About CSIS

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges.

Thomas J. Pritzker was named chairman of the CSIS Board of Trustees in 2015, succeeding former U.S. senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). Founded in 1962, CSIS is led by John J. Hamre, who has served as president and chief executive officer since 2000.

CSIS’s purpose is to define the future of national security. We are guided by a distinct set of values—non-partisanship, independent thought, innovative thinking, cross-disciplinary scholarship, integrity and professionalism, and talent development. CSIS’s values work in concert toward the goal of making real-world impact.

CSIS scholars bring their policy expertise, judgment, and robust networks to their research, analysis, and recommendations. We organize conferences, publish, lecture, and make media appearances that aim to increase the knowledge, awareness, and salience of policy issues with relevant stakeholders and the interested public.

CSIS has impact when our research helps to inform the decisionmaking of key policymakers and the thinking of key influencers. We work toward a vision of a safer and more prosperous world.

History
 

At the height of the Cold War in 1962, Admiral Arleigh Burke and David Abshire founded the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The institution was dedicated to the simple but urgent goal of finding ways for the United States to survive as a nation and prosper as a people.

Since its founding, CSIS has been at the forefront of solutions to the vexing foreign policy and national security problems of the day. In 1966, CSIS research triggered House hearings on the watershed Sino-Soviet split. In 1978, CSIS convened the first public hearing on Capitol Hill on the Cambodian genocide, sparking major changes in congressional and executive branch perceptions of the tragedy.

In 1985, a CSIS panel led to the Goldwater-Nichols legislation to reform the Defense Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1998, it was a report from a CSIS retirement commission that became the bipartisan benchmark of the Social Security reform debate. In 2007, the CSIS Smart Power Commission provided a diagnosis of America’s declining standing in the world and offered a set of recommendations for a smart power approach to America’s global engagement. These are but a few of the highlights.

CSIS Today

Today, CSIS is one of the world’s preeminent public policy institutions on foreign policy and national security issues. The Center’s over 250 full-time staff and large network of affiliated scholars conduct research and analysis and develop policy initiatives that look to the future and anticipate change. CSIS is regularly called upon by Congress, the executive branch, the media, and others to explain the day’s events and offer recommendations to improve U.S. strategy.

An independent not-for-profit organization since 1987, CSIS marked its first half-century of existence by moving into a new state-of-the-art headquarters in downtown Washington, DC, in 2013. With its traditional defense and security programs, initiatives focused on global challenges such as health and energy, and research projects dedicated to every corner of the globe, CSIS is well positioned for another 50 years of providing strategic insights and policy solutions to the world’s decisionmakers.

Since its founding, CSIS has been at the forefront of solutions to the vexing foreign policy and national security problems of the day. In 1966, CSIS research triggered House hearings on the watershed Sino-Soviet split. In 1978, CSIS convened the first public hearing on Capitol Hill on the Cambodian genocide, sparking major changes in congressional and executive branch perceptions of the tragedy.

In 1985, a CSIS panel led to the Goldwater-Nichols legislation to reform the Defense Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1998, it was a report from a CSIS retirement commission that became the bipartisan benchmark of the Social Security reform debate.

In 2007, the CSIS Smart Power Commission provided a diagnosis of America’s declining standing in the world and offered a set of recommendations for a smart power approach to America’s global engagement. In 2008, CSIS convened a commission of government and industry leaders to examine issues relating to cybersecurity. The ensuing report, Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency, served as a roadmap for Obama administration policy and congressional legislative reform.

In 2018, the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security began work on a vision of global health security that can more predictably and reliably advance U.S. foreign policy goals and secure U.S. national interests. The commission’s work, built on bipartisan consensus, was critical in advance of and through the U.S. government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the CSIS Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program (previously the Transnational Threats Project) constructed a data set of domestic terrorist plots and attacks, which shifted the debate within the executive branch, Congress, and the U.S. public about the homeland threat from extremists. In 2022, CSIS researchers were at the forefront of forecasting a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the largest land war in Europe since World War II, using satellite imagery analysis of the Russian build-up and maps of possible Russian invasion routes. These are but a few of the highlights.