Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Panel Recap: “Ensuring Effective Missile Defense in the Future”

By Brent Scowcroft Center

Ten to twenty years from now, the requirements for missile defense will confront a future that is increasingly complex and dynamic. And that complexity and dynamism play a strong role in creating uncertainty for how to plan a future for effective missile defense. What are the technologies that will shape missile defense operations in the […]

Experts project the US role in the future of urban warfare

By Brent Scowcroft Center

In the not-too-distant future, most of humanity will live in megacities. Megacities will serve as economic, cultural, and political hubs of international affairs—but they also will form the complex landscape of rivalry and violent conflict. Recent instances of urban combat–Saigon, Sarajevo, Fallujah—only begin to inform the epic challenge of fighting in our mid-century megacities. To […]

Panel Recap: “Defense Cooperation in the Gulf: How Far Can We Go?”

By Owen Daniels

According to the particpants on the Brent Scowcroft Center’s missile defense panel entitled, “Defense Cooperation in the Gulf: How Far Can We Go?”, the policies of the United States and the asymmetric threats of Iran are driving cooperation in the Gulf that might have been unimaginable just one year ago. Moderated by Scowcroft Center Resident […]

US Missile Defense Systems Must Adapt to Emerging High-Tech Threats

New dangers abound, from Russia to Iran to Asia-Pacific, warns Gen. James Cartwright Growing technological sophistication by countries and terrorist groups hostile to the United States are forcing the Pentagon to change long-held views about missile defense, said Gen. James E. Cartwright, Former Vice Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The landscape has […]

Shaping the Asia-Pacific Report Launch

By Brent Scowcroft Center

On June 24, 2015, the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security launched a report titled Shaping the Asia-Pacific Future: Strengthening the Institutional Architecture for an Open, Rules-Based Economic Order. The report was co-written by Olin Wethington, former Assistant Secretary of Treasury and Nonresident Fellow at the Scowcroft Center and Robert A. Manning, Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Center. The […]

Nuclear Expert Outlines India’s ‘Command and Control’ Policy

By Larry Luxner

Retired Brigadier Arun Sahgal, one of India’s top experts on nuclear policy, reasserted his country’s “no first use” doctrine in a June 23 presentation to the Atlantic Council. Sahgal, Director of the New Delhi-based Forum for Strategic Initiative, doesn’t represent official thinking, but he spoke from thirty-six years of experience in the Indian Army. “India’s […]

Shaping the Asia-Pacific Future: Strengthening the institutional architecture for an open, rules-based economic order

By Olin Wethington and Robert A. Manning

Mac Thornberry Warns of Growing Threats in Face of Likely Obama Defense Bill Veto

Mac Thornberry, the new Chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee, accused President Barack Obama on June 23 of “holding hostage” the nation’s security by threatening to veto the annual defense appropriations bill, which passed the Senate on June 18 by seventy-one to twenty-five with “overwhelming bipartisan support.” Thornberry (R-TX), said the $612 billion […]