Through polling and research, roundtables, speaking engagements, online events and other public outreach, ASP seeks to improve Americans’ understanding of the security challenges facing the United States, to spur rational and productive dialogue that fosters consensus, and to prescribe substantive, innovative solutions.
Perhaps the greatest long-term threat to America’s security is the crumbling foundation of our power: our overall economic health, our national debt, and the winnowing investment we make in our own society and our own citizens. The great challenges of the twenty-first century will require a United States that is strong and nimble financially as well as militarily. To reinforce the foundation of America’s strength, ASP is arming the public with new analyses of American competitiveness and forging a bipartisan approach that will provide the underpinning of American strength and security for decades to come.
As the United States moves into the second decade of the 21st Century, our leaders face a series of choices about energy that will affect our economic stability, the sustainability of our environment, and America’s national security. Policymakers will have to address these energy challenges– but none of them are a question of yes or no, either/or, do or do not. Instead, how the United States meets those challenges will require choices – strategic decisions about infrastructure investment, government policy, research funding, and even foreign policy. The American Security Project has a robust program examining how America – and the world – uses and produces energy. ASP believes that the way Americans use energy is detrimental to our national security, our economic well-being, and our environment. Without dogma or partisanship, we seek solutions. We focus on the long-term, strategic choices that will determine the well-being of our country until the next century.
We live in a time when the threats to our security are as complex and diverse as terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, climate change, failing states and economic decline. Many of these national challenges will require responses that go beyond military might and utilize all the tools at our disposal. The American Security Project is leading the development of a new national security vision and strategy that will create a New American Arsenal for the twenty-first century that is responsive to the challenges and opportunities we face as a country.
The United States faces many challenges around the world that are complex because they are asymmetric in nature. Asymmetric challenges are those where the different players and components have different interests, resources, and capabilities, but nevertheless interact in complex ways to make policy extremely difficult. At ASP, we think navigating asymmetric challenges begins with a clear articulation of U.S. interests. From there, the role American power should play becomes clear, and from understanding that role we can craft good policy to support our interests. Without dogma or partisanship, we seek long term solutions to the challenges facing the nation.
The spread of nuclear weapons and increasing numbers of nuclear forces worldwide represents the greatest danger to mankind. Since President Eisenhower first proposed an Open Skies Treaty with the Soviet Union, successive American presidents have sought to advance U.S. nuclear security through international treaties and agreements to reduce the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and to create strategic stability. ASP seeks to build upon that legacy and educate the public about the leadership needed to build a new international consensus for nuclear security. The American Security Project is committed to securing our nuclear weapons, preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons or materials into the hands of terrorists or hostile nations, and reducing the global nuclear stockpile.
The 21st Century has been rife with questions concerning how the U.S. can influence the perceptions and actions of foreign publics. ASP is dedicated to analyzing America’s public diplomacy efforts, and making recommendations on how to improve our nation’s ability to build strategic relationships with the people of other countries. These relationships are fundamental to meeting our shared security challenges and finding cost-effective means of resolving threats. ASP seeks to redefine the debate around public diplomacy, and refocus America’s efforts to establish itself as an effective 21st Century communicator.
