NEWS
Forge Regional, Policy, and Strategy (RPS) Division Practitioners present a thought-provoking Security Cooperation development model, published in the popular Platform War on the Rocks. They present a push toward a structured, co-innovation ecosystem that could unlock alliance capabilities and build resiliency for warfighters – both at home and abroad.
OVERCOMING GOLIATH: HOW THE DEFENSE ESTABLISHMENT CAN MAXIMIZE ALLIED INNOVATION
The Department of Defense has a building alliance capability problem. Through the 2018 and 2022 National Defense Strategies, the Department of Defense has trumpeted its alliance system as a primary pillar of national security. Yet as of late 2024, the collective benefits of coproduction and co-development of the critical technologies that will decide or deter the next conflict have remained woefully untapped.
The nature of this challenge is twofold. It involves a deeply entrenched and networked defense-industrial complex, and an over-engineered security cooperation bureaucracy that is impressively resistant to change. These combined forces are confounding the Department of Defense in systemically identifying and resourcing the pivotal emerging technology solutions to build alliance capabilities. Any way you slice it, external industry forces and defiant legacy approaches are actively undermining the Department of Defense’s ability to shape alliance defense outcomes. To overcome these forces, the Department of Defense needs to transition from a primarily “sell legacy American defense platforms” security cooperation approach to a “build with, and sometimes exclusively for” allies and partners capability mindset to address this problem.
Continue reading this article here: Overcoming Goliath: How the Defense Establishment Can Maximize Allied Innovation - War on the Rocks or visit https://warontherocks.com to review analysis, commentary, and muti-media content highlighting the most up-to-date issues within Foreign Policy and National Security.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Career Security Cooperation veterans, Scott DeWitt and Nick Iorio are passionate about supporting government clients and commercial entities in designing and implementing the delivery of ally and partner programs. Their work, published here on War of the Rocks, allows them to explore ideas and drive conversations in improving their SC community – a community they so deeply believe is a cornerstone of National Security.
Nick Iorio is a Senior Advisor with Forge Group, LLC, and supports government clients and commercial entities in designing and implementing the delivery of ally and partner programs across the Indo-Pacific. Scott DeWitt is the Executive Director for Forge Group, LLC’s, Regional Policies and Strategies Practice, a specialized group of international engagement practitioners focused on maximizing defense collaboration with allies and partners.
"The good news is, there is an established and willing community ready to support the development and integration of critical technologies with allies and partners. The security cooperation community, with appropriate prioritization and resourcing, will play a seminal role in facilitating alliance capability development."
- Nick Iorio & Scott DeWitt, Forge Group, LLC; October 2024