The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.
The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.
The initial statement of the project, was signed in 1997 by names such as:
- Elliott Abrams (who despite being convicted of withholding evidence in the Iran-Contra Affairs has served for two terms in National Security positions under Dubya)
- Jeb Bush
- Dick Cheney
- Eliot A. Cohen (Counselor to the State Department)
- Paula Dobriansky (Under-Secretary of State for Democracy & Global Affairs)
- Steve Forbes (of Forbes magazine)
- Aaron Friedberg (served from 2003 to 2005 in the office of the VP as deputy assistant for national security affairs and director of policy planning)
- Zalmay Khalilzad (acted as a special liaison between UNOCAL and the Taliban regime - which included entertaining Taliban delegates at an official UNOCAL dinner reception in Texas in 1997. He is currently the permanent United States Ambassador to the United Nations and is the former US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq)
- "Scooter" Libby (Libby is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago)
- Dan Quayle
- Henry S. Rowen (2001–2004: on the Secretary of Defense Policy Advisory Board, 2002-2003: chaired the Department of Energy Task Force on the Future of Science Programs, 2004-2005: member of the Commission on Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding WMD)
- Donald Rumsfeld
- Paul Wolfowitz
Their first report, Rebuiding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century (Septmeber 2000) lists four essential missions:
ESTABLISH FOUR CORE MISSIONS for U.S. military forces:
• defend the American homeland;
• fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars;
• perform the “constabulary” duties associated with shaping the security environment in
critical regions;
• transform U.S. forces to exploit the “revolution in military affairs”
