A local think tank focused on island security in Micronesia received a major grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to analyze regional military development.

The Pacific Center for Island Security received a $445,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Kenneth Kuper, co-director of PCIS Guam, said, "We're going to be building mapping and tracking infrastructure…military exercises. Diplomatic cables, economic engagements, Coast Guard exercises, so it really spans. All of these geopolitical actors and the actions that they're taking, we want to map it out. And by that, we want a visual representation. So you can go to our website, for example, when it's done, click on a particular place and it will show you everything that has happened."

Their focus will be on a project analyzing the evolving global order from the perspective of the Pacific islands. It’s the core of their mission.

Kuper added, "The main impetus for us, for our formation was the fact that we were seeing this renewed age of geopolitical competition, particularly between United States and China. And we knew that islands were going to get brought into this in many ways. But how are islanders and islands viewing this competition? Where is the island and islander perspective amongst all of this geopolitical maneuvering? And so we thought there was we needed at least in Micronesia and in Guam to have an organization to have the essentially a think tank that would help push for a critical perspective of these issues always centered on islands and islanders."