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Please join Forward Defense, a new practice area in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, for our inaugural event, “War Stories from the Future,” featuring General James Jones, General James Cartwright, Max Brooks, August Cole, and Valerie Jackson. This virtual event will take place on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. EDT via the Zoom video-conference platform. To receive the Zoom link, please register by clicking the REGISTER button above.
Forward Defense helps the United States and its allies and partners contend with great-power competitors and maintain favorable balances of power. This new practice area produces Forward-looking analyses of the trends, technologies, and concepts that will the future of warfare, and the alliances needed for the 21st century.
To formulate effective defense strategies and policies today, we need to understand where we are headed, and Forward Defense employs a number of innovative methodologies to help grasp the future of warfare. Narrative fiction is one such methodology with a special power to elucidate the response of people and institutions to complex challenges, while animating foresight into alternative futures. Against the imposing backdrop of one of the greatest challenges of our lifetimes, the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will ask two distinguished military leaders, two artists, and a military historian what the art of narrative can do to color the intellectual palette of thinking about security and defense. The event features:
Introductory & keynote remarks by
Gen James Jones, USMC (Ret.)
A former National Security Advisor, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and Executive Chairman Emeritus of the Atlantic Council, General Jones currently chairs the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and is recognized for his strong commitment to allies and partners and his steady leadership during times of conflict.
Gen James Cartwright, USMC (Ret.)
A former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Commander of US Strategic Command, and current member of the Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors, General Cartwright is recognized for his technical acumen, vision of future national security concepts, and ability to integrate systems, organizations, and people to generate impactful innovation.
A panel discussion with
Max Brooks
Author of the forthcoming novel, “Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre,” Brooks is a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council whose fiction – “World War Z” and “The Harlem Hellfighters,” among others – explores how leadership and societies can respond with resilience to crises.
August Cole
Co-author of the just-released novel, “Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution,” Cole is a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council whose fiction – “Ghost Fleet” (with Peter Singer) and “War Stories from the Future” (editor) – focuses on the expression of advanced technology in social and military conflict.
Valerie Jackson
Director of the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity, Jackson leads a research institute of the Marine Corps University which enables an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving, fosters collective warfighting capability, and facilitates novel solutions to warfighting challenges.
Moderated by
Forward Defense (FD) helps the United States and its allies and partners contend with great-power competitors and maintain favorable balances of power. This new practice area in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security produces Forward-looking analyses of the trends, technologies, and concepts that will define the future of warfare, and the alliances needed for the 21st century. Through the futures we forecast, the scenarios we wargame, and the analyses we produce, FD develops actionable strategies and policies for deterrence and defense, while shaping US and allied operational concepts and the role of defense industry in addressing the most significant military challenges at the heart of great-power competition.
Miss the event? Read the recap
Forward Defense, housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, generates ideas and connects stakeholders in the defense ecosystem to promote an enduring military advantage for the United States, its allies, and partners. Our work identifies the defense strategies, capabilities, and resources the United States needs to deter and, if necessary, prevail in future conflict.