Academy Projects

Under the direction of its Committee on Studies, the Academy carries out influential and pioneering work on significant contemporary issues. Bringing together scholars, policymakers, business leaders, and writers, Academy studies provide multidisciplinary analyses of complex social, political, and intellectual topics in an objective environment. This framework distinguishes the Academy from other research institutes and think tanks whose agendas may be defined by the research needs of outside agencies. Academy studies often shape new fields of study that transcend disciplinary boundaries and explore issues before their importance has been recognized.

Academy studies are grouped under four large-scale initiatives, each of which may also contain program areas with distinct identities, such as the Committee on International Security Studies.

The Academy's major program areas are:

	Science and Global Security: This area explores how the international community can devise new cooperative structures to improve global security and employ science and technology to enhance the human condition.
	Social Policy and American Institutions:  Under this program, Fellows carry out studies that focus on American institutions at the crossroads, particularly the government and the corporation.
	Humanities and Culture: Work within this initiative is designed to enhance public understanding of the value and role of the humanities in American life and to create new resources to inform coherent policy analyses relative to the humanities.
	Education: This program deals with education at all levels—from primary and secondary education to teaching and research at the university level.