Our inspiration
The Scowcroft Center honors General Brent Scowcroft’s legacy of service and embodies his ethos of nonpartisan commitment to the cause of security, support for US leadership in cooperation with allies and partners, and dedication to the mentorship of the next generation of leaders. The Scowcroft Center currently houses four major practice areas: the Foresight, Strategy, and Risks Initiative; the Transatlantic Security Initiative; the Asia Security Initiative; and the Cyber Statecraft Initiative. It also collaborates on the Regional Security Program housed within the Council’s Middle East Programs. The Scowcroft Center also houses the growing Emergent Futures Lab.
Scowcroft Center initiatives
Foresight, Strategy, and Risks Initiative
The Foresight, Strategy, and Risks Initiative (FSR) advances the Atlantic Council’s mission to support renewed, constructive, and resourceful US leadership. Its competencies in long-range assessments, strategy development, and global trends will prove especially useful during a time when world dynamics are increasingly complex and unpredictable.
Cyber Statecraft Initiative
The Cyber Statecraft Initiative (CSI) works to make cyberspace more stable and secure and is focused relentlessly on providing practical, innovative, and relevant solutions to the challenges in cyberspace. The Initiative brings together a diverse network of respected experts, bridging the gap between the technical and policy communities at events like its regular Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge series, and the annual International Conference on Cyber Engagement.
Asia Security Initiative
The Asia Security Initiative (ASI) develops purposeful programming designed to create an Atlantic-Pacific Community that can adapt, revitalize, and defend the rules-based international order in Asia. The effort is grounded in a dual approach of providing fresh perspectives on traditional issues (regional security and political-economic architecture) while assessing a new agenda of non-traditional topics (cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things) to develop new strategies and policies.
Transatlantic Security Initiative
The Transatlantic Security Initiative (TSI) brings together senior officials and experts from Europe and North America to share insights, strengthen cooperation, and develop innovative approaches to the key challenges facing NATO and the transatlantic community. Through high-profile public convenings, off-the-record strategy sessions, war-gaming, digital engagement, and content-rich publications, the initiative directly advances the Council’s core mission of informing the transatlantic security debate.
Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative
The Atlantic Council’s work on Middle East security honors the legacy of Brent Scowcroft and his tireless efforts to build a new security architecture for the region. Our work in this area addresses the full range of security threats and challenges including the danger of interstate warfare, the role of terrorist groups and other nonstate actors, and the underlying security threats facing countries in the region.
Featured work
Commanders Series
The Atlantic Council Strategy Papers series (ACSP) is the Atlantic Council’s flagship outlet for publishing high-level, strategic thinking. The series seeks to develop and promote sustainable, non-partisan strategies on the most important challenges facing the United States and its allies. The papers are authored by leading authorities and including a range of established and emerging strategic thinkers, from within and outside the Atlantic Council. The series is overseen by the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and works in conjunction with other Atlantic Council Centers to create regional strategy task forces focusing on East Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Iran.
Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series
The Atlantic Council Strategy Papers series (ACSP) is the Atlantic Council’s flagship outlet for publishing high-level, strategic thinking. The series seeks to develop and promote sustainable, non-partisan strategies on the most important challenges facing the United States and its allies. The papers are authored by leading authorities and including a range of established and emerging strategic thinkers, from within and outside the Atlantic Council. The series is overseen by the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and works in conjunction with other Atlantic Council Centers to create regional strategy task forces focusing on East Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Iran.
NATO at 70
The 70th anniversary of the Washington Treaty is more than a historical moment to commemorate NATO’s past, but also an opportunity to address the challenges facing NATO today and to highlight its mission going forward. At this critical juncture for the transatlantic community, the Atlantic Council is building a substantive campaign powered by digital-forward content to inform community leaders, decisionmakers, and the broader population of NATO’s enduring value. This effort will seek to celebrate the Alliance’s achievements, share NATO’s story, and demonstrate its renewed importance.
Featured commentary and analysis
Tue, Jan 28, 2020
The 2010s: A cyber decade in review
The past ten years have, among other things, witnessed the most-costly cyberattack on record, the discovery of a computer worm capable of wreaking physical destruction, and USCYBERCOM’s elevation to unified combatant command status. As we turn the page to 2020, we’re looking back to recap the most significant, overblown, and emergent cyber incidents of the decade.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Tue, Jan 7, 2020
US-Iran in crisis: Strategic ambiguity and loud weapons in cyberspace
Iran’s government will feel the need to retaliate against the United States, but it does not wish to ignite a prolonged war with the United States. The regime’s near-term aim is to demonstrate to its domestic and regional constituencies that it has the capability and the resolve to avenge Soleimani’s killing and, more strategically, to drum up support for hardliners ahead of legislative elections next month. While Iran has a number of options available, its cyber toolkit not one to be overlooked.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler, Katherine Wolff, Will Loomis
Tue, Dec 3, 2019
Don’t be fooled: Russia is still NATO’s greatest challenge
“Russia has shown with its actions that it is a serious security threat,” Estonian defense minister Jüri Luik said during a panel discussion on Baltic and Black sea security during the NATO engages event in London on December 3. “For Lithuania, [Russia] is the only external existential threat we have,” added Lithuanian defense minister Raimundas Karoblis.
New Atlanticist by David A. Wemer
Featured in-depth research and reports
Thu, Feb 6, 2020
Withdrawal deadlines in war: Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
Withdrawal timetables do not achieve the political benefits that policymakers desire, but they do incur the risks policymakers rightly fear.
Report by Paul D. Miller
Wed, Dec 11, 2019
Aviation cybersecurity: Scoping the challenge
The digital attack surface the aviation sector presents to its adversaries continues to grow in such a way that both managing risk and gaining insight on it remain difficult. With emerging technologies like machine learning and fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications seeing wider adoption—alongside electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL), autonomous aircraft, and increased use of space—aviation-cybersecurity risk management is on the cusp of becoming more complex.
Report by Pete Cooper, Simon Handler, Safa Shahwan Edwards
Tue, Dec 10, 2019
A candle in the dark: US national security strategy for artificial intelligence
AI is expected to have a transformational impact on the future of geopolitics, defense, and security. In this fluctuating environment, where the US is engaged in a high-stakes competition with is near-peer adversaries, and AI is enabling paradigm-shifting changes in public and private sector operations, how should the US respond?
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