National Security Archive

A grant to the National Security Archive at The George Washington University will fund the ongoing maintenance and expansion of an online library of primary source cybersecurity policy documents, or Cyber Vault. The project will entail (a) use of Freedom of Information Act and Mandatory Declassification Review requests to obtain new government documents; (b) acquisition of primary source materials from other key stakeholders; (c) online publication of searchable primary sources; and (d) training and capacity building in primary source research for current and emerging cybersecurity policy experts. The Cyber Vault has become a go-to source of information for journalists, academic researchers, and other stakeholders in the cyber policy community and this grant will help sustain it. (Strategy: Core Institutions and Translation Infrastructure).

Since 1985, as an independent, nonprofit institute based at George Washington University, the National Security Archive (NSA) has worked to promote transparency, openness, and the right to know in the United States and around the world. Project support from the Hewlett Foundation will enable the NSA to continue its role as the leading civil society advocate of access to information and government openness. The proposed grant will support the NSA’s leadership role in a new government-civil society initiative on global open government, implementation of a global metric for access to information, expansion of the freedominfo.org virtual network, and expert assistance on challenges to freedom of information in key countries that include India, Brazil, and Russia. Much of this proposed project would focus on implementing existing laws, principally by promoting civil society use of access to information laws, greater professionalism (through training) among government officials who administer openness laws, and sustained media attention to the cause of transparency.