July 16, 2012

Security Considerations for a Warming Arctic

In the past, extreme conditions deterred maritime exploration throughout much of the Arctic. This left huge frozen reserves of oil, natural gas, and mineral wealth virtually untouched by the world’s five major Arctic States: Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States. Now, global climate changes are altering human accessibility to these untapped resources, creating new possibilities for trade, development, and conflict. In this 2012 Working Paper, Dr. Jim Keagle and Mr. Christopher Mann survey the issues most relevant to Department of Defense policy-makers.

Feb. 1, 2010

Affordable Defense Capabilities for Future NATO Missions

This Special Report was produced by CTNSP to support the NATO Strategic Concept process. The new NATO Strategic Concept offers an important opportunity to strengthen efforts to reform and modernize NATO institutionally, and develop new defense capabilities for the Alliance. To achieve these aims, NATO muse begin a separate transformational process to assess current military capabilities and pursue future requirements over a 5-10 year period. The goal should be to develop specific sets of initiatives and reforms for approval by Heads of State and Government at the Lisbon Summit in 2010. This process should be informed by the development of the new Strategic Concept and run parallel to it. In a rapidly changing security environment, postponing such a process until after the Strategic Concept is completed would increase risks for the Alliance. This report is designed to stimulate that parallel process.

Dec. 1, 2009

Defense Business Transformation

Over the past 20 years, information technology has been rapidly advancing, producing new capabilities that enable organizations to greatly enhance visibility into their business operations. While many private organizations have successfully taken advantage of these new technologies to develop enterprise-wide information systems that reduce costs and improve performance, the federal governments still lags far behind. DoD, one of the largest organization in the world with an annual budget over $500 billion, still relies on several thousand, non-integrated, and noninteroperable information legacy systems, that are error prone and redundant and do not provide the enterprise visibility necessary to make sound management decisions. Moreover, between FY07 and FY 09, DoD has requested from Congress over $47 billion in appropriations to operate, maintain, and modernize these business systems.

Dec. 1, 2009

A Policymaker’s Guide to Bioterrorism and What To Do About It

This paper draws together several years of work in an attempt to suggest the outlines of this thinking about the risk that the author regards as most pernicious: biological terrorism. It is written for those who desire a better understanding of this risk and its implications for policymakers.

Feb. 1, 2009

Alliance Reborn: An Atlantic Compact for the 21st Century

Alliance Reborn: An Atlantic Compact for the 21st Century is a major policy report with fresh, independent ideas and analysis on the future roles and missions of the NATO Alliance. It calls for a reinvigorated Atlantic partnership to tackle global challenges and a new structure for NATO that rebalances its “home and away missions,” forges a fuller partnership with the European Union and other institutions, reorients Alliance military capabilities, reforms command arrangements, and changes decision-making, spending, and management practices. It also proposes urgent shifts in NATO strategy in Afghanistan and relations with Russia In fall 2008, four U.S. think tanks – the Atlantic Council of the United States; the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at the National Defense University (NDU); and the Center for Transatlantic Relations (CTR) at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) – launched the Washington NATO Project to spark debate before and after NATO’s 60th anniversary summit in April, 2009. The Washington NATO Project seeks to generate new ideas and thinking about the transatlantic community’s role in a changing global security environment.

July 7, 2008

Bird Flu & You: A Quick Guide to Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Pandemic Flu

In anticipation of a possible flu pandemic, the Life Sciences group at CTNSP has started a number of initiatives to address both civilian and military implications. This poster is based on the November 2006 Defense & Technology Paper, “Weathering the Storm: Leading Your Organization Through a Pandemic”.

May 1, 2008

Preparing for Catastrophic Bioterrorism: Toward a Long-Term Strategy for Limiting the Risk

This paper, circulated within government early in 2006, outlines an approach to these requirements and provides several examples of how the application of this approach can create a strategy. As described below, several of the recommendations offered here have recently been acted upon, some of them encouraged by this work, others as a consequence of independent, parallel initiatives. Nonetheless, more than 6 years—a period longer than World War II—after the 2001 anthrax letters catalyzed greater government efforts to counter bioterrorism, our homeland security officials are still struggling to define a biodefense strategy. This paper is being published in the hope that a broader discussion will yield further progress.

May 1, 2006

Transatlantic Homeland Defense

CTNSP/INSS Special Report NATO plays an essential role in defense of the transatlantic homeland from terrorism and other transnational threats, but it could do more, including in support of national, European Union, and Partner efforts to enhance societal security. This paper proposes an initiative to enhance NATO’s planning and capabilities in this area at the Alliance’s November 2006 Riga Summit. This back-to-basics approach is designed to ensure that NATO can deal effectively with new threats to the transatlantic homeland. it would also enhance NATO’s relevance in the eyes of the public on both sides of the Atlantic.

Jan. 1, 2006

Report to the Congress: Information Technology Program

In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002, the Report of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, stated that the “Department of Defense can no longer depend on a dedicated defense industrial base, but will need to find ways to link advanced commercial technologies to improved military capabilities.” Congress asked CTNSP to implement a program “to find practical ways in which the defense information technology (IT) community can gain a mutual understanding of defense needs and industry capabilities and identify opportunities to integrate technology innovation in the U.S. military strategy.”

Dec. 1, 2003

Commercial Information Technology Possibilities: Perspectives on its Future Role in Military Operations as Inspired by Visits to Selected Sites

There has been a substantial amount of discussion in the DOD community about the availability of commercially funded R&D products capable of supporting ongoing and anticipated military operations. Those who doubt the availability of such technological products point to the past necessity of military R&D investment to assure American technological superiority. Pundits who hold that commercial investments are currently producing products relevant to military operations point to the incredible growth of various consumer markets, e.g. electronics, telecommunications and personal computers. This report describes the efforts of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) to assess the availability of Information Technology to support current and future military operations. In short, we wanted to consider whether there exist technological winners—or keepers—derived from research and development (R&D) investments initiated and sustained by private-sector firms. Based on the case studies derived from this study’s purposive sample, we believe strongly that currently available technological products can easily be adopted by users and institutions within DOD. Moreover, we assert that these technologies will be able to support future operations effectively.