Donors have included Northrop Grumman, Chevron, Amazon, and Google,[8] This has prompted criticism of CNAS from left-wing media outlets, with In These Times saying in October 2019 that the organization has "long pushed Democrats to embrace war and militarism.

The stated goal of the Initiative is to help advance growing bilateral ties in areas of mutual interest, including security, economics, energy, climate change, democracy, and human rights.

[24]In 2010, the center developed its cyber security project was co-chaired by Bob Kahn, John Michael McConnell, Joseph Nye and Peter Schwartz.

[28] It also recommended the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue to collaborate more on joint exercises, interoperability, intelligence sharing, logistics, defense technology development and arms sales.

The series explores the critical regions and topics that the next president will need to address early in his tenure and includes actionable recommendations designed to be implemented during the first few months of 2017.

[34] Shortly after CNAS formed, it was noted by the Wall Street Journal and others that it was "rapidly emerging as a top farm team for the incoming Obama administration.

[37][38] CNAS also received $250,000 from the United Arab Emirates embassy in 2016 to produce a private study on the Missile Technology Control Regime, which was later used to inform a public paper analyzing U.S. drone export policies.

[42][43] In one article she published after leaving the CNAS, she called for increased defense spending and weapons development, as well as to "establish permanent bases along NATO's eastern border.