GlobalSecurity.org is an American nonpartisan, independent, nonprofit organization that serves as a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

, and research and consultancy group.

Focus

The site is focused on national and international security issues; military analysis, systems, and strategies;

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ...

matters; and space policy analysis.

History

It was founded in December 2000 by John Pike, who had worked since 1983 with the Federation of American Scientists, where he directed the space policy, cyberstrategy, military analysis, nuclear resource, and intelligence resource projects. GlobalSecurity.org is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

, and Pike remains as its director. The website's target audience includes journalists, policy-makers, scholars, political scientists, military and defense personnel, and the public. It supplies background information and developing news stories, providing online analysis and articles that analyze what are sometimes little-discussed topics in categories that include WMDs, military and defense,

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

and cybersecurity,

, and space technology. It also disseminates primary documentation and other original materials, provides detailed, high-resolution satellite images and video footage from war zones, and provides definitions of widely used terms for the public. The organization also serves as a defense, military,

foreign policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...

, and national-security watchdog group. In part it seeks to find new approaches to international security, and promotes achieving cooperative international security and preventing nuclear proliferation. To this end it seeks to improve intelligence-community capabilities to respond to new threats and to prevent the need for military action, while at the same time enhancing the effectiveness of military forces when needed. GlobalSecurity.org was listed in the War Intelligence category of ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

now-defunct "Best of the Web" directory from 2001 onward; the directory cited its "Depth of military information", and noted its "collection of satellite images and video footage from the war zone". In his 2004 book '' Plan of Attack'', about the behind-the-scenes decision-making that led the Bush administration to invade Iraq, Bob Woodward called the website "an invaluable resource on military, intelligence and national security matters".

References

External links

www.globalsecurity.org

Appearances by John Pike on C-SPAN
{{authority control Internet properties established in 2000 Think tanks established in 2000 Think tanks based in Washington, D.C. Non-profit organizations based in Alexandria, Virginia Research institutes in Washington, D.C. Research organizations in the United States Terrorism research institutes Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States Political and economic think tanks in the United States Science and technology think tanks Oversight and watchdog organizations