Water and US National Security
The project is designed to answer a core question—how should American strategists incorporate water into US national security objectives? The goal is to determine the concrete actionable steps necessary to integrate water into policy toward regions of high geostrategic relevance to the United States, with a particular focus on Asia’s water tower. This project will pursue two major ends. First, project staff will seek to influence thinking about water and America’s strategic ends within the US government’s foreign and security policy apparatus. Emphasis will be on the next administration’s first year in office. Second, project staff will focus on the significance of Asia’s water tower for regional geopolitics and, thereby, US foreign and security policy within Asia. While this element of the project is designed to understand how water is shaping regional geopolitics in areas of strategic concern to the United States, the larger question is how the United States government ought to organize to address water insecurity in a region containing its global peers, nuclear-armed rivals, and billions of people.

Asian Water Security, by Peter Engelke, November 2017


Cross-Strait Seminar Series
This project looks broadly at major security and economic issues impacting the strategic landscape in the Asia Pacific and how they will affect the US-China-Taiwan trilateral relationship. Topics of discussion include growing Asian defense spending, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the challenge of Chinese cyberattacks and espionage, and the impact of nationalism on security in East Asia.  As part of the series, the Atlantic Council leads a high-level delegation of former government officials to Taiwan for meetings with Taiwanese government officials, think tank experts, and business leaders.


Strengthening US Extended Deterrence in East Asia
This project is funded by the MacArthur Foundation to study the credibility and effectiveness of US extended deterrence in East Asia in a very dynamic strategic environment. The goal of this project is to strengthen US extended deterrence in East Asia by offering policy prescriptions to the United States and key regional governments based on an assessment of evolving regional, global, and technological trends, as well as robust engagement with key experts and opinion-makers from the region to better grasp their perceptions.

The Future of US Extended Deterrence in Asia to 2025, by Robert A. Manning, October 2014
Chairmen’s Statement: Strengthening Deterrence in Asia, by Richard L. Armitage and Kurt M. Campbell, October 2014
Event on October 8, 2014: Future of US Extended Deterrence in East Asia
Public event on March 25, 2014: The Future of US-Korea Alliance and Extended Deterrence in East Asia
Event on February 26, 2014: Strengthening the US-Japan Alliance
Event on January 15, 2014: Workshop on Cybersecurity, Space, and the Future of Deterrence in Northeast Asia
Event on January 14, 2014: Briefing on the Potential of New Technologies for Enhanced Deterrence
Event on September 16, 2013: Workshop on Extended Deterrence in Northeast Asia


Japan’s Future Security Role, Strategy, and Capabilities
This project would address this need by developing a vision of what security roles Japan should take on over the next 20 years and identifying the defense capabilities that Japan would need to develop to be able to effectively perform those roles. The goals of this project are:
• To develop a coherent, realistic vision of Japan’s future security roles and capabilities that is consistent with the interests of the United States, Japan, and the security and stability of East Asia, and is acceptable to (though not necessarily welcomed by) other countries in the region.
• To identify the implications of this vision for U.S. policy, capabilities, and regional security posture.
• For the findings of this project to at least become the stimulus for Japan to develop its own long-term vision of its future security role and of the capabilities that would be needed to achieve that vision.

The final report recommendations should affect the actual choices and actions taken by Japan and the United States, with the result that Japan becomes a stronger force for peace and stability by developing the policies and capabilities needed to take on a true leadership role in regional and global security affairs.

Japan’s Security Role and Capabilities in the 2020s, by Roger Cliff, November 2015
Event on November 23, 2015: Japan’s Security Role and Capabilities in the 2020s