The Project assesses the assumptions and implications of existing policy, paying special attention to issues of cost, feasibility, and stability. The Project has developed a special expertise for evaluating the technical studies and reports underlying official policy, and it has developed reference databases on the Gulf War, Air Power, and multinational security operations including those of the United Nations. Alternative Policy Development Central to PDA's mission is the development of practicable alternatives to existing policy. The Project strives for completeness in defining these sets, so that no security issue is posed simply as one of meeting a perceived threat, but also as involving longer-term effects on, for instance, interstate stability, the economy, and the environment. The Project is careful in its problem analysis to listen to concerns across the opinion spectrum, and to base its proposed policy options and steps on real-world precedents and to marshall broad analytical and historical support.
All policy rests on a body of basic technical, historical, and methodological research.
PDA also undertakes or contracts basic research when gaps or flaws in existing studies dictate a need. The Commonwealth Institute. All Rights Reserved.