USNATO Grant: Advancing NATO’s Post-Brussels Strategic Initiatives Through Public Engagement

U.S. or other national organizations are eligible to apply for grants; however submitted proposals should target audience outside of the United States. NATO allies and partners states are the primary target audiences.

The Department of State encourages organizations that have not previously received international program funding from the U.S. government to apply under this announcement.

Individuals are ineligible for the grant award.

USNATO seeks proposals that illustrate how to adapt NATO’s strategic focus on deterrence and defense, and projecting stability with specific emphasis on burden sharing, counterterrorism, cyber security, and other outcomes from the Brussels May Meeting. To successfully communicate these policies, the alliance and its stakeholders will need to explain and debate these issues with policymakers, media, and their public in the coming period.

USNATO is seeking proposals that will outline how the alliance can transform intent into actions and programs that NATO and its member states can implement. Specifically, we are referring to initiatives that relate to the strategic direction coming from the Brussels meeting; as well as how member states can honor their defense investment pledges, ways the alliance can support counterterrorism efforts, and novel methods to support cyber defense commitments including ways to blunt disinformation. We look forward to reviewing proposals from partner institutions that discuss some or all of these important NATO-related topics. Additional topics that may be of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Pledges on defense investment;
o National plans to reach the 2% and 20% thresholds;
• The NATO-Russia relationship;
• Methods to identify and combat disinformation as well as approaches to evaluating the efficacy of those methods
• Counterterrorism;
• NATO’s efforts in the south and east;
• NATO partnerships and cooperative security
o Collaboration with European Union and other international institutions
o Looking South—Gulf Cooperation Council, African Union;
• Countering Hybrid Warfare;
• Strengthening cybersecurity;
• Women in peace and security.

Successful proposals will emphasize the ability to deliver clear messages to selected audiences through traditional forums and new technologies. These proposals should include a narrative about the importance of the NATO alliance and its mission to a broad non-U.S. audience including the general public, youth and future leaders, the security and defense community, policy makers and opinion shapers in European countries. We are hoping to stimulate new ideas and to encourage public dialogue on the priorities for NATO in the upcoming years. Finally, we encourage all institutions submitting proposals to consider how their proposal can be measured and evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the proposal’s content.

The kinds of activities and work funded with this award may embrace (but should not be limited to):
• conferences,
• symposiums,
• public debates and moderated discussions,
• round-tables,
• studies,
• competitions.