In 1942, the United States utilized the greatest minds in particle physics to spearhead the Manhattan Project and achieve an absolute victory in World War II. NASA employed a similar approach for the Apollo missions to beat the Soviets and win the space race, giving life to advanced computing technologies, material sciences, and communication satellites. Under President Ronald Reagan, the Strategic Defense Initiative, which its critics mockingly called “Star Wars,” allowed the U.S. to out-innovate the Soviets in directed energy weapons, space-based sensors, and kinetic interceptors.
In each of these examples, the U.S. was able to leverage perhaps its greatest comparative advantage over the opposition: American innovation and the freedom to manufacture the future. But as technological innovation in today’s geopolitical landscape accelerates at an unprecedented pace, the U.S. must abandon its more recent posture of reacting to emerging threats and transition to a proactive posture that detects, deters, and suppresses threats before they even emerge.
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