Defense strategy & policy

About our work

The Department of Defense needs a clear roadmap to counter today’s myriad security challenges—from strategic competitors and regional aggressors to violent extremist organizations and climate change. Strategic thinking is essential in order to align priorities and ensure US and allied national security.

Forward Defense explores this issue set through frank review of current defense policy, cogent expert analysis of the present security environment, and actionable recommendations for strategy to meet future defense challenges.

Featured projects

Forward Defense and Seizing the Advantage

Seizing the advantage: The next US National Defense Strategy

The Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense practice advances leading-edge commentary and key recommendations to help chart the course for the United States’ next National Defense Strategy.

Scowcroft Center Military Fellows

The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Forward Defense practice is proud to host Military Fellows from participating branches of the US military and the armed forces of US allies and partners each year as part of a twelve-month fellowship program.

Commanders Series

The Atlantic Council’s flagship speakers’ forum for senior military and defense leaders. The series provides a platform to discuss current strategic issues with an impressive audience drawn from across Washington’s policy community, including think tanks, media, industry, embassies, and the US government.

Featured reports

Issue Brief Feb 24, 2022

The next National Defense Strategy must get Russia right

By Clementine G. Starling-Daniels, Christian Trotti, Tyson Wetzel

The rapidly developing 2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis raises a key question for US defense policy makers as they finalize the next National Defense Strategy (NDS): How can the NDS get Russia “right”? This issue brief seeks to answer this question by developing a US defense strategy for deterring and managing the Russian threat in Europe and beyond, building upon the authors’ 2021 report, “Seizing the Advantage: A Vision for the Next US National Defense Strategy.”

Conflict Crisis Management

Report Dec 22, 2021

Seizing the advantage: A vision for the next US national defense strategy

By Clementine G. Starling-Daniels, Tyson Wetzel, Christian Trotti

In this latest installment of the Atlantic Council Strategy Papers series, Forward Defense’s Clementine Starling, Lt Col Tyson Wetzel, and Christian Trotti articulate their vision and recommendations for the next US National Defense Strategy, including clearer prioritization, investments and divestments, reposturing of US forces, a new warfighting concept, and a focus on transnational threats like hybrid warfare and climate change.

China Defense Industry

Report Nov 25, 2023

Ten challenges to implementing Force Design 2030

By Bruce Stubbs

Bruce Stubbs points out key questions for the success of the US Marine Corps’s Force Design 2030.

China Defense Policy

Strategic Insights Memo Aug 5, 2021

A new strategy for US global defense posture

By Matthew Crouch, Barry Pavel, Clementine G. Starling, and Christian Trotti

This Policy Brief, produced by the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Forward Defense team, recommends a novel strategy for US global force posture to strengthen deterrence and competitive leverage vis-à-vis China, Russia, and other challengers. It addresses multifaceted challenges abroad, allocates missions according to mobility and range, lays the foundation for emerging technologies, and facilitates robust cooperation with allies and partners.

Defense Policy Defense Technologies

Report Jun 8, 2021

Transformative priorities for national defense

By Franklin D. Kramer and Lt. Col. Matthew R. Crouch

Today, the United States faces multi-theater and multi-domain challenges different from any presented since World War II—and, in fact, ever. This report addresses these pivotal challenges by advancing key transformative priorities for an effective US national defense strategy, both in the “American theater” at home and in the forward theaters abroad.

China Defense Industry

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series Apr 11, 2021

The future of security in space: A thirty-year US strategy

By Clementine G. Starling, Mark J. Massa, Lt Col Christopher P. Mulder, and Julia T. Siegel

Outer space is rapidly transforming as new actors test new limits. This Atlantic Council Strategy Paper calls for the United States and its allies and partners to secure space over the next three decades or risk wasting the promise of this emerging domain.

China Cybersecurity

Content

New Atlanticist

Apr 29, 2025

To fund US military modernization, Congress needs to pass on-time annual defense budgets

By Jongsun Kim

The longer Congress relies on continuing resolutions to fund the military, the further the Pentagon will drift from its defense spending goals.

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Report

Apr 11, 2025

The imperative of augmenting US theater nuclear forces

By Greg Weaver

The United States and its allies and partners face an impending change in the threats they face from nuclear-armed adversaries: a strategic environment marked by two nuclear peer major powers.

Defense Policy Europe & Eurasia

Report

Mar 27, 2025

Atlantic Council Commission on Software-Defined Warfare: Final report

By Whitney M. McNamara, Peter Modigliani, Tate Nurkin

The Atlantic Council Commission on Software-Defined Warfare presents a software-defined warfare approach, offering recommendations for the DoD to adopt modern software practices and seamlessly integrate them into existing platforms to enhance and strengthen defense strategies.

Artificial Intelligence Defense Policy

Issue Brief

Mar 21, 2025

Clarity is power: The Trump administration needs a new US Navy Navigation Plan

By Bruce Stubbs

The US Navy’s current Navigation Plan (NAVPLAN) is an insufficient document. Bruce Stubbs writes that the Navy must embrace the red and identify course corrections and promote greater clarity, specificity, and transparency in its guidance.

Defense Policy Indo-Pacific

Issue Brief

Mar 21, 2025

China’s exploitation of overseas ports and bases

By Thomas X. Hammes

The control and administration of overseas ports and bases by China poses a serious risk to the United States in the event of a potential conflict. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army could exploit these ports and bases to challenge control of the sea.

China Defense Policy

Events

Register for upcoming events

Watch past events

Public Event Wed, October 16, 2024 • 8:00 am ET

A conversation with Admiral Lisa Franchetti on the Navy’s 2024 Navigation Plan

Defense Policy Maritime Security

Public Event Wed, May 22, 2024 • 10:50 am ET

General CQ Brown, Jr. on how US forces are readying for new global threats

On May 3, Forward Defense director Clementine Starling-Daniels and assistant director Theresa Luetkefend were quoted in a WMAL article titled “In Great Power Competition, Special Ops to Play Key Role.” The article highlights their argument that, after two decades primarily focused on counterterrorism and direct-action missions during the Global War on Terror, today’s peer and […]

Africa Defense Policy

In the News

May 5, 2025

Final Report of the Commission on Software-Defined Warfare featured in Air & Space Forces Magazine

By Atlantic Council

On May 5, Shaun Waterman of Air & Space Forces Magazine published an article highlighting Forward Defense’s Commission on Software-Defined Warfare report.

Artificial Intelligence Defense Industry

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.

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