The future of U.S. security is today taking shape in Texas
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Officials from the Trump, Biden, Obama and Bush administrations, defense and intelligence experts, lawmakers, scientists, and investors are huddling in Texas this week to plot American primacy amid a global realignment.
Why it matters: Michael Kratsios, Trump's chief science-and-technology policy adviser, in an interview said U.S. national and economic security is contingent on "technological dominance." He delivered his first public address at the Endless Frontiers summit Monday — its only on-the-record segment.
- "This isn't some movie where we sit back and watch the future happen," Kratsios told Axios. "It's something that we have to actively be participants in."
- Trump in a letter last month called on Kratsios to "blaze a trail to the next frontiers of science." It mentioned artificial intelligence, quantum and nuclear tech.
Zoom out: The 200-plus attendees of Endless Frontiers (invite only) will leave with a game plan addressing:
- A tech-savvy U.S. arsenal.
- Reindustrialization, secure supply chains and critical infrastructure.
- Government competitiveness and mobilization of national talent.
What we're hearing: The get-together comes at a precarious time, both at home and abroad.
- "We're facing geopolitical and technological shifts that are going to determine the place of the country in the future, especially vis-a-vis China," Rush Doshi, an Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Axios. "We thought that this decade was decisive. That's a bipartisan judgement, by the way."
- "There are parts of America's ecosystem that just never talk to each other," Jordan Blashek, a managing partner at America's Frontier Fund, told Axios. "As a result, we are operating in silos at a moment when we need a unified kind of American response, an American strategy."
Between the lines: Note that this is happening in Texas. Not New York. Not California.
Follow the money: Endless Frontiers planning began about one year ago. It's cohosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Texas A&M and Baylor University.
- Sponsors include 8VC, America's Frontier Fund and Overmatch Ventures, financiers of the defense-tech boom.
What's next: Another initiative, the Endless Frontiers Institute, is being stood up to maintain momentum.
- The summit is also not one and done. In fact, there's a yearslong commitment, according to the organizers.
