About TAFI

An independent, non-partisan research program studying alliances and partnerships under pressure.

The Alliance Futures Initiative is the research arm of OTX International, an independent, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization. We examine how alliances and partnerships may function in a world of shifting power, technological disruption, and contested regional orders. Our center of gravity is the Indo-Pacific. Our method is futures analysis.

Our Approach

Most analysis of alliances describes the past or the present. We study what comes next. We do not predict; we identify the indicators that tell us which pathway is materializing, test the assumptions underlying current strategy, and look for the places where American analysis may be misreading how allies, partners, or competitors understand their own interests.

Our work is deliberately small and specialized. We build on the expertise of our team and fellows, produce fewer but deeper products, and stay close to the regions we study.

Our Honest Broker Commitment

The cost of telling policymakers what they want to hear is paid by someone else, usually later, and usually in a currency no one wanted to spend. To avoid this harm:

  • We publish and present findings that cut against our prior work as readily as findings that confirm it.
  • Our funders do not see drafts before our peer reviewers do.
  • Our commercial clients have no review rights over our public research or our public remarks.

How We Are Funded

TAFI is supported by foundation grants, individual donors, and commercial advisory work. We maintain a strict firewall between commercial engagements and our public research. Commercial clients commission analytic services under separate terms; they do not influence what we publish, whom we cite, or what we say in public.

Contributions to OTX International are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Organization

TAFI operates as a research program of OTX International. Commercial advisory work is conducted through Levenhall, a separate Washington, DC–based firm focused on US defense market entry for allied-nation companies. The separation between TAFI's public research and Levenhall's commercial engagements is structural, disclosed, and enforced in how we publish.