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

Report

Nov 22, 2020

Unexpected competition: A US strategy to keep its Central and Eastern European allies as allies in an era of great-power competition

By John Blocher

As China and Russia make inroads with traditional US allies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the United States is faced with unexpected competition. To keep these US allies as allies for years to come, policymakers should heed the roadmap offered in this strategy paper, which focuses on the case study of Hungary to recommend ways to deepen alliances with CEE nations.

Central Europe
Defense Policy

Report

Nov 3, 2020

Embracing underseas robots: a US strategy to maintain underseas superiority in an age of unmanned systems

By Erich Frandrup

The future of warfare is progressing towards uncrewed systems and automation. This report takes a look at this trend in the undersea domain, proposing a strategy for the United States to leverage the emerging capacity of unmanned undersea vehicles.

China
Defense Industry

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2020

Defense Secretary unveils a new strategy for bolstering allies and partnerships in an era of great-power competition

By David A. Wemer

As the United States prepares for long-term competition with adversaries such as China and Russia, the Department of Defense is unveiling new plans to strengthen America’s network of alliances and partnerships. “Our global constellation of allies and partners remain an enduring strength that our competitors and adversaries simply cannot match,” US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said during an Atlantic Council Front Page event on October 20.

China
Defense Industry

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2020

From cyber to China, here’s what has former US national security advisors worried

By David A. Wemer

Whether current US President Donald J. Trump is re-elected or former Vice President Joe Biden becomes the next occupant of the White House, the next US president will be confronted with a growing challenge from China, the lingering danger of an assertive Russia, and a broad range of threats complicated by the proliferation of new technologies.

China
National Security

Report

Sep 28, 2020

Competitive strategy insights from wargames

By Benjamin Jensen, John T. Watts, Christian Trotti, and Mark J. Massa

Warfighting eclipses the moment of battle. This report assesses the results from a series of competitive strategy wargames in order to explore how US military-modernization investments can shape adversary decisions long before the battle ever begins.

China
Conflict

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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About our work

Featured projects

The National Defense Strategy Project

Scowcroft Center Military Fellows

Commanders Series

Latest analysis

Featured reports

The next National Defense Strategy must get Russia right

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

Ten challenges to implementing Force Design 2030

A new strategy for US global defense posture

Transformative priorities for national defense

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

Content

Unexpected competition: A US strategy to keep its Central and Eastern European allies as allies in an era of great-power competition

Embracing underseas robots: a US strategy to maintain underseas superiority in an age of unmanned systems

Defense Secretary unveils a new strategy for bolstering allies and partnerships in an era of great-power competition

From cyber to China, here’s what has former US national security advisors worried

Competitive strategy insights from wargames

Events

Register for upcoming events

Watch past events

General Aurelio Colagrande on preparing NATO for the challenges of tomorrow

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

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

Meet our experts

In the news

Grundman in Aviation Week on Pentagon acquisition reform

Hicks and Thornberry published in Defense News

Punaro quoted in Air & Space Forces magazine on acquisition reform

Hammes discusses Force Design in National Defense magazine

Hammes publishes issue brief on containerized weapons with Stimson Center

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