The Time for National Missile Defense Is Coming
When Ronald Reagan unveiled his vision for the Strategic Defense Initiative, often referred to in the press as the “Star Wars Program,” the primary threat to national security came from the Soviet...
View ArticleThe End of the "End of Oil"
People who are spreading fear about the world running out of oil are either trying to distort the markets, or they fail to understand the underlying realities of the business that delivers gasoline to...
View ArticleScience Is Profoundly Changing the Dynamics of Bioterrorism
Since 1945, mankind’s worst nightmare has been nuclear weapons. But, for the next generation, the worst nightmare is likely to be biological weapons. The threat related to an unstoppable and rapidly...
View ArticleGlobal Migration Is Reaching a Crisis Point
According to a new report from the United Nations, 191 million people now live in countries other than the ones in which they were born.1 The sheer growth in the number of immigrants is accelerating at...
View ArticleThe Hyper-Transparency Challenge
An unprecedented amount of intelligence about every public company is now accessible to executives, employees, competitors, shareholders, regulators, suppliers, and the media. Combined with a new...
View ArticleThe Growing Panic Over a "North American Union"
One of the most popular “conspiracy theories” making the rounds of the Internet is that the United States will soon merge with Canada and Mexico to form a single large “country” called the North...
View ArticleThe Inevitable Confrontation with Iran
According to a recent Gallup Poll, the American public views Iran as the single greatest threat to world stability. Moreover, most Americans support recent U.S. sanctions against Iran. Another poll,...
View ArticleThe Sky Is the Limit for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Unmanned aerial vehicles are filling the skies of Iraq and wreaking havoc on Al Qaeda. The first UAVs were intended for surveillance: simple flying machines that carried cameras. But soon, the UAVs...
View ArticleRobotic Suits Amplify Human Capabilities
A company in Salt Lake City called Sarcos Inc. is under contract with the U.S. Army to develop a robotic suit that can be worn to amplify a person's strength by 20 times, according to a report in the...
View ArticleThe "Lab on a Chip" Revolution
The business of chemical analysis has a long history, possibly going back to the 1600s. But modern analytical chemistry truly began in the 1830s with the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, who...
View ArticleGrowing Geopolitical Uncertainty, the "Wild Card" of the Near Future
As we learned on September 11, 2001, geopolitical threats can materialize in a moment and change the reality of our lives forever. For investors, managers, and citizens, the real challenge is to be...
View ArticleArtificial Life
Since Mary Shelley first dreamed up Frankenstein's monster in the early 19th century, and perhaps long before, scientists have wondered if it would be possible to create artificial life. It's been 50...
View ArticleCyber Warfare: The Growing Threat to Our Nation, Our Businesses, and Our Way...
In the time it takes to read or listen to this sentence, more than 6,000 cyber attacks will be launched by terrorists and foreign countries against the U.S. government and American businesses. These...
View ArticleMachines That Can See
After more than 50 years of research, machine vision technology has recently reached the point in its development where it is ready for commercial application. Now, the rush is on to make the most...
View ArticleThe West Begins to Address Chinese Industrial Espionage
Reading about spies can be intriguing, whether they are in novels or real life. There's a certain romance about the cloak-and-dagger world they inhabit — unless your company becomes the victim of...
View ArticleMicro-Electromechanical Systems Become Mainstream
It turns out Walt Disney was right. It is a small world after all. At least, the world where micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) operate, is very small. Their impact, however, is quite large and...
View ArticleDefending Your Reputation
In a 2010 study by Microsoft, reported in the New York Times,1 75 percent of executive recruiters and human-resource professionals surveyed said they research promising candidates online, using search...
View ArticleDirected Energy Weapons Mature
As our military hardware grows in sophistication and capability, so do the price tags. For example, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier costs up to $5 billion and carries up to $3 billion worth of...
View ArticleThe Internet Grows More Dangerous
Any assumption that technological advances in cyber security have made the Internet safer is simply wrong. Consider just a few examples:A Microsoft Windows computer worm labeled "Stuxnet" is now...
View ArticleThe Ever-Changing Cyber-Security Threat
Data used to live in a safe and tidy world. Sensitive information was locked up in a physical building, unreachable by undesirables. Of course, it was also virtually unreachable by those who could...
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Computers Everywhere: What It Means for Our Lives and Careers
In 1949, Popular Mechanics predicted, "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." This forecast, of course, was technically accurate — it just missed the mark by being far too...
View ArticleThe Biggest Unaddressed Threat to Our Security
Although few people are aware of it, the U.S. is not prepared to withstand an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event. There are two types of EMPs, but they are both equal in the devastation they could cause...
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Robots at War
The U.S. military’s successful deployment of drones in combat provides a glimpse into the future of warfare. Without putting any U.S. pilots in danger, drones can deliver precisely targeted, highly...
View ArticlePolicing in the Twenty-First Century
In a world of ubiquitous surveillance, the demands for citizens’ security and privacy are constantly clashing.Biometrics, artificial intelligence, embedded computing, micro-sensors, and the Internet of...
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Big Brother is Alive and Well in China
Imagine a world where many of your daily activities are constantly monitored and evaluated: what you buy at the shops and online; where you are at any given time; who your friends are and how you...
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Emerging Genomic Revolution in Security
As explained in the December 2017 issue of Trends, research shows that by 2022, counterfeiting of tangible products will to drain up to $1.8 trillion a year from the legitimate global economy and put...
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Addressing the Threat from Hypersonic Weapons
With China militarizing the South China Sea and Russia expanding into the Ukraine and working closely with Iran in Syria, the major powers are gearing up for the kind of stand-offs last seen during...
View ArticleOff We Go into the Wild Black Yonder
In June 2018, the President directed the Pentagon to establish a “Space Force,” describing it as a sixth branch of the U.S. military. In August, Vice President Pence said, “Establishing the Space...
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Directed Energy Weapons Are About to Go Mainstream
The first generation of battle-ready laser weapons are now in the latter stages of development. And combat deployment could begin as soon as 2023. Within a decade, they’ll be installed on ground...
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Space, The Final (Military) Frontier
The Sino-American struggle for 21st-century dominance is complex and involves a wide range of intertwined political, economic, and military threats and opportunities. Inevitably, space will become a...
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Reinvigorating the National Defense Industrial Base
As in the 20th century, the best way to ensure that a Cold War does not become a “hot one” is by one side maintaining an overwhelming lead in terms of both the quality and quantity of weaponry....
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The Decline of America’s Major Urban Centers
Metaphorically, America’s cities are burning. These major urban centers, which were already losing population before the pandemic, have provided the ideal kindling for a “social conflagration” in the...
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