Research Topics

The Foundation of Every Gates Forum is Quality Research.

The Forums will serve a critical bridging function, not only to convene leaders across the political spectrum but also to ensure that its policy recommendations are informed by the best available evidence and analysis. It will commission cutting-edge research for each convening topic that will help Forum participants objectively analyze policy dilemmas, weigh the merits of possible solutions and increase the credibility of final action plans and an associated menu of recommendations.

Now, more than ever, our country needs national security policies that build on ideas from both parties, built on a foundation of thorough research, to maintain America’s leading position in the world. We need a mechanism to gather the best minds around key topics of national security — broadly defined — with the sole intention of delivering actionable plans that have the best shot at gaining bipartisan approval.  We need a policy and legislative incubator dedicated to delivering more solutions and fewer papers bound for the confines of academic journals. We need to come together, with urgency, to tackle the most consequential global and national security issues of our time and then build the consensus that will produce the recommended solutions.