GeoStrategy Initiative Analysis and Events

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.