Filling gaps in strategic thinking in the national ecosystem

• Independent security and strategic risk research and analysis in a changing world order.
• Filling a national vacuum in independent strategic thinking and thought leadership on security.
• Filling a gap in national awareness, applied policy education, training and public discussion on future security questions that have potential to harm societal wellbeing as well as the country’s economic, diplomatic, and military interests.
• Ireland is one of the few countries without a security policy think-tank.
• We fill the current gap in the national ecosystem whereby no research entity or university centre is devoted solely to national security.
• The level of depth within our strategic insights is hard to replicate.

Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration: National, international and cross-sectoral

• Our close collaboration with stakeholders assists better stakeholder feedback loops and quality control.
• Our ‘hub and spoke’ model means that as a national applied policy hub, we will engage with major universities and key academics across the island and internationally, thus facilitating a more efficient application of national resources.
• Our emphasis on interdisciplinary university collaboration outside traditional fields of security, intelligence and international affairs means that we can better deal with the changing nature of modern risks which will require us to think outside the box and draw on expertise from other fields (e.g. physics, chemistry, engineering, social science, mathematics, philosophy).
• We can translate our colleagues informative academic findings into practical policy recommendations and impactful strategic products for public and government consumption.
• We have identified and will draw on the comparative advantage of our university/academic partners to drive more impactful national benefits and a greater international presence.
• Our model enables the creation of a national security research capability to better participate in EU/global projects and access international research funding streams.

Creating a community of interest

• Opportunities for Irish governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to find high-level expertise on key security subjects within Ireland.
• Our global network allows us to pursue exchanges of good practice.
• We adopt a policy impact-driven approach.
• Informing citizens about emerging questions of national and international import.
• Enabling decision-makers to create more informed, and thus sustainable, decisions on key subjects.
• Fostering a national community of interest and a global network.

Future proofing our policies

• Proofing our societies against future threats: Prepositioning through forecast and foresight on technological, geopolitical and economic security trends.
• Anticipatory and proactive approaches to geostrategic challenges allow us to provide a roadmap for new concepts and strategies that drive operational and tactical adaptation in the future where policy and strategy frameworks are not adequate. Many governments wait until criminals or terrorists start using such technologies and tools before responding, both operationally and policy-wise. This makes us reactive rather than proactive, despite best efforts, to the criminal world.
• We plug a gap in national and international regulatory landscapes for new and maturing security fields that could be more proactively addressed, especially for the regulation of emerging technologies.

Our people

• In Ireland, established academic expertise on questions of international security exists within national university departments, especially for traditional security subjects such as conflict intervention, mediation and peacekeeping. Expertise on non-conventional emerging security questions from a geostrategic and geopolitical perspective is less prevalent.
• Fill gaps in the skills pipeline and create opportunities for early career scholars’ transitioning from university studies to create a pool of global scholars and influencers who can remain in Ireland rather than seeking positions abroad through our offer of internships for our partner universities and path to fellowships for Doctoral candidates.
• Provide a platform for senior experts and former government officers to continue shaping the policy environment in an impactful way.
• A platform to attract and retain leading thinkers as well as members of the Irish diaspora within other global institutes.
• Equal gender opportunities from junior to senior levels enhance the quality of our thought leadership where many security subjects often suffer from less female participation than other policy areas.
• Recruiting from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and experience to ensure a broad range of opinions, cultures, ages, and social classes is necessary to identify innovative policy solutions.