History

The Madison Policy Forum achieves its mission by convening forums, hosting conferences, sponsoring fellowships, and conducting research focusing on critical national security issues facing our nation. From 2008 to 2012, the MPF was focused on three main areas: terrorism, intelligence, and cyber threats. During this period, the MPF conducted a series of forums focused on these topics both in New York City and at West Point.

From 2012-2016, the MPF expanded into cyber security issues while simultaneously building a deeper partnership with Fordham University’s Center on National Security. During these years, the MPF Military-Business Cybersecurity Fellowship (originally the “Military Business Dialogue”) developed a national network of cybersecurity thought leaders.

In 2016-2017, the MPF embarked upon a review of US and global energy and produced a report authored by MPF co-founder Michael Sheehan.

Following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the MPF’s biosecurity project examined the initial responses to COVID-19 through the lens of national security and effective governance, with the goal of identifying some initial factors that help produce an effective response to the early stages of a pandemic. The project culminated with the publication of three reports by Fordham University’s Center on National Security.

From 2018-2021, MPF supported research on counterterrorism and irregular warfare culminated with the publication of the Routledge Handbook of U.S. Counterterrorism and Irregular Warfare Operations (Routledge, 2021).

The Recrudescence Project (2020-2021) was a policy-focused initiative that was conducted jointly by the Middle East Institute’s Countering Terrorism and Extremism Program, the Center for National Security at Fordham Law, and the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and launched in order to research the next wave of jihadist terrorism and to devise more effective strategies to prevent or mitigate it. The project produced several reports, articles, and conferences. The MPF continues to support the Middle East Institute's efforts in this area.

Since 2018, the MPF’s urban warfare project has supported urban warfare research given the death and destruction that often results from battles that are increasingly being waged in urban areas. This project produced the book Understanding Urban Warfare (Howgate, 2022) with a second book on urban warfare in the works. Additionally, the research has resulted in dozens of projects, podcasts, and articles on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

At present, the MPF’s main focus areas are terrorism/counterterrorism (which includes the Recrudescence Project), urban warfare (to include the wars in Ukraine and Gaza), and supporting research on the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War.