Strategy

As China expands its military reach in West Africa, the United States risks losing strategic ground on the continent. The next National Defense Strategy must confront China’s ambitions beyond the Indo-Pacific, balancing defense diplomacy, bilateral military relationships, and counterterrorism.

Since World War II, US geopolitical influence has been compounded by the role of the dollar as the world’s dominant currency. As global economic power becomes more diffuse and strategic competitors “dedollarize,” policymakers must determine how to maintain the dollar’s role at the center of global trade and financial networks.

NATO lacks the operational integration, logistics, and joint force capabilities needed to quickly counter Russian mass and tempo near its borders. With the United States increasingly focused elsewhere, how can the Alliance retain military superiority in 2027 without overreliance on US military might?

China exercises substantial control over the commercial drone market, which poses a security challenge for the United States and its allies and partners. What strategy will help the United States and its allies and partners counter China’s drone-market dominance?

The United States and its allies must leverage generative artificial intelligence to outcompete strategic rivals.

A fully developed strategy for using foreign aid across all sectors—economic, education, security assistance, and democracy support—can provide critical reinforcement to the military and economic pillars of strategic competition.

The Trump administration will soon release a National Security Strategy. Experts who have contributed to past strategies share their perspectives on how to make one worth drafting and reading.

The United States can take five specific actions now to disabuse the Russian president of the belief that he can simply play for time in Ukraine.

The United States must adopt an innovative defense posture that matches the pace and complexity of foreign influence operations.

Five steps taken now can help put the White House in a better position to manage the spiral of escalation between Israel and Iran.

Our experts provide a look inside the numbers that will frame the high-stakes gathering of Group of Seven leaders in Alberta.

The Canadian prime minister gave his first major defense and security speech on June 9, describing an unraveling international order and an increasingly unreliable United States.

On August 11, Alexander B. Gray, nonresident senior fellow of the GeoStrategy Initiative of the Scowcroft Center, appeared on Fox News to discuss the anticipated meeting between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

On August 1, 2025, Andrew Michta, senior fellow in the GeoStrategy Initiative, was published in RealClearDefense on what Europe’s “rapidly shifting internal power dynamic” may mean for Germany’s role in the continent’s security architecture. The piece was featured in RealClearWorld.

On July 7, Alexander B. Gray, a nonresident senior fellow with the GeoStrategy Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, was published in the National Interest on how the US presidential administration could use tariffs on imports produced using highly pollutive methods to level the playing field on trade.

On June 30, Andrew Michta, senior fellow in the GeoStrategy Initiative, was published in 19FortyFive on the outcomes of the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague. He argues that the summit underscored the United States’ role as the cornerstone of European security and notes that the pursuit of European defense autonomy remains impractical given current […]

Jamie Metzl, nonresident senior fellow in the GeoStrategy Initiative, offered analysis across numerous media platforms including, Fox News, CNN, News Nation, Fox & Friends, the Brian Kilmeade Show, the New York Post, and Mediaite following US President Trump’s decision to attack Iran’s nuclear sites. He argued that the United States is now better positioned to […]

On June 17, Carolien Zier, nonresident senior fellow in the GeoStrategy Initiative, was interviewed on ABC News on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran and potential US responses. She emphasized that the US has the critical imperative to protect its forces in the region while standing firm with its allies.