Project for American Foreign Policy Accountability
The Project for American Foreign Policy Accountability (PAFPA) promotes public accountability for the United States' role in violations of international law, from war crimes to crimes against humanity and genocide, by working to change how Americans view and understand the impact of US foreign policy on the world.
We believe that public engagement with past violence better equips people and societies to prevent future violence. We investigate the sources of public knowledge and memory that influence how Americans view and understand the US's contributions to political violence around the world and document our findings in scholarly and public-facing publications. Our goal is to reform US foreign policy by changing how the US's role in global violence is taught at all educational levels and building memorials to the victims of that violence.
Projects
In July 2025, the Pew Research Center reported that, in response to the question of who poses the greatest international threat, the US was among the top three most common responses in 20 of the 25 countries polled. The US was the most common response in seven countries, the second most common in ten countries, and the third most common in three. Among the 24 countries polled other than the US, the US was the first or second most common response in 71 percent, compared to 42 percent for China and 50 percent for Russia.
With information like this in mind, our projects aim to address the disconnect between how Americans and others understand the role of the US in the world, the associated lack of public accountability in the US, and obstacles to prevention of US contributions to global violence.
Countries with Highest Percentage Who Say US Is Their Country's Greatest Threat
Mexico 68 percent
Canada 59 percent
Indonesia 40 percent
For its initial projects, PAFPA is focusing on US secondary education and sites of memory, including historical sites and memorials, as key sources of public knowledge and memory.
Project One
Recognizing and Memorializing US Contributions to Global Violence
This project addresses the lack of public recognition of and public accountability for US violence and US-supported violence by creating a first-of-its-kind comparative analysis of state-sponsored memorialization.
Phase One
Compare memory sites established across countries recognizing victims of violence committed by their own countries, military members who died in foreign wars, and victims of violence committed within the country by a foreign actor.
Phase Two
Compare memory sites built to recognize and memorialize foreign victims of a country’s direct violence.
Phase Three
Identify if/when a country has officially recognized, in some form, its contributions to violence perpetrated by another country or nonstate actor against people of another country.
We will produce a report of findings and lessons learned, and make recommendations for US-based public recognition and memorialization of US contributions to global violence.
Project Two
Analyzing US Secondary Education Coverage of US Contributions to Global Violence
In this project, we will analyze if and how US secondary education curricula and textbooks cover US contributions to global violence. If Americans remain unaware of the US's role, there are implications for ongoing and future violence-supporting US foreign policies.
Phase One
Analyze US history and world history content standards in secondary education, as well as the content standards for state-mandated courses on the Holocaust and genocide.
Phase Two
Analyze the College Board’s US and world history courses’ frameworks, instructional guidance, and sample exam questions.
Phase Three
Analyze secondary education textbooks.
The results of this analysis will be published as a National Curriculum Accountability Report and will serve as the foundation for future education reform advocacy efforts.
Contact Us
Project for American Foreign Policy Accountability Director
