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.
This weekend, Americans around the country celebrated 250 years since the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. “250 years of freedom” was the rallying cry for a great many of these events. And while freedom should well be prioritized in the celebration of America’s birth, freedom itself was not created spontaneously by the Declaration.
When explaining his vision for the Star Wars prequels, George Lucas said his movies are “like poetry, sort of. They rhyme. Every stanza rhymes with the last one.” He meant that the prequels echoed the themes and storylines of the original trilogy.
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, signing and sealing the United States as a sovereign, independent nation. Not only did the Declaration of Independence proclaim the ideas at the nexus of the American experiment—namely, that an American government with the consent of the governed must protect the unalienable rights endowed to its citizens by their Creator—but it also serves as a foundational text for how the United States engages with the world.
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.
