We are a non-partisan network of foreign policy scholars and practitioners who believe in the power of American leadership to protect American national security.
The Vandenberg Coalition is a non-partisan network of foreign policy leaders, both experts and practitioners, advancing the position that the national security, prosperity, and freedom of the United States require a strong and proud foreign policy.
The Coalition aims to ensure that elected officials, candidates for government office, and the press have a common, credible and fact-based source of information on defense and foreign policy and access to a network of future leaders and practitioners committed to American leadership in the world.
The Vandenberg Coalition agenda is founded in strategic leadership to protect democracy in the United States and throughout the world. We support a strong national defense system, strategic international cooperation, and strong national economic security.
A strong national defense is essential to protect the vital interests of the American people and to deter aggression and hostility abroad.
Robust alliances among sovereign nations and the strategic use of multilateral institutions can preserve and advance U.S. interests. Nations joined in common cause, not supranational government, are the foundation of international cooperation and peace.
Free and fair trade advances the prosperity and security of the American people. U.S. trade and investment agreements should benefit workers and families in the U.S. America must sustain its defense and industrial base, lead efforts against predatory economic practices, and promote respect for the rules of international trade and commerce.
The strategic pursuit of American principles advances American security. A proud American foreign policy should champion American values without apology.
The American people are the ultimate arbiters of U.S. foreign policy. The foreign policy of the United States should be responsive to the interests and principles of Americans not just in Washington but across our country.
The United States must remain the most powerful nation and influential leader in the world.
Over the last month, there have been approximately 900 protests across Iran, with thousands of protesters
reportedly killed by security forces. Estimates of deaths far exceed those killed by the regime in the 2022
Women, Life, Freedom protests.
Nicolás Maduro took power in Venezuela in 2013 as the handpicked successor to socialist Hugo Chavez and
steadily eroded what was left of Venezuela’s democratic system. In 2017, Maduro replaced Venezuela’s National
Assembly with a puppet legislature. In 2018 and 2024, he committed election fraud to retain power. In the 2024
elections, the opposition candidate Edmundo González won with nearly 70 percent.
At The Vandenberg Coalition, we arm elected leaders, political candidates, the media, and the American people with expert insights to protect our prosperity, security, and freedom. In 2025, we worked to build a foreign policy that serves the enlightened self interests of the American people, to train up-and-coming national security leaders in that policy, and to educate current officials with the tools they need to preserve American freedoms.
Our team brings together professionals with deep experience in national security, foreign policy, and public affairs—guided by a distinguished Advisory Board of experts across government, academia, and diplomacy.
