29
October 2021
Past Event
Virtual Event | The End of American Intelligence Dominance?

Virtual Event | The End of American Intelligence Dominance?

Past Event
Online Only
October 29, 2021
29
October 2021
Past Event

1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20004

Speakers:
Ezra Cohen

Adjunct Fellow

bryan_clark
Bryan Clark

Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology

michael_doran
Michael Doran

Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East

Please be advised: This event will premiere on this page at 10:00 a.m. EDT, Friday, October 29. Register for the event here

ISR—a bureaucratic abbreviation for “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance”— is the eyes and ears of informed policymaking in peacetime and of effective leadership on the battlefield in time of war. The systems that acquire timely information about foreign threats, process that information and then present it in a form that is useful to national leaders and military commanders are increasingly large in number and diverse in size, ranging from small personal devices to complex satellite systems.

For the last 30 years, the United States has benefitted from ISR dominance. As a result, an expectation has developed among America’s leaders that they will always benefit from visibility into the thinking and actions of their adversaries, who, for their part, will never see as clearly inside the decision making of the United States. Yet this expectation is increasingly disconnected from reality: The advent of highly capable and reasonably- priced commercial systems is levelling the playing field, while demand in the United States government for ISR systems is placing limited resources under increasing strain.

The national security community must begin making hard choices about how to allocate its finite assets. As leaders determine which threats to prioritize, they will also look toward nontraditional systems like commercial data to fill gaps in collection. This development will pose challenges for policymakers regarding privacy, but it will also open up opportunities for dissuading adversaries from pursuing aggression. Please join Hudson’s Michael Doran, Ezra Cohen and Bryan Clark to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. government in this new era in ISR.

Related Events
03
November 2025
In-Person Event | Invite Only
Understanding the Strategic Surprise of October 7
Featured Speaker:
Itai Brun
Moderator:
Michael Doran
Getty Images
03
November 2025
In-Person Event | Invite Only
Understanding the Strategic Surprise of October 7

Brigadier General (Res.) Itai Brun will join Senior Fellow Dr. Michael Doran to examine the strategic, organizational, and analytical factors that enabled Hamas’s October 7 surprise attack. 

Getty Images
Featured Speaker:
Itai Brun
Moderator:
Michael Doran
03
November 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Congressman Rich McCormick on Securing American AI Leadership
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Rich McCormick
Jason Hsu
Representative Rich McCormick speaks during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on January 11, 2024. (Getty Images)
03
November 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Congressman Rich McCormick on Securing American AI Leadership

Senior Fellow Jason Hsu will host Congressman Rich McCormick (R-GA), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee and a former member of the bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, for a conversation on securing American AI leadership.

Representative Rich McCormick speaks during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on January 11, 2024. (Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Rich McCormick
Jason Hsu
04
November 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Bad Money: How America Can Solve Perpetual Inflation
Featured Speakers:
Brendan Brown
Alex J. Pollock
Moderator:
Harold Furchtgott-Roth
Getty Images
04
November 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Bad Money: How America Can Solve Perpetual Inflation

At Hudson, Senior Fellows Brendan Brown and Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Mises Institute Senior Fellow Alex Pollock will discuss the book’s findings and how gold-based monetary reform combined with the increased use of modern analytical tools can help end the inflationary spiral.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Brendan Brown
Alex J. Pollock
Moderator:
Harold Furchtgott-Roth
05
November 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
The Limits of Autonomy: How Beijing Exploits Hong Kong’s Special Status
Featured Speakers:
Jonathan Stivers
Joey Siu
John Dotson
Thomas Kellogg
Moderator:
Michael Sobolik
Getty Images
05
November 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
The Limits of Autonomy: How Beijing Exploits Hong Kong’s Special Status

Join Senior Fellow Michael Sobolik and an expert panel for a discussion about a new report from Hong Kong Watch on the state of Hong Kong and how US policymakers can close the loopholes Beijing exploits.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Jonathan Stivers
Joey Siu
John Dotson
Thomas Kellogg
Moderator:
Michael Sobolik