-
General. Stanley A. McChrystal
CENSA Presentation at SAIS in Washington, DC -
Hybrid Warfare
CENSA's latest compendium released August 15 -
Gen. (Ret.) McCaffrey (VIDEO)
CENSA Leadership Series at Georgetown University -
General Dempsey Event Oct. 10
The event ended with an open Q&A.
Compendiums
Hybrid Warfare and Transnational Threats, 2011
Deconstructs the debate surrounding the employment of "hybrid warfare" as a useful term, the implementation of hybrid techniques in foreign theaters of war, and the evolution of hybrid tactics over time. �
Crossroads Africa: Perspectives on US–China–Africa Security Affairs, 2009
Addresses foreign policy issues involving Africa and China, including such topics as the emerging role of the US Africa Command, security and development challenges. �
Countering Insurgency and Promoting Democracy, 2007
Focuses on the counterinsurgency challenges facing the West today, with a focus on Afghanistan and Iraq, addressing post-conflict reconstruction tools, security operations, good governance, and cultural issues.�
Faces of Intelligence Reform: Perspectives on Direction and Forms, 2005
Addresses key elements of US intelligence reform, focusing on institutional challenges and evolving requirements based on a shifting mission profile for US forces abroad. �
Beyond the Campaign: The Future of Countering Terrorism, 2004
Provides a set of analyses focused on future directions for the war on terror, including terrorist financing networks, multilateral security cooperation, and the benefits and drawbacks of foreign aid. �
Program on Innovation and National Security, 2002
This compendium addresses the debate on the changing role of innovation and technology in security affairs.The forward is written by former Deputy Secretary of Defense John White.
Media
| The schedule of forth coming events will be announced shortly |
Membership
Fact Sheet
The fact sheet provides a brief overview of CENSA and some of our accomplishments.
Testimonials
Cofer Black
Vice-President
Blackbird Technologies
"CENSA is a terribly important platform for pressing its informed audience to think more deeply about emerging national security issues. The insightful analysis from CENSA specialists who have hard earned and well developed personal experience with their topics makes CENSA an influential and ever growing force in the security affairs field."
Dr. John Nagl
Professor at the United States Naval Academy
Founding Member of CENSA
"I'm proud to have been a founding member of CENSA—an organization devoted to finding and nurturing the next generation of national security thinkers. CENSA is already shaping the national security agenda of our nation."
Peter Singer
Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution
"We live in a world in which the old paradigms in security are breaking down. CENSA’s goal is to try to cultivate that all-important conversation on emerging global trends among the young and midcareer leaders increasingly being tasked with facing down these challenges. Its goal is not merely networking, but rather understanding."
Scott FitzGerald
Managing Partner of the Boston office of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernstein & Loewry
"The Council for Emerging National Security Affairs was founded over 10 years ago in an effort to establish primarily electronic collaboration between midcareer professionals for the purpose of publishing articles and positioning papers pressing topics of U.S. national security. The result of that ten years collaboration has not only been numerous influential publications and...
Richard A. Clarke
CEO of Good Harbor Consulting
"CENSA brings a reality check to the national security policy debate that you don’t see with any other organization of this kind. This innovative and ambitious group of professionals and practitioners is a network that not only talks about policy options but in many cases ends up on the pointy end of implementing the decisions. During my service to seven U.S....
John P. White
National Security Lecturer/Chair of the Middle East Initiative, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government
"I had the privilege to work with the founders of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs at the outset and provided some strategic direction to them in 1999 when the organization was formed. I thought they had a deep commitment to national security, a sound structure, a strong model for reaching out...
Bill Natter
National Security Consultant
Former Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy (for Plans, Policy, Oversight and Integration)
"CENSA’s impact on and contribution to public foreign policy debates is evident and unmistakable. As both an organization and a forum for the exchange of ideas, the Council occupies a unique niche in the well-populated and often crowded universe of foreign policy research and opinion. Since inception, the organization has aimed...
Westley Moore
Investment Banker for Citigroup
"CENSA has been indispensable to my personal development, by providing an outlet for debate, networking, and critical thinking about issues of national importance. The ability to engage those who are on the cusp of significant authority and responsibility is not only an important intellectual exercise, but imperative to our national standing."
Colonel Peter Ahern
Commanding Officer of the US Marine Corps Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF)
"CENSA is a crossroad of ideas for those interested in thinking and collaborating on the many complex issues facing our Nation and the world. CENSA attracts quality professionals from various backgrounds and disciplines (private and public) into a collaborative environment, always striving to counter...
David Morehouse
President of NHL Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins
"Framing the debate on issues is what differentiates success from failure—I’ve learned that from serving one President, one Vice President, two Drug Czars, and helping run two Presidential campaigns, in addition to my current role as an executive with a Stanley Cup–championship hockey team. In CENSA, you have a group of professionals with a vision that frames the national...
Angela Sapp Mancini
Managing Director and Head of Asia, Eurasia and Africa Programs,Financial Services Volunteer Corps
"As someone who has worked in private sector finance in several countries, and now leads USAID–funded economic development programs across Asia, Africa and the former Soviet Union, I’ve seen first hand how critical it is to ensure that the practitioner’s perspective is brought into the policy debate. CENSA has the unique ability to present...
Judith Miller
Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist (2002)
"CENSA is a unique treasure. No other group succeeds as well at bringing together national security stakeholders—the military, the private and public sectors, and academe— to debate the challenges confronting our nation. At teleconferences and dinner meetings, professionals from these four sectors explore vital security policy issues. Rejecting the bitter partisanship and ideological blinders that constrain so much of today’s political...
Dr. Sebastian L.v. Gorka
Professor, Irregular Warfare Department at the National Defense University in Washington D.C
"The Council started as a unique mixture of American and international professionals from all disciplines who together were committed to improving the scope and quality of discourse on vital security issues as the nation struggled to redefine its national imperatives after the Cold War. From its modest beginning as a virtual network established at Harvard...
John Fenzel
US Army Special Forces Colonel and Director of Operations for Accessions Command
"In times of peace and war, conflict and crisis, the most valuable currency for decision-makers at all levels is ground truth. You can’t find it in Washington. Nor can you find it around corporate conference rooms. Ground truth comes from operators—men and women who routinely work on the ground toward concrete solutions and who achieve...
Samuel Cole
Chief Operating Officer of BlueMountain Capital Management
"CENSA is fundamentally about ‘democratizing’ the security debate... it does so by bringing together some of America’s most talented professionals from the military, policy arena, private sector, and academia to question conventional wisdom and subordinate one’s ideological preconceptions to the development of pragmatic policy solutions. The stakes today could not be higher. Resource competition, climate change, and sustainable food production...
Policy Columns
Guest Column
Sebastian Gorka
Ten Years On: The Evolution of the Terrorist Threat
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities JUNE 22nd 2011 Prepared Testimony by Dr. Sebastian L. v. Gorka ...
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John W. McArthur
The Millenium's Promise: International Security and Poverty Reduction
President Obama’s recent national security strategy places a significant emphasis on development in the poorest countries. This is partly anchored in...
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Matthew P. Dearing
The Emerging Threat of Female Suicide Bombers in Afghanistan
Amidst the disarray following General McChrystal’s interview with Rolling Stone, a much less reported but profound event marked the course of the insurgency in Afghanistan. The recent female suicide o...
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