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 reaching over 3,000 faculty, students, policy experts, and members of the general public.
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.
Future of Proxy Warfare
Our Future of Proxy Warfare project produced a dozen reports that have been viewed over 90,000 times as well as a forthcoming book.
Drones
Our work on U.S. drone policy has led to a major academic book and has been referenced in Congressional hearings and in major media.
Coronavirus Daily Brief
Our Coronavirus Daily Brief has created over one million words of analysis and is read by thought leaders in the academy, media, and government.
International partners
Many projects are managed in coordination with international partners, including Drexel University, Oxford University, George Mason University, Kings College London, University of New South Wales, and others.
Creating a new model for security education
The Future Security Initiative runs the MA in Global Security, an interdisciplinary professional graduate program in the School of Politics and Global Studies. We are also currently developing new security certificates and other programs on cybersecurity, human rights, irregular warfare, and other themes through partnerships with, Kings College London, the University of New South Wales, Joint Special Operations University, U.S. Army NETCOM and others.
150current students | 300+graduates |
Organizing the Future Security Forum; one of the nation's major annual security meetings
The Future Security Initiative organizes a joint ASU/New America annual meeting on pressing security challenges with thought leaders from government, the media, the military, the academy, industry, and civil society, reaching thousands of attendees and viewers, and showcasing ASU’s growing profile as a university leader in interdisciplinary security policy.
Engaging students and the ASU and AZ communities
The Center 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.
Impactful output, significant awards and recognition
Center faculty and fellows have published articles in The New York Times Magazine, CNN, The Atlantic, Slate, Lawfare, Just Security, Foreign Policy, and major academic journals. The ASU/New America partnership has supported over 18 books published or in the pipeline, including several New York Times bestsellers. Center team members have been named Carnegie Fellows, and Social Science Research Council Fellows, and have been nominated and/or awarded: 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, the Roy Rowan Award, Deadline Club Award for Magazine Investigative Reporting, and other prizes.
Past Event Highlights
Spring 2026 National Security Career Mixer
This event designed to connect top student talent with employers in the national security space. This unique career mixer targets federal agencies, defense contractors, and organizations seeking candidates eligible for security clearances and careers tied to public service, defense, cybersecurity, intelligence, and homeland security.
Panelists represent: US Secret Service, FBI, US Department of State, CIA, and RTX.