National Security in the New Era

Today there is no consensus on what national security strategy will best address the challenges and opportunities that confront the United States. To that end, the Tobin Project has launched a multi-year effort to foster new academic research that will define the questions and offer the answers that can help provide the basis for a new U.S. national security strategy.

At our November 2008 conference, participants developed a research agenda on contemporary problems for national security such as WMD proliferation, energy security, and “wars of ideas.” Our December 2009 conference will explore a subset of the agenda — the controversial and timely issue of military force versus non-military tools — with the aim of identifying the best methods for the U.S. to advance its interests abroad. Key questions include: Does a “prudent use” of force call for a reduction of its use as a means of advancing American interests, or does it require limiting foreign policy goals? What light does the historical record shed on the claim that a strategy placing greater value on diplomatic engagement with adversaries demonstrates weakness and naïveté? What are the conditions under which non-kinetic tools of security and statecraft work? Are these tools still useful in crisis situations?

By directing their intellectual capital at this debate, scholars will be able to test the boundaries of non-kinetic power in order to provide policymakers with a better understanding of their options when executing national security policy. The research that grows out of this debate will have the potential to influence U.S. national security strategy over the coming years.

2008 Conference Overview

A sustained effort is needed to define the questions and offer the answers that can help provide the basis for a new U.S. national security strategy.
Read More
Participating Scholars

Charting a Research Agenda

A key component of this effort will be to chart a research agenda that frames questions central to security policymaking, and then to recruit and encourage scholars to carry out this agenda through their work.
Working papers from the November 2008 conference
Archived discussion papers on National Security

National Security Working Group

Thirteen scholars have been working together to seed new academic research and to build a community of scholars and policymakers focused on addressing questions central to national security strategy-making.
Read More