The Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) is a global, next-generation, national security think tank pursuing a society of free, responsible, and vigilant individuals advancing peace and prosperity based on the shared values of limited government, free enterprise, and strong national security.
OUR MISSION
To discover, develop, and support a global network of security scholars and practitioners advancing freedom and security worldwide.
Our History
Dr. Alejandro Chafuen, one of the world’s leading commentators on the economic thought of the Thomistic and Late-Scholastic thinkers, is the founder of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS). Dr. Chafuen has dedicated most of his life to advancing the free society through research and policy programs, including security and defense issues. The interest sparked after witnessing terrorism erupt in his native Argentina, in addition to the increasing insecurity spreading across Latin America.
Once Dr. Chafuen recognized that terrorism was on the rise and counterterrorism efforts left many holes, he began to recruit and support security and defense experts. The September 11th terrorist attacks further elucidated the problem, making evident that in order to advance a free society, we must connect the efforts of those promoting economic freedom to those working within the realm of security and defense.
From 2004 to 2011, SFS was housed at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Initially as an idea to catalyze those working on economics to focus more on security, intelligence, and defense, and to connect national security scholars to the world of economic freedom. The model, at the time, was the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) in the Czech Republic, which served as an inspiration for the SFS program. While acting as president and CEO of Atlas, Dr. Chafuen created the “Think Tanks for a Secure Free Society (SFS)” program. In 2008, Joseph Humire joined Atlas and started managing the SFS program, which by then focused largely on workshops and seminars in Lisbon, Prague, New York, Dallas, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Santiago, and other major cities around the world and funding some independent research papers.
In 2012, SFS spun off from Atlas to the International Freedom Educational Foundation (IFEF) with Joseph Humire at its helm as Executive Director. To read more about the transition to IFEF and the birth of SFS as a think tank please read this document.
Since then, Joseph has grown the Center from its humble beginnings as a part-time endeavor to now a full-time effort with a team of dedicated staff and fellows and forged a new path for SFS with a unique focus on the crime-terror nexus in Latin America and external state and non-state actors (i.e. Russia, China, Iran, Hezbollah, etc.) —issues that at the time, not many were putting together.
The Center for a Secure Free Society has evolved from an idea, to a plan, to a program, to a center, finally to its permanent role as an independent, next-generation, national security think tank, engrained as an important fixture within the U.S. foreign policy and national security community, particularly with those focused on the Western Hemisphere.
For the last eight years, SFS has transformed into a leading research and educational think tank- publishing scholarly reports and organizing various workshops and programs globally. Discovering and developing top talent from around the world, our senior and international fellows produce groundbreaking research and analysis that has been featured in major media outlets, on the floors of congress and parliaments around the world, and has become a “go-to” resource for numerous policymakers in the Americas. This global talent is the backbone of SFS and what sets us apart from other think tanks in the United States and abroad.
SFS is now one of the leading think tanks focused on national security issues in the Western Hemisphere, with name recognition and a respected brand behind it.
Please watch this short 3-minute video describing our work and the SFS impact in recent years.
