Happy holidays everyone!
As we close out 2025, I want to take a moment to reflect on the past year and the direction ahead for the National Security Institute. Last year, I wrote NSI’s responsibilities in moments of uncertainty and challenge around the globe and, over the past year, those challenges have only sharpened. With a war fomented by Russia continuing in the heart of Europe, ongoing economic and military provocations by China at home and abroad, (finally) a responsive strike against our key adversary in the Middle East, a newly militarized war on drugs in the Caribbean, and the potential for a regime change in our own hemisphere, not to mention all sort of national security related chaos on home front (and some great news as well), our role as leaders in the national security community is that much more important. Indeed, NSI’s role as a trusted convener, educator, and source of clear-eyed analysis at the intersection of national security, technology, and allied cooperation is likely as critical as it has ever been.
One of the most important developments this year has been the continued deepening of NSI’s engagement with U.S. allies and partners, even as they (rightly or wrongly) see the U.S. as abandoning the field in key theatres while increasing its footprint and role elsewhere. Throughout 2025, NSI strengthened relationships with embassies and diplomatic missions across Europe and in the Indo-Pacific, engaging ambassadors and senior diplomatic officials from allies and partner nations including Estonia, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic, as well as building new relationships with our Quad partners. These conversations brought together allied leaders, U.S. policymakers, and experts to examine shared challenges related to collective defense, critical infrastructure resilience, and alliance adaptation in the face of Russian aggression in Europe and broader authoritarian pressure from the combined efforts of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Together, these new alliance efforts reflect NSI’s view that modern allies are shifting (and ought shift) to accounting not just for geography, resources, and military strength, but technological relationships as well. They also demonstrate NSI’s growing role as a trusted platform for serious, forward-looking allied dialogue at a moment when cohesion and coordination are increasingly essential.
As briefly noted above, this year, NSI also began laying the groundwork for a new Quad Working Group, exploring how the United States, India, Japan, and Australia can better align on security, emerging technologies, and economic resilience. While this effort remains in its early stages, it reflects NSI’s intent to serve as a convening platform to support deeper policy coordination among Quad partners to counter our common adversaries in the Indo-Pacific and beyond in the years ahead.
A major milestone for NSI in 2025 was the continued expansion of our work in AI domain, including a new series of close, off-the-record engagements with senior congressional staff, designed to build stronger, lasting relationships and to reinforce NSI’s role as a trusted resource on Capitol Hill, a number of salon dinners and public events, the publication of key opinion pieces and congressional testimony, as well as a deepening of our work on AI-enabled national security wargaming.
On the latter front, this year, NSI conducted a sophisticated wargame involving representatives from NATO embassies across Canada, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland. The exercise was designed not simply as a tabletop scenario, but as an opportunity to explore how artificial intelligence is changing the way policymakers approach crisis situations. By integrating AI-generated adversary actions into a rapidly evolving crisis scenario, the wargame offered critical insights into escalation dynamics, alliance coordination, and decision-making under pressure. The lessons drawn from this exercise are shaping NSI’s next phase of work as we continue to build capacity and expertise in this growing and increasingly important field.
And beyond AI, our discussions with senior staff on Capitol Hill also explored issues ranging from cybersecurity and defense modernization to the future of U.S. cyber cooperation within the NATO alliance. These discussions have continued well beyond the room, with NSI and congressional staff regularly following up to get feedback from fellows and provide our perspective to key staffers as they navigate complex policy decisions. We also expanded our engagements with key personnel in the Executive Branch, weighing in on matters ranging from personnel, tech modernization, and acquisition to AI and cyber policy.
NSI also remained engaged in key convenings throughout the year, including the GeoTech Forum and the Critical Minerals & National Security Forum. Notably, the GeoTech Forum was a student-led initiative, underscoring NSI’s commitment to experiential learning and to connecting students directly with policymakers, technologists, and national security practitioners working at the forefront of strategic competition.
Investing in students has always been central to NSI’s mission, and this year that commitment took an important step forward as NSI officially launched the first cohort of the NSI CTC TEACH Cybersecurity & AI Clinic in partnership with Howard University’s School of Business. After announcing the clinic last year with support from a $1M launch grant from Google.org and the Tides Foundation, Fall 2025 marked the start of joint classes for law students from Scalia Law and undergraduate business majors from Howard University and the beginning of hands-on training designed to prepare these students for applied work in cybersecurity and AI. Beginning in the spring, students will work directly with under-resourced nonprofit organizations, including Bread for the City, the Center for Youth and Family Advocacy, Arlington Free Clinic, and Digital Pioneers Academy, putting NSI’s model of applied, service-oriented learning into practice by helping these organizations think through how to best secure their technology systems and how to use AI to drive their efforts forward.
This year also marked the official launch of NSI’s Alumni Network, providing a structured way to engage students, fellows, advisory board members, and staff who have or are part of the NSI family, having worked with us or having come through NSI’s internships, academic programs, and summer initiatives, among other things. This network is designed to sustain and deepen those connections as alumni move into roles across government, industry, and the broader national security community. Together, these efforts reflect NSI’s long-term commitment to cultivating talent and maintaining engagement well beyond the classroom.
That commitment was on full display during this year’s National Security Summer Program in Prague. Students had the opportunity to study with and learn directly from an extraordinary group of leaders, including Dawn Meyerriecks, former Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the CIA; Samantha Ravich, Chair of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Cully Stimson, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation (and Rector of George Mason University); Judge Harris Hartz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; and Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. As in prior years, the program offered students unparalleled exposure to senior jurists, decision-makers, and practitioners, including, of course, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who taught NSI Scalia Law students for the eighth consecutive year, reinforcing NSI’s commitment to rigorous education grounded in real-world experience.
As I look back on 2025, it is clear that the need for NSI’s vision of an America that leans forward in the world as a force for good, defending freedom and fighting for democratic values—and an America that is the strongest ally to its friends and the fiercest foe for its adversaries—is more important than ever. It is likewise clear that NSI’s priorities in the areas of AI, defense modernization, and a strategic rethinking of American alliances to account for economics and technology are shared by key leaders across both the Hill and the Executive Branch. As such, in a world where strategic competition has intensified, alliances are being tested, and emerging technologies are reshaping the security landscape at speed, it is clear that 2026 will be a year of increased opportunity for NSI. NSI is well positioned to build on this year’s momentum, deepening allied cooperation, expanding our work on AI and emerging technologies, and continuing to educate and empower the next generation of national security leaders.
None of this would be possible without your continued support and belief in NSI’s mission. I am deeply grateful for the role you play in enabling our work, and for your partnership as we navigate an increasingly consequential moment for our nation and our allies.
From all of us at NSI, I wish you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season and a very happy New Year.
Sincerely,
Jamil N. Jaffer
Founder & Executive Director, National Security Institute