(Muscatine, Iowa)—A new initiative by the Stanley Foundation will bring together foreign policy and national security specialists from across the political spectrum to find common ground on ten key, controversial areas of policy.

For each topic, a conservative and a progressive expert, some of the leading thinkers of their generation, will jointly author a paper outlining their points of agreement on such subjects as the use of force, democracy promotion, countering terrorism, detainee treatment, China, and national defense.

The "Bridging the Foreign Policy Divide" project is being led and coedited by Derek Chollet of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Tod Lindberg, editor of the Hoover Institution's journal Policy Review; and David Shorr of the Stanley Foundation.

The group includes the former third-ranking NSC official from the Bush White House and a current State Department political appointee. The organizational affiliations of group members range from the Brookings Institution, the Stanley Foundation, Human Rights First, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies to the Hoover Institution, American Enterprise Institute, and the Heritage Foundation. The full list of participating coauthors is below, with one topic and its authors still outstanding.

As in the wider political arena, two-dimensional images of progressive and conservative views on national security are major obstacles to the search for new ideas and solutions. In Bridging the Foreign Policy Divide, leading analysts will help build a more constructive debate by looking past philosophical differences and identifying effective approaches to the major national security challenges confronting the United States. The project gives experts an opportunity to examine politically sensitive issues on the merits and resist the distortions and oversimplifications of today's polarizing environment.

The ten papers are part of a larger project of dialogue. Coauthors have agreed not only to draft a paper but also to take part in peer review discussions of all of the drafts as well as briefings for key segments of the Washington policy community. The papers (roughly 5,000 words in length) will be released individually beginning in January and also collected into a published volume, going to press in summer 2007.

Topics and Authors

China

Michael Schiffer, Program Officer, The Stanley Foundation
Gary Schmitt, Resident Scholar and Director of Program on Advanced Strategic Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Countering terrorism

Peter Brookes, Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs and Director of the Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation
Julianne Smith, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Defense strategy, posture, and resources

Fred Kagan, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Michael O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution

Democracy promotion

Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
Michael McFaul, Associate Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

Detainees, counterterror, and rights

Ken Anderson, Professor of Law and Director of the JD/MBA Dual Degree Program, Washington College of Law, American University
Elisa Massimino, Washington Director, Human Rights First

Nonproliferation and global and regional security

Steve Biegun, Vice President of International Government Affairs, Ford Motor Company
Jon Wolfsthal, Nonproliferation Fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Relationship between US values and national interest

Derek Chollet, Fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Tod Lindberg, Editor, Policy Review, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

United Nations and international organizations

Mark Lagon, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, US Department of State
David Shorr, Program Officer, The Stanley Foundation

The use of force and legitimacy

Ivo Daalder, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution
Robert Kagan, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Rebuilding war-torn countries

Andrew Erdmann, former Director for Iraq, Iran, and Strategic Planning, National Security Council
Suzanne Nossel, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

The Stanley Foundation brings fresh voices, original ideas, and lasting solutions to debates on global and regional problems. It is a nonpartisan, private operating foundation, located in Muscatine, Iowa, that focuses on peace and security issues and advocates principled multilateralism.