Dr. John Nagl

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.

President, Center for a New American Security
Visiting Professor in the War Studies Department at Kings College of London; Battalion Commander in the US Army; and CENSA member

Peter Singer

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.

Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution
Author of Wired for War, Named one...

Scott FitzGerald

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 seminars, but perhaps more importantly, the establishment of close relationships between professionals...

Richard A. Clarke

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. Presidents, the public discourse...

John P. White

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 across the private and public sector boundaries, and high professional standards. So my...

Bill Natter

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 to discover practical crossfunctional policy solutions and relied on a dedicated cadre of midcareer academics...

Westley Moore

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.

Investment Banker for Citigroup
former White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Secretary of State;...

Colonel Peter Ahern

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 the bane of many organizations—group think. A rather bold statement but I think the proof is in the multiple CENSA publications successfully...

David Morehouse

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 security debate in a way that is...

Angela Sapp Mancini

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 non–partisan and practical policy recommendations from military, academic and private and public...

Judith Miller

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 and national security debate, CENSA...

Dr. Sebastian L.v. Gorka

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 ten years ago, it has consistently grown in significance, whilst remaining...

John Fenzel

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 results. CENSA is a different kind of institution precisely because it...

Samuel Cole

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 will drive future conflicts. Tomorrow’s wars...