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Solarium II: A Competitive Strategy Process for the 21st Century
Solarium II: A Competitive Strategy Process for the 21st Century
 This project draws its name and inspiration from an effort undertaken by President Eisenhower over 50 years ago. In 1953, Eisenhower faced a situation similar to what we face today: how to develop a grand strategy for an uncertain future when the stakes are high and there is no obvious consensus on how to deal with growing strategic threats. The original Project Solarium was a competitive strategy development process that is credited with helping articulate several pillars of American Cold War strategy. Through a similarly structured process of inclusive debate and extensive analysis, CNAS will create several strategy documents that will serve as useful inputs to the broader national debate over American strategy in the post-September 11th era. Initial iterations of the Solarium process will deal with challenges such as re-establishing the United States' standing and moral authority in the world, as well as developing a new and more effective strategy for fighting transnational terrorism. This project will be led by Michèle Flournoy.
Developing a New Approach to U.S. Energy Security:
A CNAS “Solarium II Project”
In partnership with the Markle Foundation, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will conduct a major study of the challenges posed by the complex intersection of growing energy demands, technological change, global instability, and U.S. national security.
The relationship between energy and national security will be one of the most important policy issues confronting the United States in the coming years. In fact, issues concerning energy infuse nearly every one of the major foreign policy challenges confronting the U.S. – from the stability of the Middle East to the transformation of China and Russia and our relationship with countries in Africa and Latin America. While there is a growing consensus in the U.S. and around the world about the dangers of global dependence on nonrenewable resources supplied from undemocratic and unstable regions, the debate about how to address this problem is just beginning.
Using the methodological framework known as Solarium II, we will bring together every relevant community – scientific, corporate, national security, technical, and political – to outline the major and interdependent energy and security challenges facing the U.S. and develop competing national strategies for meeting them. Read the first event report here.
Developing an American Grand Strategy:
A CNAS “Solarium II Project”
On February 20, 2008, the Center for a New American Security hosted "Solarium II: American Grand Strategy" at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event brought together prominent national security thinkers and practitioners for a one-day colloquium concerning America’s purpose and place in the world.
CNAS commissioned five prominent thinkers to write and present their preferred vision of an American grand strategy for the 21st century. Inspired by President Eisenhower’s use of competitive strategy development during the 1953 Solarium exercise the conference featured presentations by each author, a formal critique by a distinguished reviewer, and a general debate among conference participants.
The conference was moderated by CNAS President Michèle Flournoy, who concluded that the exercise was “a real opportunity to engage in a constructive and productive debate,” one that hopefully will inform the national discussion concerning America’s role in the world in the critical years ahead.
Draft conference papers, conference transcripts, and video/audio links can be found on our event page, by clicking here.
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