Center for Stability & Development

CNA’s Center for Stability and Development focuses on counterinsurgency, irregular warfare, and post-conflict reconstruction. CSD provides objective, analytic perspectives—grounded in an understanding of actual operations—to support decision makers charged with planning and conducting security and development operations. And its work helps inform the debate on U.S. strategy as it relates to security and development issues in the "Long War" and their likely relevance to U.S. national security over the next 20 years.

Through CNA's field program the Center for Stability and Development has placed analysts in Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and with military commands around the world. Analysts work on-scene to provide direct, real-time analytic support to high-level military leaders, as well as other government and non-governmental agencies. These experiences allow CSD analysts to gain unique perspectives on ongoing operations and to apply this knowledge in examining the bigger picture and exploring issues in the broader context of stability and development.

Using empirical data from the field, CSD analysts have completed studies on the first battle of Fallujah, the need for reinforcements in Iraq, the effectiveness of the Iraqi armed forces, and the Sunni tribal movement in Iraq. The team is also supporting provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan.

Acting Director: Dr. Eric V. Thompson 703.824.2243
Administrative Assistant: Donna Soraparu 703.824.2937

CSD Areas of Focus

• Insurgency and counterinsurgency
• Ethnic conflict
• Development of indigenous forces
• Economic development of war-torn states
• "Phase IV" reconstruction efforts
• Establishment of political institutions