Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents ("the world's largest nongovernmental collection" according to the Los Angeles Times), leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.
What we do
Design and file Freedom of Information and declassification requests
Index, annotate, and publish declassified documents on foreign policy
Bring lawsuits to enforce the records laws
Preserve government records from shredders and falsifiers
Advocate greater public access and government accountability
Our standards
Targeted requests for historically-significant documents and events
Expert curation for reference collections and e-books
Outside pressure and inside negotiations to achieve results
Litigation only against systemic barriers
Front-page news-making primary sources
World-class authority-controlled indexing
Our funders and supporters
Libraries that subscribe to the Digital National Security Archive
Grant-making foundations (Carnegie, Ford, Hewlett, Spitzer, Democracy Fund, and more)
Generous individuals
[No government funding]
Our constituencies
Journalists
Librarians
Historians and international relations scholars
Truth commissions and human rights monitors
Policy analysts on national security
Open government advocates/public interest lawyers
Former officials and active citizens
Our awards
Emmy for “outstanding achievement in news and documentary research”
George Polk for “piercing self-serving government secrecy”
Choice “Outstanding Academic Title” for the Digital National Security Archive
Peabody for best documentary series (CNN’s Cold War)
Pulitzer for non-fiction by Archive senior fellow
Tufts University Jean Mayer Global Citizen Award
American Library Association James Madison Awards (3 over 20 years)
20+ national prizes for individual staff books and civic contributions
Articles about the Archive
‘Kicking and screaming’: 50 years of FOIA
By Philip Eil, July 1, 2016
Freedom of Information Act 50th Anniversary
C-SPAN, June 28,2016
Open Secrets
By David C. Anderson, Ford Foundation Report, Summer 2000