Diplomacy & Restraint
Program Overview
Over recent decades, United States foreign policy has failed to serve the interests of the American people. Resources have been squandered on failed wars, the expansion of the security state has chipped away at our civil liberties, defense budgets have ballooned as spending on critical needs at home has atrophied, all while our ability to utilize the essential tool of diplomacy to peacefully solve problems has diminished. Alliances have become ends in themselves, entangling the US in intervention abroad.
As the global landscape becomes increasingly multi-polar, it is essential that America adopt a foreign policy suited for the 21st century–one that acknowledges strategic limitations and tradeoffs and focuses on a well-calibrated conception of U.S. national interest. We believe the United States should lead by example rather than use force in an attempt to transform the world in our image.
We support work by academics, think tanks, and journalists that broadens the foreign policy debate about America’s role in the world with an eye towards shifting the United States towards a more restrained foreign policy.
Strategies
Shape foreign policy debates by supporting restraint-oriented research at think tanks and academic institutions.
Encourage diplomacy by funding Track II dialogues between countries with conflictual or adversarial relationships.
Expand public awareness by supporting investigative journalism that exposes corruption in the foreign policy-making apparatus in Washington, and by supporting media outlets that platform voices advancing a more restrained foreign policy.
Recent Grantees
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Program support for the American Statecraft Program’s efforts to develop and advance ideas for a more disciplined U.S. foreign policy aligned with American values and cognizant of the limits of American power in a more competitive world.
The Intercept
Support for The Intercept’s investigative reporting on foreign affairs.
The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
General support for the Quincy Institute’s efforts to challenge the decades-long obsession of U.S. foreign policy decision makers with global military dominance and war.
The Stimson Center
Program support for the Trialogue Project, a platform for constructive conversation among experts and ex-officials from the United States, Russia, and China.
Connect With Us
The Diplomacy and Restraint program makes grants on a rolling basis with a focus on US-based organizations. Proposals are by invitation only.
