Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an Australian-based international not-for-profit organization, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants and purchase orders focused on geopolitical risk analysis, democratic resilience, and Indo-Pacific security policy. The organization does not compete under federal set-asides and holds no seats on federal contract vehicles or blanket IDIQs.

ASPI's federal customer base concentrates entirely within the Department of State. The State Department accounts for 100% of awards across ten separate funding vehicles: the Office of the Secretary of State anchors eight awards (including multiple cooperative agreements on foreign interference, disinformation, and critical technologies), the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs holds three awards (centered on Chinese Communist Party influence operations in the Pacific and democracy-strengthening initiatives), and the Bureau of International Information Programs and Bureau of Administration each hold one award. A single $188,100 firm-fixed-price purchase order from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, awarded May 27, 2026 with completion May 26, 2027, represents the only defense-sector engagement in the recent award history.

ASPI's primary work product is policy research and capacity-building in the Indo-Pacific region. Representative grant work includes a $990,462 cooperative agreement from State's Office of the Secretary of State (July 20, 2022 to December 31, 2023) funded through the Cyber Capacity Building program (CFDA 19.035) to strengthen state-level preparedness against state-sponsored intellectual property theft; a democracy-focused initiative titled "Coastwatchers 2.0" (October 31, 2022 to July 30, 2023) from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs to develop a network of China-capable pro-democracy elites across the Pacific; and analysis of Chinese Communist Party data-harvesting and propaganda tactics in Pacific Island information environments (November 1, 2021 to March 31, 2023) also from BEPA. Earlier work addressed foreign interference risks posed by persuasive technologies in Southeast Asia and policy responses to coercive diplomacy. Two awards (both May 2026 purchase orders, $188,100 each) with ultimate completion dates in May 2027 represent near-term recompete exposure.

The vendor's reported federal obligated dollars ($4.8 million) materially exceed combined potential value across all source awards ($376 thousand), indicating prior years' amendments extending grant periods and modifying budgets have materially increased actual performance funding relative to stated contract ceilings. Activity has been episodic: three awards in 2020, four in 2021, three in 2022, one in 2023, and two in 2026, with no awards recorded for 2024 or 2025 in the available data.