Industrial Base

The Security and Democracy Forum was founded on a simple belief: national security and democratic institutions are not competing priorities. They are mutually reinforcing. Our national security institutions protect the freedoms that allow democracy to flourish, while our democratic institutions provide the accountability, legitimacy, and resilience that make us more secure. Advancing that conversation requires more than policy advocacy. It requires creating a forum where scho

When discussing the war in Iran with my college-aged peers, the first question they typically ask is, “Why?” Most of the headlines focus on the potential fallout of the war: soaring gas prices, lasting instability in the Middle East, the possibility of a U.S. ground invasion. Few news articles clearly explain the motives for our strikes against Iran. Is this war about regime change? Is it about axing Iran’s nuclear capabilities? Is it about securing control over the Strait of

In recent decades, humans have transformed the Earth so much that we no longer live in the geologic epoch called the Holocene. Instead, many scientists believe that the Earth has entered a new geologic epoch called the Anthropocene, which is marked by a new stratigraphic layer in the Earth’s crust characterized by human creations, such as plastics, pollution, and radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons. Besides the changes to the geologic structure of the Earth, the conditio

USMCA, the updated North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is critical for U.S. economic security. It has resulted in $775 billion invested in the United States by Mexico and Canada, 55% more investment than before USMCA came into effect in 2020—despite COVID. USMCA makes North America an attractive cohesive market.

The Pentagon doesn’t have a lethality problem. It has a logistics problem.

In a move that signals both the urgency of America's supply chain vulnerabilities and the government's willingness to intervene in...

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to realize it might be the solution to another sticky issue. Across rural America,...

The VET Act is a refreshingly strategic approach. It doesn’t just support veterans for their own sake. It aligns national workforce development with energy transition and national security.

This op-ed argues that U.S. efforts to “de-risk” critical mineral supply chains will fail without soft power, transparency, and long-term partnerships to replace dependence on China with genuine resilience.