Experts

Fellow

Michelle Kholos Brooks

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Security & Defense

Fellow

Max Brooks

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Crisis Management National Security

Fellow

August Cole

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Steven Grundman

Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Adam Hammer

Nonresident Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Content

Defense Industrialist

Sep 17, 2014

Innovation Before Scale

By Steven Grundman and James Hasik

A Better Business Model for Transnational Armaments Cooperation The business model of transnational cooperation in armaments development and production is not working. Though founded on the promise of achieving economies of scale, especially through long production runs, the political allocation of work share tends to undermine this proposition. In its place, we propose an alternative […]

NATO Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Sep 8, 2014

Is NATO’s 2% of GDP a relevant target?

By James Hasik

Sometimes it’s what you spend, and sometimes it’s where and how you spend it.   With a few announcements of new spending around the NATO Summit, the alliance is a little closer, but only a little, to its “2-20” goals: that every member state will devote 2 percent of its GDP to its military, and 20 […]

NATO Northern Europe

Defense Industrialist

Sep 4, 2014

ISIS, or Running Shoes?

By James Hasik

Congress should be removing barriers to innovation, not erecting barriers to competition.   Today in Wales, the 2014 NATO Summit gets underway, dominated by discussions of wars in Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria. But this afternoon back in Virginia, as Politico Morning Defense reports, several congressmen are meeting with officials at the Pentagon to talk about something more important […]

Defense Industrialist

Aug 26, 2014

The Military Implications of Scottish and Catalonian Secession

By James Hasik

  Scotland will free-ride in the Atlantic without sustained investment, but Catalonian maritime specialization would be welcome in the Mediterranean. On 18 September, Scotland votes on the question of independence from the United Kingdom, and the polling strongly suggests a vote of no. On 9 November, Catalonia could be voting on the same issue vis-à-vis Spain, but the polling slightly […]

NATO Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 26, 2014

Germany and Japan’s Differing Arms Export Regimes

By James Hasik

It’s much easier to kill an arms exporting franchise than to build one. The armaments export policies of Germany and Japan seem to be crossing paths this month. His recent approval of the export of a whole tank factory to Algeria notwithstanding, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel is said to have been piling up license requests on his desk, content to […]

Germany Japan

Defense Industrialist

Aug 24, 2014

Impossible, But Still inadequate?

By James Hasik

The MRAP experience still shows how military requirements need to hew to the state of the art in attainable technologies.   Early this month, the US Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command held a conference at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland to discuss ways to reduce the weight of armored vehicles by 40 percent, but without […]

NATO Security & Defense

Captains of Industry Series

Aug 21, 2014

The three big questions of defense-industrial strategy

By Steven Grundman

Commercial or military, autarkic or globalized, public or private? What are the industrial base issues that need to be considered in any defense strategy? In this age of austerity in military spending, we are hearing calls for bolder policies that would break with past practice, rewarding companies for taking risks, and punishing those that failed. We hear […]

Defense Industrialist

Aug 19, 2014

On the Arrogance of Should-Cost

By James Hasik

Better outcomes in military procurement still await a better-educated workforce. In April 2010, then-Under Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter promulgated the first version of his Better Buying Power concept, which mandated (amongst other things) “should-cost” reviews for major procurements. The strategy aims to determine what a weapon should cost, if the government and the contractors […]

NATO Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 19, 2014

What Uber Can Teach the Pentagon

By James Hasik

The appointment of SVP Emil Michael to the Defense Business Board is a good start.   Last week, the Defense Department announced that fully eight new members would be joining its Defense Business Board, the panel that advises the Pentagon on, well, business. We might hope that the Defense would pay more attention to its Business Board, […]

NATO Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 15, 2014

Agile, or Fragile?

By James Hasik

The USAF’s strategy sounds better than its plans.   In Real Clear Defense, my Atlantic Council colleague Alex Ward recently endorsed the US Air Force’s concept of strategic agility as what’s needed for the service “to employ new technologies, better deal with increasingly powerful state and non-state actors, and adapt operations to new environments over the next thirty years.” In its recently published […]

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