Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Beyond 3D Printing: Programming the Material World

By Thomas A. Campbell

New technologies are converging in a cresting tsunami. Robotics, autonomous vehicles, big data, the “internet of everything,” nanotechnology and other technology sectors are being mashed up in ways incredible to those who studied engineering even as recently as the 1990s. In particular, 3D printing (additive manufacturing)1 revolutionizes the future with its potential to make almost […]

The art of war

By Mark Revor

The creative minds of David Brin, renowned tech-futurist; August Cole, adjunct fellow at the American Security Project; and Dave Anthony, director and writer of Call of Duty: Black Ops II; along with moderator Steven Grundman, the M.A. and George Lund Fellow for Emerging Defense Challenges in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the […]

Preparing the Military for Coming Challenges

As the head of the the US Missile Defense Agency, Patrick O’Reilly saw a lot of advanced military technology. But of late, one of the most intriguing advancements he has seen has come from a few newly graduated engineers at a commercial wireless company. With a 3D printer, they have created new antenna shapes that […]

Betting on Breakthrough Defense Technologies: Keynote with DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar

By Mark Revor

No discussion on disruptive technologies would be complete without the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has been the leading developer of disruptive technologies for decades. Their work has brought us the internet, global positioning system, and that voice on your iPhone. Joining the Disruptive Defense conference for an afternoon keynote on Betting on […]

The New World We Face, The New Strategy We Need

By James Hasik

What’s changing, Barry Pavel asked, in this “Westphalia-Plus” world? Stephen Hadley and Jim Miller agreed that the challenges today are not primarily technological, but political. Hadley offered the salient example of Pakistan, where “all the drone strikes in the world” will not solve the problems of a failing state, but rather, only competent government. The […]

Disrupting Geopolitics

By Mark Revor

Mathew Burrows, Andrew Hoehn, and Moisés Naím joined moderator Francis Rose of Federal News Radio for Disrupting Geopolitics, the second panel of Atlantic Council’s Disrupting Defense conference. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opened the conference, highlighting the challenges of today’s geopolitical environment from a military perspective, stating that the application […]

Dempsey Calls for Innovation in Defense

By James Hasik

Keynote Address by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey Today, General Dempsey noted, is the forty-ninth anniversary of the founding of the long-defunct Warsaw Pact. Back then, in 1955, he was three years old. In 1975, as he noted, the Dempsey went to Germany to patrol the Czech border as a […]

The next wave: 4D printing

By Thomas A. Campbell, Skylar Tibbits, and Banning Garrett

A new report by Thomas A. Campbell, Skylar Tibbits, and Banning Garrett, The Next Wave: 4D Printing – Programming the Material World, examines 4D printing, a new disruptive technology on the horizon that may take 3D printing to an entirely new level of capability with profound implications for society, the economy, and the global operating environment of governments and businesses alike.

The Gulf Rising: Defense Industrialization in Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Dramatic changes in the world of defense, coupled with increasing political, financial, and fiscal pressures in the transatlantic community, have forced some of the most advanced US industrial allies and partners to make tough choices regarding their national defense programs, leaving them either more dependent on the United States or with capability shortages. Facing even […]