It was founded in December 2000 by John Pike, who had worked since 1983 with the
Federation of American Scientists, where he directed the space policy, cyberstrategy, military analysis, nuclear resource, and intelligence resource projects. GlobalSecurity.org is headquartered in the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area in
Alexandria, Virginia, and Pike remains as its director. The website's target audience includes journalists, policy-makers, scholars, political scientists, military and defense personnel, and the public. providing online analysis and articles that analyze what are sometimes little-discussed topics It also disseminates primary documentation and other original materials, and provides definitions of widely used terms for the public. The organization also serves as a defense, military,
foreign policy, and national-security
watchdog group. In part it seeks to find new approaches to international security, and promotes achieving cooperative international security and preventing nuclear proliferation. To this end it seeks to improve intelligence-community capabilities to respond to new threats and to prevent the need for military action, while at the same time enhancing the effectiveness of military forces when needed. In his 2004 book
Plan of Attack, about the behind-the-scenes decision-making that led the Bush administration to invade Iraq,
Bob Woodward called the website "an invaluable resource on military, intelligence and national security matters". ==References==