The Scowcroft Center’s namesake, General Brent Scowcroft, was the chairman of the 1983 Scowcroft Commission that established the foundation for US nuclear deterrence and arms control policy through the present day. As the United States enters a new era of strategic challenges, the Scowcroft Center’s Forward Defense program is proud to play a central role in crafting an effective and nonpartisan strategic forces strategy and policy for the twenty-first century.

The 2022 National Defense Strategy and Nuclear Posture Review caution that the United States will, for the first time in its history, face the challenge of simultaneously deterring two nuclear great powers, each with aggressive revisionist goals. Our Nuclear Strategy Project, within the Forward Defense program, focuses on the role of nuclear deterrence, nuclear strategy and employment, missile defense, and arms control in deterring conventional aggression and nuclear escalation against the United States, its allies, and partners.

Principal research areas

Must Reads

Report

Jan 4, 2025

‘First, we will defend the homeland’: The case for homeland missile defense

By Robert Soofer with contributions from Kari Anderson, James McCue, Tom Karako, Mark J. Massa, Alyxandra Marine, and Jonathan Rosenstein

A comprehensive analysis of U.S. homeland missile defense, addressing policies, security challenges, and strategies to counter threats from North Korea, China, and Russia.

China Defense Technologies

Commentary & quick analysis

Fast Thinking

Jun 22, 2025

How will Iran respond to US strikes on its nuclear program?

By Atlantic Council

Following the US strike on Iranian nuclear sites, Iran’s foreign minister said his country must respond. Atlantic Council experts look at Tehran’s options.

Conflict Iran

New Atlanticist

Jun 12, 2025

Experts react: Israel just attacked Iran’s military and nuclear sites. What’s next?

By Atlantic Council experts

Our experts shed light on Israel’s major attack against Iran targeting its nuclear facilities and its implications for the region.

Conflict Defense Policy

New Atlanticist

Jun 6, 2025

Ukraine’s drone strikes offer four big lessons for US nuclear strategists

By Mark J. Massa

Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb should spur the US government to address strategic vulnerabilities that nuclear strategists have focused on for years.

Defense Policy National Security

Strategic Insights Memo

Mar 12, 2025

The hypersonic imperative

By Michael E. White

Hypersonic weapons and counter-hypersonic defenses will be essential for the United States to deter and, if necessary, prevail in a war against one or more great powers. This is why the Department of Defense and Congress must prioritize the accelerated fielding of these capabilities.

China Defense Industry

New Atlanticist

Nov 5, 2024

Nuclear weapons on the battlefield are a growing risk. US and allied militaries should prepare now.

By Brad T. Gericke and Donna Wilt

US military and defense thinkers must overcome two major misconceptions that for too long have shaped US actions regarding nuclear weapons.

Nuclear Deterrence Security & Defense

Reports & issue briefs

Issue Brief

Oct 7, 2024

Strategic stability in the third nuclear age

By Matthew Kroenig

The world is entering a third nuclear age. This brief explores global strategic stability in the 2020s and 2030s.

NATO Nuclear Deterrence

Issue Brief

Oct 4, 2024

How the US and Europe can counter Russian information manipulation about nonproliferation

By Natasha Lander Finch, Ryan Arick

This strategic framework presents the findings and recommendations of the Atlantic Council project to develop and strengthen comprehensive responses to counter Russian foreign malign influence that undermine nonproliferation norms and regimes in Eastern Europe.

Disinformation Europe & Eurasia

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

Report

Feb 2, 2024

Requirements for nuclear deterrence and arms control in a two-nuclear-peer environment

By Greg Weaver and Amy Woolf

Gregory Weaver and Amy Woolf discuss the future of US nuclear posture and arms control, as the United States will soon face two adversaries with peer nuclear arsenals.

Arms Control China

Past events

In the news

In the News

Jul 8, 2025

Kroenig mentioned in the Washington Post on nuclear nonproliferation

On July 7, Matthew Kroenig, Atlantic Council vice president and Scowcroft Center senior director, was mentioned in the Washington Post for a recent op-ed he published titled “The Trump doctrine on nuclear nonproliferation is born.” A nuclear disarmament advocate from Back from the Brink wrote a letter to the editor reacting to the op-ed.

Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation

In the News

Jun 30, 2025

Kroenig mentioned in the Hill on nuclear nonproliferation

On June 30, Matthew Kroenig, Atlantic Council vice president and Scowcroft Center senior director, was mentioned in the Hill for a recent op-ed he published in the Washington Post on his view of the Trump administration’s nuclear nonproliferation strategy. An expert from a nonpartisan climate policy think tank reacted to the op-ed and Kroenig’s arguments.

Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation

In the News

Jun 30, 2025

Kroenig mentioned in the South China Morning Post on nuclear nonproliferation

On June 30, Matthew Kroenig, Atlantic Council vice president and Scowcroft Center senior director, was mentioned in the South China Morning Post for his June 24th op-ed in the Washington Post on the Trump administration’s nuclear nonproliferation strategy, as evidenced by its attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. A master’s student from the University of […]

Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation

In the News

Jun 28, 2025

Kroenig on Fox News on President Trump’s foreign policy at the NATO summit and in Iran

On June 28, Matthew Kroenig, Atlantic Council vice president and Scowcroft Center senior director, appeared on Fox News to discuss the NATO summit in The Hague, where allies agreed to a defense spending target of five percent of their GDP, and the US attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Europe & Eurasia Iran

In the News

Jun 24, 2025

Kroenig in the Washington Post on President Trump’s nuclear nonproliferation strategy

On June 24, Matthew Kroenig, Atlantic Council vice president and Scowcroft Center senior director, was published in the Washington Post on the precedent set by the Trump administration through its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He argues that “the United States could capitalize on this moment and declare a new foreign policy doctrine of counterproliferation […]

Conflict Iran

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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.