New America
Project Title
For one time funding for a project to explore options to reduce escalation after first nuclear use as part of a Request for Proposals for the Consortium to Reduce Nuclear Dangers
Date
Dec. 11, 2025
Duration
12 months
Description
The risk of nuclear use on the battlefield has been higher than at any point since the Cold War. Yet traditional deterrence theory does not adequately provide options for reducing further nuclear escalation after the first use of a nuclear weapon. This dilemma is complicated by today’s rapidly shifting nuclear doctrines, ambiguous nuclear signaling, and increasing risks of misperception. New America will combine scenario planning and strategic gaming to test how U.S. nuclear signals could be interpreted under crisis conditions. The project team willstress-test assumptions with ideologically diverse participants, including former officials and regional specialists, with the aim of identifying which strategies stabilize escalation control and which risk backfiring. The result will be actionable recommendations to policymakers to clarify how adversaries interpret U.S. signals, prevent dangerous misperceptions, and provide credible options to halt escalation after nuclear use.
Website
Project Title
For core support grant of the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship
Date
Sep. 11, 2025
Duration
15 months
Description
The New America Foundation’s Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) bridges the gap between education and economic mobility by creating and expanding youth apprenticeship programs that integrate work-based learning with academic instruction. These programs target high-growth sectors such as IT, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing, ensuring that young adults are well-prepared for sustainable careers. In their next phase, PAYA will support 3,500 apprentices, expand their partnership network from 441 to 635 employers, and develop additional career pathways by providing subgrants, technical assistance, and policy development support. PAYA will conduct research to understand parent and student perceptions of apprenticeship programs, which will inform their strategic communications. They will also continue formal evaluations to monitor and track the outcomes of their initiatives, ensuring alignment with their overarching goal of creating scalable, high-quality apprenticeship pathways that link education with economic opportunity.
Website
Project Title
For the China Intelligence Project
Date
Dec. 14, 2023
Duration
24 months
Description
China’s technological and military advances are reshaping the international peace and security environment. Yet clear understanding of these developments is limited by the Chinese government’s attempts to control information and the challenge of communicating in-depth research findings to broad audiences in the United States. With continued Corporation support, The China Intelligence project, led by New America in partnership with an open-source intelligence organization, BluePath Labs, and the media outlet Defense One, will identify new data and insights from Chinese language documents and media and translatethat information into accessible articles designed for a wide audience.
Website
Project Title
For the China Intelligence Project
Date
Mar. 09, 2023
Duration
12 months
Description
China’s technological and military advances are reshaping the international peace and security environment. Yet, clear understanding of these developments are limited by the Chinese government’s attempts to control information and the challenge of communicating in-depth research findings to broad audiences in the United States. With continued Corporation support, The China Intelligence project, led by New America Foundation in partnership with an open-source intelligence organization and the media outlet, DefenseOne, will identify new data and insights from Chinese language documents and media, and translatethat information into accessible articles designed for a broad audience.
Website
Project Title
For core support of the Partnership Advancing Youth Apprenticeship's (PAYA) pathways to careers in education
Date
Sep. 14, 2023
Duration
24 months
Description
The Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) was created to restore the link between American education and economic mobility and challenge the inequities that persist across our education and work systems. After extensive research on youth apprenticeship in the U.S. and abroad, New America founded PAYA in 2018 as a multi-year initiative to expand access to high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for high school-age students. Since its launch, New America and the PAYA National Partners have worked to lay a foundation for this emerging field by advancing a shared national vision for youth apprenticeship and providing direct support to state and city-led efforts through the PAYA Network. Corporation support of PAYA extended their efforts to provide youth with structured, paid, supportive pathways into postsecondary education and work by supporting their place-based partnerships, building a networked, self-sustaining field, and strengthening the case for youth apprenticeships. They were also able to initiate research and evaluation efforts to surface information about the conditions and strategies that make the work successful.By the end of 2022, PAYA grantees had engaged over 270 employers in hiring more than 1,700 youth apprentices. In addition to the work in their own regions, grantees have been instrumental in sharing their learnings and best practices with other communities across the country through the PAYA Network.
Website
Project Title
For The China Intelligence project
Date
Mar. 10, 2022
Duration
12 months
Description
China’s technological and military advances are reshaping the international peace and security environment. Yet, clear understanding of these developments are limited by the Chinese government’s attempts to control information and the challenge of communicating in-depth research findings to broad audiences in the United States. With Corporation support, The China Intelligence project, led by New America Foundation in partnership with an open-source intelligence organization and the media outlet, DefenseOne, will identify new data and insights from Chinese language documents and media, and translates that information into accessible articles designed for a broad audience.
Website
Project Title
For the Afghanistan Observatory project
Date
Mar. 10, 2022
Duration
12 months
Description
Since August 2021, hundreds of thousands of Afghan citizens have left the country. While many Afghan journalists and researchers remain committed to continuing in Afghanistan, some will be working from abroad.With Corporation support, New America will launcha platform for at-risk Afghan journalists and experts now living outside the country. The initiative aims to empower fellows to produce policy-relevant analysis and evidence-based journalism necessary for informed policymaking. Corporation funds will support fellowships for Afghan researchers and journalists, public events, and publications.
Website
Project Title
For support of the Partnership Advancing Youth Apprenticeship’s (PAYA) pathways to careers in education
Date
Sep. 02, 2021
Duration
24 months
Description
New America, a national nonpartisan research and policy organization, launched the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship in 2018 to restore the link between American education and economic mobility by better connecting, expanding, and strengthening the field of youth apprenticeship. PAYA’s next phase is critically important for elevating and addressing the needs of youth in a time of economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 crisis. The nation is already seeing historic disruptions to the worlds of learning and work, and youth are more at risk than ever of disconnecting. The Corporation’s continued support will extend PAYA’s efforts to provide youth with structured, paid, supportive pathways into postsecondary education and work. In addition to serving the core activities of PAYA this project will support the continued development and facilitation of an educator pathway working group and focus group research to examine the experiences and expectations of youth apprentices and employers in education-related careers.
Website
Project Title
For support of the Partnership Advancing Youth Apprenticeship’s (PAYA) pathways to careers in education
Date
Sep. 10, 2020
Duration
12 months
Description
New America, a national nonpartisan research and policy organization, launched the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship in 2018 to restore the link between American education and economic mobility by better connecting, expanding, and strengthening the field of youth apprenticeship. PAYA’s next phase is critically important for elevating and addressing the needs of youth in a time of economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 crisis. The nation is already seeing historic disruptions to the worlds of learning and work, and youth are more at risk than ever of disconnecting. The Corporation’s continued support will extend PAYA’s efforts to provide youth with structured, paid, supportive pathways into postsecondary education and work. In addition to serving the core activities of PAYA this project will support the continued development and facilitation of an educator pathway working group and focus group research to examine the experiences and expectations of youth apprentices and employers in education-related careers.
Website
Project Title
For a scenario exercise to anticipate nuclear dangers
Date
Mar. 05, 2020
Duration
41 months
Description
The nuclear dangers the United States will face in twenty or twenty-five years may differ significantly from those it faces today, but few attempts have been made to investigate these possible futures or understand their implications. New America Foundation will engage thirty-five Weapons of Mass Destruction experts in an intensive, scenario-based exercise that uses multiple visions of the future to challenge perceptions of the present and understand options. This project will help participants to question their assumptions and gain a set of tools for thinking about future possibilities, and will yield a report that encapsulates and makes accessible the findings.
Website
Project Title
For support of the Partnership Advancing Youth Apprenticeship’s (PAYA) pathways to careers in education
Date
Sep. 12, 2019
Duration
12 months
Description
New America, a national nonpartisan research and policy organization, launched the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) in 2018 as a multi-year national initiative to expand access to high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for high school students. This project will provide direct support to one of the PAYA grantees, the Oakland, CA-based Early Care and Education Youth Apprenticeship (ECEYA). PAYA will also provide technical assistance so ECEYA can serve as a learning hub for additional sites across the country to further understand the potential of youth apprenticeship as a pathway into careers in education. PAYA will also research and write about the opportunities and challenges of designing and implementing an early care and education youth apprenticeship for high school students in a large urban school district.
Website
Project Title
For a project on state use of non-state proxies in conflicts
Date
Jun. 14, 2018
Duration
24 months
Description
State use of non-state proxies against rival states is on the rise globally, but the impact of proxy wars is particularly evident in the Arab region. Across the Middle East and North Africa, competition for influence among global and regional powers has inflamed sectarian violence. New America Foundation and Arizona State University will team up to bring together Arab-region researchers with U.S. peers to expose the dynamics of the active proxy relationships. Building on the respective institutional strengths of a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and a public research university, the project will aim to inject greater rigor and relevance into current public discourse on one of the most pressing international security challenges of our time. The work will result in research and policy development, publications, and briefings.
Website
Project Title
For support of a United States-Iran Track II dialogue
Date
Dec. 08, 2016
Duration
24 months
Description
A year on from the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA or Iran deal), U.S-Iran relations remain uneasy. In the absence of normalized diplomatic relations between the two countries, Track II negotiations remain one of few avenues for continued dialogue. New America Foundation’s U.S.-Iran Track II Dialogue project has an established network of influential and knowledgeable American and Iranian participants who have developed relationships and trust that allow for nuanced and in-depth discussion about issues of mutual interest. During this project, in addition to continuing to convene dialogues and strengthen its network, New America aims to utilize the dialogues to continue to engage policy makers and experts on the implementation of the JCPOA, propose viable paths for the re-establishment of consistent, official U.S.-Iranian diplomatic relations, and engage participants on regional security issues.
Website
Project Title
For support of its political reform program
Date
Mar. 03, 2016
Duration
18 months
Description
Those working on issues of “political reform,” such as campaign finance reform, expanded voting rights, effective governance, and transparency, among other areas, require innovative ideas and strategies to achieve their goals. There is an overemphasis on advocacy and litigation that has resulted in little opportunity to introduce new ideas, challenge old ones, or find new frameworks. The New America Foundation’s program on political reform was launched at the beginning of 2014 and serves as a think tank for developing new approaches to many of these interrelated issues. With Corporation support, the New America Foundation’s political reform program will host public events and closed roundtables, and publish research on pilot studies exploring innovative models for advancing political reform.
Website
Project Title
For support of a United States-Iran Track II Dialogue
Date
Dec. 04, 2014
Duration
24 months
Website
Project Title
For a fellows project on international peace and security
Date
Dec. 04, 2014
Duration
24 months
Website
Project Title
For a pilot program to create educational tools for future security specialists in the U.S. Congress
Date
Jun. 14, 2012
Duration
6 months
Website
Project Title
For the New Voices, New Ideas, New Networks: Resetting American Foreign Policy in a Time of Transition project
Date
Sep. 13, 2012
Duration
27 months
Website
Project Title
For producing a series of online video dialogues on foreign affairs in collaboration with the web site Bloggingheads.tv (BhTV)
Date
Sep. 16, 2010
Duration
22 months
Website
Project Title
For a project to increase the organization's internal capacity to conduct impactful policy research and dissemination on U.S. global engagement
Date
Mar. 05, 2009
Duration
24 months
Website
Project Title
For a weekly online video program on U.S. national security issues
Date
Jun. 11, 2009
Duration
6 months