Programs

Counter-Terrorism:
The Forum's Center on Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation

The Center on Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation, a project of the Fourth Freedom Forum, is a nonpartisan research and policy institute that works to improve internationally coordinated responses to the continually evolving threat of terrorism. The Center provides governments and international organizations with timely, policy-relevant research and analysis. Building on its years of research on regional and international counter-terrorism efforts, the Center continues to identify ways to improve existing arrangements for combating terrorism within the UN, the G8, and other international and regional bodies and consider new mechanisms for international counter-terrorism cooperation. It is the only research center in the world focusing on the role of multilateral institutions in the global campaign against terrorism.

The Center draws on over fifteen years of experience developing practical policy options to improve the effectiveness of combining multilateral sanctions and incentives as tools of statecraft and the development of international norms and other cooperative measures to prevent terrorism.

Over the past four years, the center's core staff has analyzed UN counter-terrorism efforts on behalf of the Ford Foundation, the UN Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Danish, Japanese, and Dutch governments. Those assessments of current international counter-terrorism arrangements, with their accompanying recommendations, have directly informed the work of the UN counter-terrorism programs, the UN Secretary-General's task forces on counter-terrorism and reform, and guided the policies of individual member states.

Reducing Nuclear Dangers

The danger presented by the existence of nuclear weapons has always been a central concern of the Fourth Freedom Forum. Thousands of Cold War-era nuclear weapons, many poised to launch by decision or accident at a moment’s notice, continue to threaten international peace and security.

The Forum shares the vision embodied in the groundbreaking Wall Street Journal op-ed authored by former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Senator Sam Nunn, and former Defense Secretary William Perry: “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons.”

To bring about a world free of nuclear weapons, the United States must partner with other nations to pursue concrete steps toward denuclearization. These steps include:

• Securing and locking down loose nuclear materials worldwide.
• Substantially reducing the size of nuclear arsenals.
• Ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
• Halting new nuclear weapons research and production activities.
• Encouraging policy makers to reassess the purpose and role of nuclear weapons.
• Pursuing peaceful alternatives to armed conflict.

• SECURE AMERICA PROJECT: A mission of the Fourth Freedom Forum is to stimulate discussion between policymakers and interested members of the public. For this purpose, the Fourth Freedom Forum sponsors the Secure America Project, which sponsors a consortium of researchers and experts on foreign policy issues and nonproliferation to speak at public events across the U.S. to examine issues of international security and current U.S. Policy.




• TWO FUTURES PROJECT: Bringing about a nuclear-weapon free world is a moral challenge. For this reason, the Fourth Freedom Forum also sponsors the Two Futures Project as one of its programs. The Two Futures Project (2FP) is a movement of American Christians for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.




• REDUCING NUCLEAR DANGERS ARCHIVES: Fourth Freedom Forum staff also works directly on research and writing about nuclear issues and has available an archive of articles online.

Sanctions and Security:
The Fourth Freedom Forum/Joan B. Kroc Institute Program

Since 1990, the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the U.S. government have imposed sanctions frequently for a variety of purposes. Sanctions are most effective when combined with incentives, as part of a carrots-and-sticks bargaining process designed to resolve conflict and encourage compliance with international norms.

The Sanctions and Security Project of the Fourth Freedom Forum collaborates with the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame to study the impact of United Nations sanctions and make recommendations to refine these economic tools to resolve conflict through nonviolent means.

Since its inception the Project has published six monographs and numerous serial articles, op-eds, popular press articles, and chapters on sanctions and incentives. Project leaders David Cortright and George A. Lopez are respected experts on multilateral sanctions and have participated in international UN sanctions processes; conducted numerous press interviews, including radio and television talk shows; co-convened several major sanctions symposia at the United Nations, in partnership with UN member states; and hosted conferences at the University of Notre Dame.

The Fourth Freedom Forum and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame have combined to produce several books and dozens of articles and reports on sanctions and incentives, including: