GeoStrategy Initiative Analysis and Events

Can the United States Government Keep Up?

By Jeff Lightfoot

After watching the opening debate of the Strategic Foresight Forum, A Race Against Time, Deputy Director of the Brent Scowcroft Center Jeff Lightfoot put down some of his thoughts on the subjects covered.

Tech Horror Film or American Renaissance?

By Mathew J. Burrows

“…Once it may have been hard to buy the swift collapse of order that is made palpably real in ‘Contagion,’ if Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath had not already set the stage. ..Yet what’s really scary in “Contagion” is how fast once-humming airports and offices, homes and cities empty out when push comes to shove comes to […]

Will US Seize Opportunities of the Third Industrial Revolution?

By Banning Garrett

The United States could emerge as one of the biggest winners from the Third Industrial Revolution (TIR). The US is the overall leader in the development and deployment of the new technologies and innovations of the TIR. Its other advantages include relatively cheap and available energy resulting from the unconventional gas revolution in the United […]

Will the Third Industrial Revolution Create More Jobs than It Kills?

By Banning Garrett

Is the Third Industrial Revolution likely to destroy more jobs than it creates, or will the new technology powering the this revolution lead to creation of more new jobs than those are eliminated, as technology has done throughout history? Will the trend toward increasing concentration of wealth at the top continue as well? There are […]

Envisioning 2030: US strategy for the coming technology revolution

By Atlantic Council

Building upon this statement, this year’s Envisioning 2030: US Strategy for the Coming Technology Revolution, edited by Strategic Foresight Initiative Director Mathew J. Burrows, explores the consequences of major disruptions that will be caused by emerging technologies and recommends that the United States must prepare now if it wants to remain competitive on the global stage.

Can We Harness Disruption to Improve Our World’s Future?

By Mariette DiChristina

At Scientific American, we take it as a given that science and technology form a key underpinning for human advancement. But all anybody needs to do to be convinced about their importance is to scan today’s headlines about pressing global concerns of our finite world. Consider, for instance, the coming food-water-energy crisis, the ongoing transformation of […]

Robots: Out of the Factory and Into Our Lives

By Banning Garrett

While 3D printing is changing the when, where and how of things are made in the Third Industrial Revolution (TIR), the new robotics is enhancing productivity and changing the role of humans in the production process and the overall economy. The development of a new generation of robots that are easier to program and are […]

Digitizing Life: The New Frontier

By Banning Garrett

Synthetic biology and bioengineering are an emerging factor in the Third Industrial Revolution (TIR), building on the convergence of a wide range of technologies leading to development of new, previously unimaginable technological capabilities. While there are a huge number of potentially beneficial products of the synbio revolution, there are also growing concerns about the potential […]

From Start-ups to Space Exploration

By Banning Garrett

The Revolutionary Impact of 3D Printing The Economist has hailed 3D printing (3DP) as the foundation of the Third Industrial Revolution. 3D printing is a process of layering to make things rather than carving them out of pieces of material. Although the basic 3D printing technology was invented three decades ago, it has reached a […]

An Emerging Third Industrial Revolution

By Banning Garrett

 Politicians and policymakers understandably focus almost exclusively on near-term problems and crises. They often operate in reactive mode as hotspots and domestic political pressures set priorities. But their “global operating environment” (GOE) is rapidly changing, often in ways that affect national security challenges and choices in the present as well as in the future. To […]

The security of cities: ecology and conflict on an urbanizing planet

By Peter Engelke

A new report issued jointly by the Atlantic Council and the Stimson Center, The Security of Cities: Ecology and Conflict on an Urbanizing Planet, argues that the environmental security field has yet to incorporate global urbanization, the twenty-first century’s central demographic trend, fully into its purview.

Capitalizing on the Urban Future

On October 31, 2013, the Strategic Foresight Initiative (SFI) of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted the launch event for USAID’s Policy for an Urbanizing World.

Scowcroft Center Launches Report in China

The Brent Scowcroft Center’s Strategic Foresight Initiative launched their recent report China-US Cooperation: Key to the Global Future at an event in Bejing. The report was published in partnership with the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) and supported by the China-United States Exchange Foundation. An impressive group of speakers and panelists participated in the […]

US-China: A New Model of Great Power Relations

By Stephen J. Hadley

This week Atlantic Council board director Stephen J. Hadley, principal at RiceHadleyGates and former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, delivered a lecture at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy on the future of the US-China relationship. The full text of his remarks are below.

A Conversation with Urban Ahlin on Disruptive Technology

On October 10, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted an off-the-record roundtable on disruptive technologies for Mr. Urban Ahlin, Swedish Member of Parliament and foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party of Sweden.

Peter Ho Discusses Building Actionable Foresight

On October 9, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted an off-the-record roundtable discussion on building actionable foresight for urban resilience with Mr. Peter Ho, Senior Advisor for the Centre for Strategic Futures in the Republic of Singapore. 

A Vision for China-US Relations

On September 17 the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative hosted a distinguished panel discussion for the launch of the China-US Cooperation: Key to Global Future report, the culmination of a yearlong US-China Joint Assessment Project. For the project, the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative, housed in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, partnered with […]

Prepared Remarks by C. H. Tung on China-US Cooperation

Prepared remarks by C. H. Tung, chairman, China-US Exchange Foundation; former chief executive and president, Executive Council of Hong Kong, delivered at a launch event for the report China-US Cooperation: Key to the Future on September 17, 2013.