A Foreign Correspondent Takes Over a Washington Think Tank (Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Steve Coll's introduction to the button-down world of the think tank was tinged with a bit of glamour. Mr. Coll,a well-traveled journalist, won his second Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for his book Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. After the Pulitzer, Mr. Coll's grasp of history and elegant writing style landed him arguably the most coveted of assignments: staff writer at The New Yorker, where he has produced articles on international politics for the past two years.

So it may have been only fitting that he heard he was being considered for the presidency of a nonpartisan think tank made up largely of journalists and policy experts — the nine-year-old New America Foundation, in Washington — while enjoying a glass of wine at midnight with a terrorism expert at an Italian streetside cafe. ... (more)