Forward-looking…

Strategy requires foresight. Leveraging the Scowcroft Center’s cutting-edge strategic foresight practice, Forward Defense helps identify the most important long-term developments, trends, and technologies that are shaping the future geostrategic and military environment.

Emerging military technology

Nontraditional threats

Modeling the geopolitical future

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Experts and futurists

More on defense foresight & technology

In the News

Sep 18, 2025

Cole discusses the role of fictional intelligence and technological prediction with War on the Rocks

On September 17, August Cole, a nonresident fellow at Forward Defense, and P.W. Singer were interviewed by War on the Rocks, reflecting on the technological predictions of their 2015 book Ghost Fleet. They highlighted the use of fictional writing for exploring future military and technological scenarios.

Conflict Defense Technologies

New Atlanticist

Sep 18, 2025

How AI with ‘nurtured consciousness’ could transform warfare

By John James and Alia Brahimi

New technologies have the potential to turn an information advantage into a conscious advantage, helping determine who has strategic dominance in the twenty-first century.

Artificial Intelligence Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert

Sep 16, 2025

Ukraine’s skies are Europe’s first line of defense against Russian drones

By Alina Zubkovych

As NATO leaders respond to Russia’s recent drone incursion into Poland, they should recognize that Ukraine’s skies are now European first line of defense against Putin’s growing drone fleet, writes Alina Zubkovych.

Conflict Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert

Sep 16, 2025

Only Ukraine can teach NATO how to combat Putin’s growing drone fleet

By David Kirichenko

NATO must urgently learn from Ukraine’s unique experience of Russian drone warfare as the alliance seeks to address the growing threats posed by Putin’s drone swarms, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Sep 11, 2025

Belarus hosts Russian war games as Putin’s drones probe Poland

By Hanna Liubakova

On September 12, Belarus and Russia will begin their largest joint military exercises since the start of Putin’s Ukraine invasion, just two days after at least nineteen Russian drones penetrated neighboring Polish airspace, writes Hanna Liubakova.

Belarus Conflict

Forward Defense leads the Atlantic Council’s US and global defense programming, developing actionable recommendations for the United States and its allies and partners to compete, innovate, and navigate the rapidly evolving character of warfare. Through its work on US defense policy and force design, the military applications of advanced technology, space security, strategic deterrence, and defense industrial revitalization, it informs the strategies, policies, and capabilities that the United States will need to deter, and, if necessary, prevail in major-power conflict.