Military and Security Studies Program

The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program has established itself as an unrivaled source of reliable, incisive, and forward-looking analysis concerning several of the most critical national-security challenges facing the United States today: The U.S. military role in the Middle East, Iran's nuclear program and its proxy armies, the ongoing conflict is in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, the regional proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction, the security dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and many other security issues on the frontline of the U.S. policymaking agenda.

Combined Shape

“The greatest threat of our age is nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons in the hands of terrorists, and the dictators who aid them.”

President George W. Bush

The program's staff, under the direction of Michael Eisenstadt, represents a unique combination of knowledge and experience derived from academic training and practical experience in the armed forces or civilian government agencies of the United States and its allies. Since 1995, the Institute's Military Fellows Program has also regularly hosted civilian analysts and senior military officers from the armed forces of the United States, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey.

Through Policy Forum luncheons, roundtable discussions, media appearances, congressional and special testimony, and an impressive list of publications, the Military and Security Studies Program engages policymakers and educates the public on a range of issues that deeply affect the vital security interests of the United States.

The Military and Security Studies Program hosts the Institute's Breslauer Military Fellows Program, which brings mid-career officers from the U.S. armed forces and civilian civil servants from the Department of Defense to the Institute for a year of research and study of Middle East issues and U.S. policymaking.