There may be no more singularly overarching lesson in the modern world than that people, not merely governments, matter. As Western systems of capitalism, democracy, human rights, and social individuality have expanded, matched with an explosion in mass communications that empower and give voice to the otherwise socially excluded, governments have increasingly recognized the importance they must give to addressing policy directly to foreign populations, not their governments alone. This controversial approach, in which a government is asked to tailor its message and efforts to entire classes beyond other governments, or what may be called ‘population-centric’ foreign policy will be central to modern international relations. Within this context, national security policy must equally assume the population-centric responsibilities associated with foreign assistance, public diplomacy, and strategic communications. The Transnational Crisis Project has constructed this unique class of strategic analysis to consider national security strategy through the lens of the population-centric approach. From a review of sanctions regimes to foreign aid, Associated Scholars are asked to consider the ramifications of national security policy on foreign populations relevant to their own security, and are pushed to devise new comprehensive means through which policy may be more suitably adapted to address that audience.