About the Center for Preventive Action

About the Program

The Center for Preventive Action (CPA) aims to help policymakers devise timely and practical strategies to prevent and mitigate armed conflict around the world, especially in places where U.S. interests are most at risk. Geopolitical friction among the major powers is intensifying, creating serious risks of armed conflict, while the effects of climate change and other threats to international peace and security are evolving in new and destabilizing ways. CPA's work is focused on trying to anticipate how and where these challenges may arise, and which are more deserving of attention than others, so that policymakers can prioritize and craft sensible preventive measures.

CPA accomplishes its mission by producing forward-looking assessments and in-depth policy analysis, and by convening regular consultations with representatives of leading international institutions, civil society groups, corporations, and other research organizations. Emphasis is placed on producing policy recommendations that are realistic and workable.

CPA’s annual Preventive Priorities Survey draws upon the informed judgments of government officials, foreign policy experts, and academics to identify thirty contingencies requiring U.S. attention over the next twelve months. CPA also provides background information and up-to-date analysis of about twenty-seven ongoing conflicts through its online interactive, the Global Conflict Tracker.

CPA convenes meetings and publishes contingency planning reports that aim to sensitize U.S. policymakers to potential crises that are both plausible and detrimental to U.S. interests in the short- to-medium-term, while also helping them formulate practical prevention and mitigation strategies. To help U.S. policymakers anticipate foreign crises, CPA routinely convenes Contingency Planning Roundtables, “Flashpoints” Roundtables, Preventive Action Workshops, and publishes Contingency Planning Memoranda.