Security and Democracy Forum

When we talk about national security, we often focus on preventing wars, winning them, or deterring them. But security does not end when the shooting stops. What happens after a conflict can determine whether peace lasts and whether communities are actually able to recover. That is why Bryan Fok's new Security and Democracy Forum report, Balancing Livelihoods and Human Health: Limitations of Environmental Provisions in Peace Agreements (Download PDF), fits squarely within SDF's work. The...

Buried deep in the Department of War’s (DOW’s) Fiscal Year 2027 budget request, is an indication that the Pentagon used the preparations for the FIFA World Cup as a readiness exercise to train for coalition combat. The Operations and Maintenance Justification Book notes a request to Congress for over $216 million for “Mission Partner Environment.” The explanation goes on to call out successful applications of this program in “establishing a common information-sharing environment for the...

The Security and Democracy Forum was founded on a simple belief: national security and democratic institutions are not competing priorities. They are mutually reinforcing. Our national security institutions protect the freedoms that allow democracy to flourish, while our democratic institutions provide the accountability, legitimacy, and resilience that make us more secure. Advancing that conversation requires more than policy advocacy. It requires creating a forum where scholars,...