Secure Free Society (SFS)
The Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) is the leading national security think tank combating transregional threats in the Western Hemisphere and worldwide. For more than a decade, SFS is spearheading the effort to counter Venezuela, Russia, Iran, and China’s expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean and deter the growing convergence of international terrorism and transnational organized crime that is plaguing the U.S. southern border.
OUR MISSION
To discover, develop, and support a global network of security scholars and practitioners advancing freedom and security in the Western Hemisphere and worldwide.
Our History
With more than ten years of a proven track record analyzing Transregional Threat Networks, the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) is the leading U.S. national security think tank combating Venezuela, Russia, Iran, and China’s influence in the Western Hemisphere.
Our history began with a vision by Dr. Alejandro A. Chafuen.
One of the world’s leading commentators on the economic thought of the Thomistic and Late-Scholastic thinkers, Dr. Alex Chafuen 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 national security.
From 2004 to 2012, 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 initial model was the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) in the Czech Republic, which served as an inspiration for the SFS program. As president and CEO of Atlas, Dr. Chafuen created the “Think Tanks for a Secure Free Society” 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 center please read this document.
Read the case for Securing Freedom
Since then, Joseph has grown SFS from its humble beginnings as a part-time endeavor to now a full-time effort with a team of dedicated staff and senior fellows and forged a new path for the Center with a unique focus on crime-terror convergence and how external state actors, Russia, China, and Iran, are changing the geopolitical landscape of Latin America and the Caribbean. Issues that at the time, not many were discussing.
SFS was the first think tank to reveal in 2014 that Venezuela’s immigration agency provides identification documents to Hezbollah leaders and other foreign terrorist organizations. SFS, in partnership with the American Foreign Policy Council, also pioneered a deeper analysis into Iran’s strategic penetration of Latin America, including a groundbreaking study in 2016 that uncovered the covert intelligence network that Iran uses in South America, namely in Argentina and Brazil.
SFS studies also analyzed how China uses 5G telecommunications networks to undermine democracy in South America, and was the first think tank to expose China’s dual-use space infrastructure in Latin America as part of its Military-Civil Fusion strategy. More recently, SFS has focused on studying and briefing about the crisis on the U.S. southern border and was on-the-ground in Guatemala when the first Central American caravans erupted in 2018. This research led to SFS to advance the concept of weaponized migration, where state and non-state actors manipulate migrants as a tool of asymmetric warfare.
Please watch this 15-minute video that provides an overview of SFS history prior to the 10-year anniversary celebrated at the 2023 Western Hemisphere Security Forum held at the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.
WATCH the 10-year History of SFS
Throughout the last two decades, 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 for those focused on the Western Hemisphere.
For the last ten years, SFS has evolved into a leading research and educational think tank, publishing ground-breaking reports and organizing various seminars and programs throughout the Americas. SFS is also an emerging content creator for innovative digital products, namely our Border Wars Podcast, showcasing leading thinkers on national security issues of interest.
We are the top national security think tank in the United States combating transregional threats in the Western Hemisphere, with name recognition and a respected brand behind it.
The first ten years of SFS were an incubation period of incremental growth, building our brand, developing research products, and establishing our presence in the think tank landscape. The next ten years are a period of accelerated growth as SFS will expand to new frontiers and introduce cutting-edge research and media products that innovate how think tanks approach the work of foreign policy and national security.