Future Security Initiative
Welcome
The Future Security Initiative (FSI) is a collaborative hub that reconceptualizes U.S. security policy towards a holistic engagement with current and future challenges by generating innovative ideas, a new security language, and transformative solutions grounded in concrete, transdisciplinary efforts to improve human flourishing and well-being.
The Future Security Initiative (FSI) is a pan-university collaborative hub supported by the Arizona State University (ASU) Office of the President and based on a strategic partnership with New America, a Washington, DC-based think tank. The FSI promotes a holistic, globally engaged approach to policy, generating innovative ideas and promoting transformative solutions that conceptualize security as fundamentally based in human well-being, an approach of special value in an uncertain and rapidly changing world. The FSI is guided by the ASU Charter and works to realize the commitments of the New American University, seeking to realize the values and promises of university education and research for the broader society.
The FSI works on research, education, and outreach. Our interdisciplinary team conducts cutting-edge field-based research, open-source investigations, case studies and policy analysis focusing on diverse security issues including irregular warfare, human rights and transitional justice, drones, agricultural supply chains, intelligence preparedness, cognitive warfare, AI and emerging technologies, proxies, terrorism, moral injury, and the social and political impact of conflict. We also create unique educational programming, from an online professional MA in Global Security to certificates in competitive statecraft, irregular warfare, cybersecurity, and customizable programs linking cutting edge academic research with practical applications. In addition, the FSI presents public forums, live-streamed talks, conferences, and high-impact publications that reach multiple audiences, including government officials, national thought leaders, students, and members of multiple local, national, and international communities.
The FSI team includes over 65 interdisciplinary faculty, fellows, and staff—including journalists, political scientists, development professionals, former military officers, legal scholars, anthropologists, and philosophers—who work collaboratively on a variety of projects. The FSI houses two research Centers, and a variety of interdisciplinary programs. The FSI was launched in 2023 to replace the Center on the Future of War to deepen engagement between ASU and New America and extend and amplify policy-oriented security programming across the university. The FSI is run by founding faculty co-directors Peter Bergen and Daniel Rothenberg.
FSI highlights from the 2025-26 academic year
Team – We added 18 new team members, including 6 faculty and 12 fellows.
Research – Our faculty and fellows created new research projects and continued existing efforts including as principal investigators (PIs), co-PIs, and key program managers on over $26 million in externally funded projects, often with ASU student involvement and in collaboration with multiple ASU units.
Publications, awards, media – Our team published 6 books and over 150 articles and white papers, appeared widely in local and national media, briefed Congressional and other leaders, and were nominated for and won major awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.
Educational programming – We expanded the MA in Global Security, based in the School of Politics and Global Studies, to over 200 graduate students and over 500 graduates. We designed and taught 10 new classes on multiple issues including irregular warfare, conflict in the Middle East, and a suite of new intelligence related courses reaching over 170 undergraduate students.
Centers and programs – We launched a new Center on Intelligence and National Security and a new Center for National Security and Agriculture Program, while continuing other programs such as the Small Wars Journal (in coordination with ASU Media Enterprise) whose website has received over 7 million visits since moving to ASU in late 2024.
Events – We organized 32 public events both in-person at ASU and at New America, as well as online, co-sponsored international meetings, and organized the 11th Annual Future Security Forum. These efforts have reached over 3,000 faculty, students, policy experts, and members of the general public.
For more information, please see our periodic newsletters and annual reports.
FSI Newsletters
2026 April, May
2025 April, August and November
2024 September, October
FSI Annual Reports
2025
2024
2023
To contact the FSI, please email us at: [email protected]
Interdisciplinary policy-oriented research
The Future Security Initiative has created and managed research projects on moral injury, U.S. drone policy, open-source data analysis of security threats, weaponized narrative, oral histories on post-9/11 surveillance and detention, ISIS recruitment in Syria, and other issues.
Transitional Justice and Human Rights in Iraq
FSI works with local researchers to gather oral histories, assessing memorialization efforts, and improve local capacity to assist victims of trauma.
Drones
Our work on U.S. drone policy has led to four widely cited databases, a book, and multiple reports and public events.
Future of Proxy Warfare
Our work on proxy warfare produced a dozen white papers that have been viewed more than 170,000 times, a book, and multiple ongoing field research projects.
Irregular Warfare
FSI faculty and fellows work on multiple funded research projects and war gaming on lawfare, supply chain vulnerabilities, drones, and other subjects.
Educational Programming
The Future Security Initiative runs the MA in Global Security, an interdisciplinary professional graduate program in the School of Politics and Global Studies which offers concentrations in Cybersecurity, Irregular Warfare, and Intelligence. FSI faculty also teach undergraduate courses, manage a Certificate in Competitive Statecraft, and create online mini courses on intelligence, security and AI, policy writing and other issues, some of which are offered in coordination with the S&D PLuS, linking ASU with Kings College London and the University of New South Wales.
200+current students | 530+graduates |
Future Security Forum and Other Public Events
Each year, the FSI organizes the Future Security Forum in Washington, DC, along with 35-50 other public events including workshops, book talks, conversations, and lectures. These events are hosted at ASU and New America and held both online and in person, reaching several thousand faculty, students, policy makers, journalists, and community members.
Engaging students and the ASU and AZ communities
The Future Security Initiative has taught hundreds of students, mentored undergraduate and graduate students including over four dozen Student Research Fellows (including winners of Marshall and Fulbright awards), organized over 90 public lectures reaching more than 5,000 students, faculty, and members of the community, while also presenting over 30 lectures to area groups reaching more than 2,000 attendees.
Publications and Awards
FSI faculty and fellows publish their work in multiple outlets including The New York Times Magazine, CNN, The Atlantic, Slate, Lawfare, Just Security, Time, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and various major academic journals. The ASU/New America future security partnership has supported faculty and fellows in publishing over 30 books published or in the pipeline, including several New York Times bestsellers. FSI team members have been named Carnegie Fellows, and Social Science Research Council Fellows, and have been nominated and/or awarded: multiple Pulitzer Prizes, an Emmy, a Carnegie Fellowship, the Lionel Gelber Prize for best book by the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Magazine Award for Reporting, the Overseas Press Club Ed Cunningham Award, and other awards.