Defense foresight

The Indo-Pacific region has become a center of gravity for innovation in defense technologies and emerging military capabilities. This report explores major drivers of modernization and advances a new framework to capture defense technology and investment efforts in the region.

The future of warfare is progressing towards uncrewed systems and automation. This report takes a look at this trend in the undersea domain, proposing a strategy for the United States to leverage the emerging capacity of unmanned undersea vehicles.

Hypersonic weapons are nearing maturation, but debates about their military relevance are often defined solely by technology. This primer situates hypersonic weapons within the regional context of the Indo-Pacific to provide a foundation for strategic analysis.

On June 30, Forward Defense hosted a panel of distinguished speakers to discuss the opportunities for, and challenges of, integrating autonomous technologies into the US military to better prepare it for great-power competition.

Great-power competition has returned, and with it, the importance of nuclear weapons in international politics.

Health security and technology experts joined the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center and its Forward Defense practice for a discussion on building resilience for the next major national security shock.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to refocus its mission to lead the defense of the United States against major nonmilitary threats.

On Wednesday, September 9, the Scowcroft Center’s Forward Defense practice launched the Future of DHS Project Final Report, building on its Key Findings and Recommendations released in August. Following the report release, Forward Defense hosted three panels of distinguished speakers to discuss the future of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a changing threat landscape.

The West has fallen behind in the competition for leadership of the 5G transition, a reality that has huge economic implications and also risks the West facing the reality of a global telecommunications backbone that not only has serious security flaws, but is also shaped by political values incompatible with our own. A new White House strategy aims to close the 5G transition gap.

AI is expected to have a transformational impact on the future of geopolitics, defense, and security. In this fluctuating environment, where the US is engaged in a high-stakes competition with is near-peer adversaries, and AI is enabling paradigm-shifting changes in public and private sector operations, how should the US respond?

China’s aggressive attempt to subsidize the development of global 5G networks as a tool of Beijing’s geopolitical and economic power requires an urgent and robust, public- and private-sector response from the United States government, its allies, and partners to bring secure 5G technology to our allies.