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

Report

Jul 3, 2025

The National Defense Strategy Project

By Atlantic Council experts

As the world enters a pivotal new phase in global security, the United States must not only respond to current challenges but also anticipate those on the horizon.

Artificial Intelligence Defense Policy

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

Op-Ed

Apr 17, 2023

Clementine Starling and Stephen Rodriguez write op-ed in Defense News on the Atlantic Council Commission Defense Innovation Adoption’s interim report

By Atlantic Council

Forward Defense Director Clementine Starling and FD Senior Advisor Stephen Rodriguez emphasize that the United States does not have an innovation adoption, but the US Department of Defense has an innovation adoption problem. To address this, they discuss in this Defense News piece the findings and key recommendations of the Atlantic Council Commission on Defense […]

Americas
Defense Industry

Report

Apr 12, 2023

Atlantic Council Commission on Defense Innovation Adoption interim report

By Eric Lofgren*, Whitney M. McNamara, and Peter Modigliani

The DoD must accelerate defense innovation adoption from the leading edge of the private sector. This report has ten recommendations to do so.

China
Defense Industry

Issue Brief

Apr 3, 2023

Game-changers: Implications of the Russo-Ukraine war for the future of ground warfare

By T.X. Hammes

T.X. Hammes describes the most significant gamechangers for ground warfare from the Russo-Ukraine war and the lessons that US, allied, and partner policymakers should draw from the conflict for their own force posture and development.

Conflict
Defense Industry

New Atlanticist

Feb 27, 2023

How a fleet of private satellites can help secure the US military’s future

By Aidan Poling

The US military’s satellites are “fat juicy targets.” Working with commercial satellite owners on creating a reserve fleet will help the United States bolster itself against attacks.

Defense Technologies
National Security

New Atlanticist

Feb 15, 2023

What US adversaries are learning from the balloon and UFO saga

By Jennifer A. Counter

The reactions to these objects among politicians and the public say more about “us” than “them.”

China
Drones

Events

Register for upcoming events

Watch past events

Public Event Thu, December 4, 2025 • 2:00 pm ET

General Aurelio Colagrande on preparing NATO for the challenges of tomorrow

Defense Policy National Security NATO United States and Canada

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 • 6:50 am ET

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

An #ACFRONTPAGE EVENT—General CQ Brown, Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discusses the challenges the joint force faces today and what to expect in the years ahead.

Conflict Crisis Management Defense Policy National Security

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Crisis Management Defense Policy

Former staff

Delharty Manson

Former Program Assistant

On November 10, Forward Defense nonresident senior fellow Thomas X. Hammes was featured in a compendium article in the National Defense magazine titled “The Navy and Marine Corps at 250: A Look to the Future as the Sea Services Celebrate Their Quarter Millennial Anniversary.” Hammes’s contribution, “Modernization Going in Right Direction,” argues that the Marine […]

Defense Policy
United States and Canada

In the News

Nov 12, 2025

Hammes publishes issue brief on containerized weapons with Stimson Center

On November 6, Forward Defense nonresident senior fellow Thomas X. Hammes published an issue brief with the Stimson Center titled “We Can’t Buy Our Way Out: It’s Time to Think Differently.” Hammes urges the Pentagon to focus on a new generation of containerized weapons that can be mass produced in order to field capabilities to […]

Defense Industry
Defense Policy

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.

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