Center for a New American Security

CNAS studies the ever changing global security environment and its implications for the United States.  Key topics of interest include the rapidly evolving challenges of cyber security and cyber warfare; the future of strategic competition in the global commons; national security implications of changes to the world economy; the nexus between transnational crime and national security; and “natural security,” the geo-strategic and policy implications of rising global consumption of resources including energy, minerals, water, and climate change. 

In June 2011, CNAS published “America’s Cyber Future: Security and Prosperity in the Information Age,” a comprehensive examination of U.S. cyber security.   America’s growing dependence on cyberspace has created new vulnerabilities that are being exploited as fast as or faster than the nation can respond. Cyber attacks can cause economic damage, physical destruction, and even the loss of human life. Despite productive efforts by the U.S. government and the private sector to strengthen cyber security, the increasing sophistication of cyber threats continues to outpace progress. To help U.S. policymakers address the growing danger of cyber insecurity, the two-volume report featured accessible chapters on cyber security strategy, policy, and technology by some of the world’s leading experts on international relations, national security, and information technology.

In September 2011, CNAS published “Crime Wars: Gangs, Cartels and U.S. National Security.”   Spurred by unprecedented violence in Mexico, drug trafficking groups have evolved to not only pose significant challenges to that country, but to governments and societies across the Western Hemisphere, including the United States.  This CNAS report surveyed organized crime throughout the Western Hemisphere, analyzed the challenges it poses for the region and recommended the United States replace the "war on drugs" paradigm with comprehensive domestic and foreign policies to confront the interrelated challenges of drug trafficking and violence ranging from the Andean Ridge to American streets.

In January 2010, CNAS published “Contested Commons: The Future of American Power in a Multipolar World," which argued that America should renew its commitment to the global commons by pursuing three mutually supporting objectives: building global regimes that preserve the openness of the commons; engaging pivotal actors that have the will and ability to protect and sustain them; and developing the hard-power tools and capabilities necessary for the United States to defend the global commons.  The volume also included in-depth examinations of the future of American power in the sea, air, space and cyberspace.  

In 2011-2012, CNAS will undertake work on such vital topics as U.S. defense strategy in an era of austerity, U.S. national security in the information age, the geostrategic implications of rising great powers, and the perils of prediction in a rapidly evolving world.