Cooperative Defense Project

The Cooperative Defense Project seeks to assess how changes in the security environment impact the United States’ ability to pursue principled and accountable defense policies and operations

 The realities of the 21st century security environment increasingly highlight challenges to the frameworks and tools the United States historically has used to ensure that its defense policies and operations are conducted in accordance with U.S. values. The project examines how to innovate and strengthen the principled basis for defense policy and military operations, and to propose practical frameworks and recommendations for the U.S. Administration, Congress, and military.

Key objectives of the project include:

  • Fostering dialogue and feedback among civilian and military organizations to calibrate policies, planning, operations, and allied and partner security cooperation to achieve defense objectives while reinforcing accountability, transparency, good governance principles, and mitigating harm to civilians; and
  • Providing practical recommendations informed by research and analysis to guide policy, legislative, doctrinal, and organizational changes to buttress frameworks and tools for formulating principled defense policies and operations.