"[9] The Quincy Institute states that it is a nonprofit research organization and think tank that hosts scholars, participates in debates, publishes analysis pieces by journalists and academics, and advocates for a "less militarized and more cooperative foreign policy".

"[14] According to The Nation, the Quincy Institute founders believe that the existing foreign policy elite is out of step with the American public, which is "far more skeptical of military adventurism".

[11] Hal Brands, writing in Bloomberg News, described it as a "well-funded think tank" that is part of the "restraint coalition", a "loose network of analysts, advocates and politicians calling for a sharply reduced US role in the world".

The Post reported that "Eugene Kontorovich, a professor of law at George Mason University, told the Free Beacon that many Quincy scholars have singled out Jews and Israel.

– discuss] According to an April 2021 article in the conservative Jewish online magazine Tablet, two Quincy Institute fellows rejected the argument that the persecution of Uyghurs in China amounts to a genocide.

[23] In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were two resignations in protest at the institute's dovish response to the conflict: non-resident fellow Joseph Cirincione of Ploughshares Fund, who had raised money for Quincy, and board member Paul Eaton, a retired senior Army major officer and adviser to Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups.

Cirincione said he "fundamentally" disagrees with Quincy experts who "completely ignore the dangers and the horrors of Russia's invasion and occupation and focus almost exclusively on criticism of the United States, NATO, and Ukraine".