaffney "is a serious thinker who has been focused on fighting jidahists [sic], fighting jihadism across the globe". In December 2015, Nation Institute Fellow Eli Clifton characterized as unscientific a CSP-funded poll that Donald Trump had been citing, which purportedly showed widespread support for Sharia law among U.S. Muslims and a need for intervention in that community. It added that, "Between Trump’s calls for a national registry of Muslims and a ban on Muslim immigration, it appears that through coincidence or outright collaboration, Trump is building an immigration and anti-Muslim policy framework that closely mirrors the statements and proposals advocated by" Gaffney and the CSP.

Discussing what he calls prominent professional participants in Islamophobia, Professor Todd Green wrote mentioned "Frank Gaffney and David Yerushalmi, both of whom head organizations that are responsible for spreading misinformation about Islam and that seek to enact anti-Muslim laws, including the infamous anti-Sharia". David Yerushalmi served as legal counsel for the CSP and has been accused of spreading misinformation about Islam and encouraging the enactment of anti-Muslim laws, including anti-Sharia legislation in the United States.