“Everyone who might believe you can substitute robots for soldiers on the battlefield needs to read this book. Dan Gerstein has examined the challenges of artificial intelligence, humanoid robots and their integration into army ground forces in this entertaining and thoughtful novel. Gerstein takes the reader step by step through the U.S. Army development process and how it may soon deal with the opportunities and challenges of robotic warfare.” — General Wesley K. Clark, U.S. Army...

This book explores the evolution of the current U.S. research and development enterprise, asks whether this organization remains appropriate to the challenges we face today, and proposes strategies for better preparing for the global technology race shaping our future.Across the globe, nation states and societies, as well as corporations, technology developers, and even individuals, find themselves on the front lines of a global technology race. In the third decade...

Selected for the 2019 Commandant’s Professional Reading List, Assignment: Pentagon takes the reader on an insider’s tour of the Pentagon, describing how the headquarters for the world’s largest multinational “corporation” functions. The reader gains insights into how this bureaucracy functions as well as the stresses and strains inherent to such a complex organization. Now in its fifth edition, Assignment: Pentagon remains the best practical guide for anyone who works for...

A leading technology expert examines ways to manage the rapid proliferation of technology and come to grips with its pervasive influence. Technology--always a key driver of historical change--is transforming society as never before and at a far more rapid pace. This book takes the reader on a journey into what the author identifies as the central organizing construct for the future of civilization, the continued proliferation of technology. And he challenges us to consider how to think abo...

Daniel Gerstein draws on twenty-nine years of experience in the security and defense sectors to address the threat of bioterrorism in the twenty-first century. He warns that while the proliferation of knowledge and capabilities in the field of biotechnology offers ever-increasing opportunities for scientific breakthroughs, the potential for the misuse of that knowledge also increases. Gerstein takes a classic game theory approach in his analysis of the potential for a bioterror attack in t...

This book accessibly and expertly details the history and implications of the BWC—the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention—a controversial arms control agreement drafted in the 1970’s meant to supplement the Geneva protocol for warfare from decades earlier. That treaty banned the use of biological weapons in modern warfare, but failed to ban their development, transport or trafficking, holes the BWC aimed to fill, but are still contested to this day. Daniel M. Gerstein, a Deputy Under S...

In today’s challenging, technologically informed environment, the U.S. military must continue to ensure a competitive advantage. This report suggests ways to develop a cadre of technologically competent officers with the requisite leadership and operational skills to excel in this fast-paced and ever-evolving environment. It involves a complementary set of selection, assignment, promotion, and military and civilian education opportunities that infuse our next generation of leaders with str...

As the world moves into the Information Age, globalization continues to alter the customary relationships among peoples, societies, and nations that evolved during the Industrial Age. Author Daniel Gerstein, however, maintains the United States still follows an Industrial Age framework for national security. Despite such recent changes as creating the Department of Homeland Security and the post of a director for national intelligence, the current U.S. national security strategy remains based...

Since the first edition of Assignment: Pentagon was published in 1988, great changes have occurred in the international environment, the application of U.S. national security strategy, and the manner in which the Pentagon functions. Now in its fourth printing and with a coauthor to lend a different perspective, Assignment: Pentagon remains the best book for anyone who works for the Pentagon, or for any big bureaucracy for that matter.Eminently readable, Assignment...

Aspen Policy Books is a series of annual publications that address the United States' most formidable and pressing national security and foreign policy challenges. This edition is a collection of papers commissioned for the 2018 Aspen Strategy Group Summer Workshop, a bipartisan meeting of national security experts, academics, private sector leaders, and technologists. The introduction by Nicholas Burns, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., and Condoleezza Rice provides an overview of technology's impact o...

We are leaving the Information Age and transitioning into the Shift Age, a time of transformation and change that offers both great risk and incredible opportunity. In Entering the Shift Age, David Houle identifies and explains the dynamics and forces that have shaped our world and will continue to reshape our world for the next 20 years. He shows how the Shift Age means a world fully global yet focused on the individual, where the speed of change is so fast that change itself is ...

Discover the technologies and trends that threaten humanity and our planet--- and how we can rein them back in, togetherIn The Unintended Consequences of Technology: Solutions, Breakthroughs and the Restart We Need, accomplished tech entrepreneur Chris Ategeka delivers an insightful and eye-opening exploration of the challenges and the opportunities at the intersection of technology, society and our planet. Detailing both positive and negative technology u...