The Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security? conference explored the economic element of national power through the eyes of economists, industry, and government; expeditionary economics, energy security, the role of science, technology, research and development, and human capital. By the end of the conference, we hoped a framework would emerge that the Nation could use to develop a “grand strategy” for improving our economic viability. Systemic thinking should become the hallmark of a set of capabilities that should be used in the Executive Office of the President, perhaps in a Center for Strategic Analysis and Assessment, or within current infrastructure that already exists.

Five years ago, I had the privilege of conducting a study as a consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee. Congress asked me, as a systems scientist, to look at a number of defense industrial base issues and their national security implications. The Nation is not well prepared to plan for or establish policy or “grand” strategy in a holistic or long-term sense, and the national security implications of that shortcoming remain very disturbing. I recommended the establishment of a center in the Executive Office of the President for “whole of government” and interagency “foresight capability and grand strategy development” and execution, along with an interagency committee of Congress to have oversight responsibility for the center because the Nation has no means to do this.