1990s: CNA's Institute for Public Reseach

In the 1990s CNA continued the important work of the Center for Naval Analyses and expanded its mission by applying the organization's analytical expertise to non-defense issues through the Institute for Public Research.

CNA’s Institute for Public Research

In the early 1990s CNA began to explore prospects for carrying out non-DoD work and in 1993 established the Institute for Public Research (IPR). Through IPR, CNA analysts worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate alternative ways to reorganize the FAA, and to assess its Advanced Automation System program.

Other early IPR initiatives included work with the Commission on National and Community Service, to help CNCS assess and monitor national service demonstration projects it has funded, and work with the AVAKS Center, through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, to help retrain former Russian military officers.

CNA’s Center of Naval Analyses

During Operations Desert Shield/Storm, CNA field representatives deployed to naval commands in the Middle East, providing critical on-site support. After the war, CNA was designated the Navy's lead agency for Desert Shield/Storm data collection and analysis, and concepts that CNA had analyzed for the Navy and Marine Corps during the war were important to post-conflict planning. CNA analysts were also in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope to help establish a secure environment for humanitarian organizations to provide famine relief.

One of CNA's most important tasks for the 1990's was to help the Navy and Marine Corps meet a new national security strategy (that had shifted from a focus on global threats to regional challenges and opportunities) and transition to the 21st century, post-Cold War security environment. CNA began to emphasize areas of investigation that would be important for the Navy’s transition to the next millennium: the new security environment, littoral operations, communications, warfare area adjustments, training and education, investment alternatives, force structure and requirements, and economics and efficiencies. Across the entire research program, special emphasis was given to joint operations and the naval infrastructure.