Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Harnessing Disruption to Move Forward with Biotech

By Dina Fine Maron

As biotechnology evolves, it’s easier to imagine a future where a steak dinner would be produced in the laboratory and cell parts are replicated via 3-D printer. Scientific American is constantly exploring these frontlines of science and innovation. And this week I moderated a thought-provoking panel exploring how biotech and ICT (information and communications technology) may reshape the […]

Let’s Fix This: Building a Better US-Gulf Partnership

At a time when Gulf concerns about the recent US nuclear deal with Iran are high, the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted a luncheon with a select group of leading Gulf analysts, US government officials, and foreign government representatives on the state […]

Corporate Strategy Forum Discusses Transformation

On December 11, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security held a private, roundtable discussion for its Corporate Strategy Forum on the topic of “Near-Death and Transformation.” Speaking to the issues of transformation during a sharp inflection in customer preferences and competition were Michael Bayer, president and CEO of Dumbarton Strategies LLC, and Mike Giersch, […]

Getting to Fusion – A conversation with Strategists

By Jeff Lightfoot

Emerging technologies are empowering both states and non-state actors in the second decade of the 21st century. Yet these new capabilities exist in – and challenge – an interstate system that is still largely defined by international law and a Westphaelian heritage. If the world is to achieve the fusion scenario outlined in the Global Trends […]

Opportunities Emerging from Biotech and ICT

By Peter Engelke

Ramez Naam, author of The Infinite Resource, opened the Strategic Foresight Forum’s Bio-ICT session by pointing to the many opportunities emerging from biotech and ICT. We are much better now at encoding, printing, and editing genomes now than we were even a decade ago. This leads to big opportunities. First, we can apply biotech to […]

Harnessing Disruption for Global Prosperity

A new report and two days of dynamic discussion — in the room and online — explored the challenges and opportunites the US and the world face in the upcoming technology revolution. The opening debate and each session were recorded. You can watch via the playlist below. Council experts weighed in with their initial reactions […]

A New Model of International Governance: Why Cities Will Lead the Way

By Jeff Lightfoot

Deputy Director of the Brent Scowcroft Center Jeff Lightfoot reflects on the urbanization panel at the 2013 Strategic Foresight Forum.

Confronting the Challenges of Food, Water, and Energy

By Peter Engelke

Senior Fellow with the Brent Scowcroft Center Peter Engelke comments on the second panel of day two of the Strategic Foresight Forum, Building Up Resilience: Can the Upcoming Food-Water-Energy Crises Be Avoided?.

Opportunities Abound but Challenges Lurk on the Horizon

By Jeff Lightfoot

Deputy Director of the Brent Scowcroft Center Jeff Lightfoot comments on the first panel of day two of the Strategic Foresight Forum, The Challenges and Opportunities of the Third Industrial Revolution.

The Coming Technological Revolution: Opportunities and Perils

By Peter Engelke

After watching the second panel of the Strategic Foresight Forum, Global Strategists: How Prepared Are We for the Future?, Strategic Foresight Initiative Senior Fellow Peter Engelke wrote down some of his thoughts on the conversation.

Can the United States Government Keep Up?

By Jeff Lightfoot

After watching the opening debate of the Strategic Foresight Forum, A Race Against Time, Deputy Director of the Brent Scowcroft Center Jeff Lightfoot put down some of his thoughts on the subjects covered.

Tech Horror Film or American Renaissance?

By Mathew J. Burrows

“…Once it may have been hard to buy the swift collapse of order that is made palpably real in ‘Contagion,’ if Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath had not already set the stage. ..Yet what’s really scary in “Contagion” is how fast once-humming airports and offices, homes and cities empty out when push comes to shove comes to […]

Will US Seize Opportunities of the Third Industrial Revolution?

By Banning Garrett

The United States could emerge as one of the biggest winners from the Third Industrial Revolution (TIR). The US is the overall leader in the development and deployment of the new technologies and innovations of the TIR. Its other advantages include relatively cheap and available energy resulting from the unconventional gas revolution in the United […]