The National Security Strategic Studies Partnership (N3SP) is a cooperative effort by the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and the United States Air Force Academy which brings together Colorado’s unique resources in higher education, private industry, as well as civilian and military agencies to provide thought leadership in national security with a particular interest in space and cyber security. The N3SP creates exceptional opportunities for students and faculty from participating campuses to enrich the study of key strategic national security issues through events allowing them to engage first hand with experts from around Colorado and across the nation.
The Partnership is made possible by a generous gift from the Anschutz Foundation.
About the Name and Logo
The program is referred to as a “Partnership” as it represents the cooperative efforts of the participating universities. Its abbreviation, N3SP, was deliberately chosen to avoid the convention for military acronyms which would have made it “N S-cubed P.” Given that the partnership is not itself a military organization nor run exclusively by the Air Force Academy “N3SP” was chosen as the abbreviation. It is pronounced “N three S P” and should be interpreted like a common algebraic formula, (3-times “S” rather than S-cubed) In truth, any of these are better than trying to say N S S S P and having to keep track of how many times you’ve said “S” when referring to the program.
The logo featuring three mountains is adapted from a photo of three of the Collegiate Peaks. The three peaks represent the three founding universities in the N3SP (rather than their geographic namesakes to the east). As the Partnership matures, other Colorado universities and colleges are welcome to participate.
