New America Launches Groundbreaking Future Security Scenarios Lab to Tackle National Security Risks
Press Release
Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images
June 4, 2025
Media contact:
Heidi Lewis, Senior Media Relations Manager
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Washington, DC — New America today announced the launch of the Future Security Scenarios Lab (FSSL), an initiative designed to help policymakers, practitioners, and scholars confront the world’s most complex national security challenges with the tools of foresight, not hindsight.
The lab will combine cutting-edge methods such as scenario planning, probabilistic forecasting, and strategic simulations to surface early-warning signals and generate actionable insights.
“We cannot solve tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s playbook,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America. “The Future Security Scenarios Lab will bring together a number of different futures techniques to help decision-makers imagine and plan for futures that break sharply with the past.”
At a time when traditional approaches to security are falling short, the Future Security Scenarios Lab will confront these challenges directly. Transformative technologies like artificial intelligence are colliding with rising authoritarianism, great power competition, and climate crises—making securing our world more difficult than ever.
“Today’s threats are diffuse, fast-moving, and often asymmetric. The Future Security Scenarios Lab will give policymakers the foresight needed to navigate this uncertainty before it becomes a crisis,” said Peter Bergen, Vice President of Global Studies & Fellows at New America.
“The lab is not about prediction—it’s about preparation,” said Amy J. Nelson, FSSL Director and Senior Fellow, Future Security Program at New America. “By confronting uncertainties ahead, we can design smarter policies, stress test assumptions, and avoid the catastrophic costs of strategic surprise.”
As an integral part of New America, the Future Security Scenarios Lab will launch pilot projects on nuclear and AI futures, convene and host workshops and immersive exercises, and publish insights that challenge conventional wisdom to advance better futures. The lab will also serve as a hub for future-oriented research across the organization, aligning foresight practices with initiatives in artificial intelligence, emerging technology, and global governance.
Beyond New America, the lab will foster collaboration among a growing community of security thinkers advancing innovative approaches to today’s challenges, and champion innovative approaches fit for the complexity of this century.
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About New America: New America is a think-and-action tank dedicated to renewing the promise of America in an age of rapid technological and social change. Our work prioritizes care and family wellbeing, advances technology in the public interest, reimagines global cooperation, builds effective democracy, and ensures affordable and accessible education for all. Learn more at newamerica.org.