
VISION
The NSI Cyber and Technology Center (CTC) will take on and expand NSI’s current efforts to promote American leadership in technology innovation and engage with policymakers on critical issues at the intersection of technology and national security.
CORE PHILOSOPHY
America’s long-standing role as the world’s technology leader has enabled it to cement its role as an economic and political leader as well. To maintain its global leadership, the U.S. should continue to promote rapid innovation and economic growth domestically, and create effective capabilities to protect and defend the U.S. and allied economic base.
NSI’s CTC’s mission is to promote – through dialogue with experts, engagement with policymakers, and cutting-edge research – American technology leadership and to tackle critical innovation, cyber, and emerging technology challenges.
FOCUS AREAS
NSI CTC will focus on six critical issue areas and address new areas as they arise:
- Tech innovation and economic and national security
- Collective and collaborative cyber defense
- Blockchain innovation and national security
- Emerging tech and national security
- Evolving cyber threat environment
- Growing the U.S. tech workforce
PUBLICATIONS
LAW AND POLICY PAPERS
June 10, 2021
Zach Graves
Understanding the Techlash: Implications for U.S. Innovation Policy
December 10, 2020
Megan Brown
Promoting 5G and Future Technology Development by Supporting Global Standards
September 18, 2020
Dr. Craig J. Wiener, Kristen R. Hajduk, and Gregory S. Witt
Military in Space: The Next Frontier
July 29, 2020
Megan Brown and Andrea Little Limbago
Techlash and National Security: The Need for U.S. Leadership on Privacy and Security.
March 18, 2020
Andy Keiser
The Race to 5G: Securing the Win
January 24, 2019
Andy Keiser and Bryan Smith
Chinese Telecommunications Companies Huawei and ZTE: Countering a Hostile Foreign Threat
DECISION MEMOS
July 27, 2023
Jamil N. Jaffer
Addressing the National Security Threat of Chinese Technological Innovation
December 15, 2020
Lori Gordon and Andrea Little Limbago
Building Trusted Global Supply Chain Ecosystems in a Fractured World
REPORTS
May 10, 2022
National Security Institute & Trusted Future
Polling Memo: National Survey on Cybersecurity, Trust, and Tech Policy
May 23, 2019
Dr. Andrea Little Limbago
Combating Digital Authoritarianism: U.S. Alternative Needed to Counter Data Localization and Government Control
April 1, 2019
Mike Rogers and Glynn Nye III
Securing the Highest Ground: Integrating Commercial Space Innovation Into National Security Missions
October 11, 2018
Megan L. Brown
Cyber Imperative: Preserve and Strengthen Public-Private Partnerships
BACKGROUNDERS
December 6, 2022
Jamil N. Jaffer
The Role of American Technology Sector in Safeguarding U.S. Economic and National Security
December 16, 2020
Matthew F. Ferraro
Decoding Deepfakes
December 2, 2020
Lori Gordon and Bryan Smith
Beyond GPS: The Frontier of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services
COMMENTARY
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China is Edging Out the U.S. Military’s Advantage on Tech, by CTC Fellow Mark Montgomery, in The Hill.
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Quantum Computing and a New Age of Espionage, an interview of CTC Fellow JC Herz, by TechCrunch
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Software Supply Chain Attacks, an article which quoted CTC Council Philip Reitinger, for Local SYR.
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Generative AI: Balancing security with innovation by CTC Council member Shaun Khaulfan, for CIO .
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State of Cybersecurity Posture: The Overarching Problem Is Scale by CTC Council Member Philip Reitinger, for Homeland Security Today.
PAST EVENTS
LAUNCH EVENTS
FAULT LINES SUMMER SERIES ON AI

Fault Lines, the National Security Institute’s flagship podcast, produced a summer series on AI, Breaking Barriers: Understanding the AI Revolution, hosting a number of amazing guests who touched on different aspects of AI, including scientific advancements, policy development, and potential regulation. NSI was happy to hear from:
- Episode 239 and 240: Dr. Stephen Wolfram, Founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, on the basics and benefits AI and AI policy
- Episode 241: Dr. Hany Farid, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, on how AI is leveraged for misinformation and disinformation
- Episode 242: Sue Gordon, former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, on AI in the defense sector
- Episode 243: Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, on the Biden Administration’s AI initiatives and her assessment of China’s current and future AI capabilities
- Episode 244: Michèle Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, on whether AI is a net threat or a net opportunity for the Department of Defense
- Episode 245: Dr. Charles Clancy, Senior Vice President and Chief Futurist of MITRE and head of MITRE Labs, on where large language models are headed and what sensible AI security looks like
- Episode 246: Dr. Gary Marcus, Founder and Executive Chairman of Robust AI, on how to balance ethics and the rise of AI in the private sector and society more broadly
- Episode 247: Ylli Bajraktari, President and CEO of the Special Competitive Studies Project, on how AI is transforming the battlefield and what is at stake if the U.S. loses the AI race to China
- Episode 248: Will Hurd, candidate for the Republican nomination for President, former U.S. Representative for Texas’s 23rd District, and former Board Member for OpenAI, on what Congress has done in the wake of AI and what that means for Americans
- Episode 249: Jennifer K. Hay, Director of the Defense Digital Service in the Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Office of the Department of Defense, on how the DOD is responding to and grappling with the AI revolution