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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.

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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.

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Featured reports

Content

Report

Jan 14, 2025

The next decade of strategic competition: How the Pentagon can use special operations forces to better compete

By Clementine G. Starling-Daniels, Theresa Luetkefend

Clementine G. Starling and Theresa Luetkefend discuss how the Department of Defense and Joint force should more effectively leverage Special Operations forces in strategic competition.

Africa China

Experts react

Sep 18, 2024

Experts react: What’s behind the Hezbollah beeper and walkie-talkie explosions

By Atlantic Council experts

Our experts explain what the explosions of communication devices in Lebanon could mean for the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Conflict Defense Technologies

New Atlanticist

Sep 17, 2024

This is not the time for the United States to go soft on Hezbollah

By Jonathan Rosenstein and Eliana Aiken

If Israel decides on a major campaign in Lebanon to remove the threat from Hezbollah, the US should have its ally’s back.

Crisis Management Defense Policy

Issue Brief

Sep 10, 2024

Russian and Chinese strategic missile defense: Doctrine, capabilities, and development

By Jacob Mezey

In a follow up to Matthew R. Costlow and Robert M. Soofer’s paper, US Homeland Missile Defense: Room for Expanded Roles, former Forward Defense Program Assistant, Jacob Mezey, seeks to inform debates about missile defense policy by placing arguments that US ballistic missile defenses are uniquely destabilizing in the context of efforts by Russia and China to deploy similar systems.

China Defense Policy
Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS)

Issue Brief

Jul 15, 2024

Modernizing space-based nuclear command, control, and communications

By Peter L. Hays and Sarah Mineiro

While nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) is in the midst of a modernization overhaul, the space-based elements of NC3 face unique geopolitical, technical, and bureaucratic challenges. This paper focuses on space-based missions and elements of the existing NC3 system, analyzing how ongoing modernization programs are addressing these challenges as well as offering recommendations.

China Defense Policy

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In the news

In the News

Feb 13, 2025

Soofer interviewed for USA Today article on Trump’s ‘Iron Dome’

By Atlantic Council

On February 11, Forward Defense senior fellow Robert Soofer was interviewed for a USA Today article entitled, “Will Trump’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense make Americans safer? It’s complicated.” The article quotes Soofer’s response to Trump’s executive order, citing his claim that it is “even more bold, I would suggest, than Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.”

China Defense Policy

In the News

Feb 13, 2025

Soofer’s report ‘First, we will defend the homeland’ quoted in SPIEGEL article on Trump’s ‘Iron Dome’

By Atlantic Council

On January 29, Forward Defense senior fellow Robert Soofer was quoted in a SPIEGEL article with the translated title, “That’s why Trump wants an American Iron Dome.” The article cites his recent Atlantic Council report, “‘First, we will defend the homeland’: The case for homeland missile defense,” where he warns of the threat to US territory from missiles.

China Defense Policy

In the News

Feb 6, 2025

Soofer quoted in Matthew Kroenig’s Foreign Policy article arguing for an ‘Iron Dome’

By Atlantic Council

On February 5, Forward Defense senior fellow Robert Soofer was quoted in a Foreign Policy article by Matthew Kroenig, Vice President and Senior Director of the Scowcroft Center. The argument piece was titled, “The United States Needs an Iron Dome.” Kroenig quotes Soofer’s recent report, “‘First, we will defend the homeland’: The case for homeland […]

China Defense Policy

In the News

Feb 6, 2025

T.X. Hammes proposes containerized weapons for US Navy merchant fleet in US Naval Institute Proceedings

On February 3, T.X. Hammes, a nonresident senior fellow at Forward Defense, wrote with Captain R. Robinson Harris, US Navy (ret.) in the US Naval Institute’s Proceedings, that deploying containerized weapons on merchant ships would bolster the US Navy’s capacity to manage the growing threat from China.

China Conflict

In the News

Feb 3, 2025

Soofer quoted in Washington Post article on Trump’s ‘Iron Dome’

By Atlantic Council

On January 30, Forward Defense senior fellow Robert Soofer was quoted in a Washington Post article titled, “Could Trump’s Iron Dome work? Only if Canada attacks Detroit.” The article quotes Soofer’s recent report, “‘First, we will defend the homeland’: The case for homeland missile defense” on how refocusing missile defenses will “enhance US nuclear survivability.”

China Defense Policy

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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