Current Research Projects

After Hatoyama: Preparing for Japanese Foreign Policy in Transition
This project will study the challenges that yhe recently elected Japanese government faces as it tries to develop viable alternatives to the bilateralism on which its foreign poilicy has been predicated for over fifty years.
project details
New Strategic Dynamics in the Arctic Region: Implications for National Security and International Collaboration
This project explores and assesses trends that together could transform the Arctic from a relative strategic backwater to a strategic crossroads of global importance.
project details || selected readings
Support to the Defense Department, Combatant Commands, and Military Service Leadership
This is an ongoing project for the Department of Defense (DoD), for which the Institute provides detailed policy reports and organizes high-level workshops on critical issues of national security for DoD, combatant command (COCOM), and military service leaderships.
project details
Rapid Strategic Assessment for the NATO Special Operations Headquarters
In support of the NATO Special Operations Headquarters (NSHQ), IFPA is a major contributor to the Rapid Strategic Assessment project, which works with NSHQ in carrying out its core missions.
project details
Sending UCAS to Sea: A Superior Carrier through the Unmanned Combat Air System
This project, launched in 2008, considers the key characteristics, capabilities, and future role in carrier fleet operations of the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System (N-UCAS) now under development.
project details
Peace Regime Building for a Nuclear Weapon-free Korean Peninsula: Next Steps for Capacity Building
In cooperation with institutional partners in Northeast Asia, IFPA is leading a nongovernmental multinational working group to discuss, research, and draft a joint proposal for a Korean peace regime that complements related inter-Korean efforts and facilitates North Korean denuclearization.
download interim report (2.65 MB) || project details
In Times of Crisis: Global and Local Civil-Military Disaster Relief Coordination in the United States and Japan
IFPA recently completed a collaborative effort by U.S. and Japanese specialists to conduct research and foster dialogue among civilian and military groups for the purposes of improving their civil-military communication in domestic and international crises.
download monograph front matter and executive summary (3.59 MB) || buy full monograph) ||
project details
The Democracy in Latin America Seminar Series: Challenges of Radical Populism
In association with the Hudson Institute, IFPA is examining radical populism in Latin America in order to provide policy recommendations to leaders of government and civil society in the Hemisphere to help counter anti-democratic forces and authoritarianism.
project details
The U.S.-Japan Alliance and the Future of Extended Deterrence
In the new setting since North Korea’s nuclear test, this project, completed in 2009, undertakes a fresh assessment of thinking in Japan and the United States about extended deterrence in Northeast Asia.
download report (1.86 MB) || project details
Finding the Right Mix: Disaster Diplomacy, National Security, and International Cooperation
IFPA undertook this project, completed in 2009, to provide U.S. policy makers with enhanced tools for planning, managing, and concluding a major disaster operation effectively and in a manner that explicitly advances U.S. strategic objectives.
download report (4.29 MB) || project details
Space and U.S. Security: A Net Assessment
Although the United States is the dominant player in space, a growing number of countries are accessing space for both military and commercial purposes, challenging U.S. preeminence.
download report (5.96 MB) || project details
The Post-ABM Treaty Missile Defense and Space Relationship
As part of the IFPA missile defense program, the Independent Working Group on Post-ABM Treaty Missile Defense and the Space Relationship project is exploring missile defense architectures that include space-based systems.
download report (7.04 MB) || project details
Iran with Nuclear Weapons: Anticipating the Consequences for U.S. Security
Based on the assumption, unpalatable as it may seem, that a nuclear Iran is all but inevitable, this project, completed in 2008, on the implications of a nuclear Iran and what this would mean for U.S. strategy and security policy.
download report (6.81 MB) || project details
Building Six-Party Capacity for a WMD-Free Korea
This three-year study completed in 2008 involves all of the countries in the six-party process and examines how these countries can build a regional organization to coordinate their respective approaches to nuclear issues directly related to North Korea.
project details
Identifying Trends in Japan-DPRK Relations and Implications for U.S. Policy
This project, completed in 2006, examined the key factors behind Japan's evolving North Korea policy and how they will affect America's strategic and tactical approaches and choices.
download report (1.38 MB) || project details
Strengthening Forces for Democratization
This project was completed in 2006 as part of IFPA's ongoing work on democratization. The project's focus was democratic transformation in the Middle East and Central Asia.
download report (249 KB) || project details
North American Homeland Security and Defense:  Enhancing U.S. Joint Planning and Cooperation with Canada and Mexico in the War against Terrorism
This project, completed in early 2006, explored options to increase homeland defense/security cooperation between the United States and Canada and between the United States and Mexico.
download U.S.-Canada workshop report (2.34 MB) || download U.S.-Mexico workshop report (673 KB)
Building on the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG): Exploring the Prospects for Expanding the TCOG Process as a Key U.S.-South Korea and U.S.-Japan Alliance Management Tool
This two-year project was completed in 2005. IFPA collaborated with leading policy research institutions in Japan and South Korea on a policy research project to strengthen the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-South Korea relationships and enhance regional stability by improving the tools for alliance management.
download monograph (1.87 MB) || download related article (34 KB)
Planning for Long-term U.S. Military Engagement in Central Asia
Completed in 2004, this study examined the military and operational requirements that could be anticipated to drive U.S. security planning for operations in Central Asia and adjacent regions over the next ten to twenty years.
download monograph (2.53 MB)