SAFEGUARD

America’s technological advantages face unprecedented threats from strategic competitors, criminal enterprises, and systemic vulnerabilities embedded in globally distributed supply chains. Nation-state actors probe critical infrastructure, intellectual property flows to adversaries through espionage and coerced technology transfer, and dependencies on foreign-controlled chokepoints create leverage that can be weaponized in crisis. The SAFEGUARD workstream confronts these challenges, providing analysis that is both technically rigorous and strategically actionable. We examine vulnerabilities across domains, including cybersecurity, supply chain resilience, data protection, and critical infrastructure security, identifying where U.S. defenses fall short and what policy interventions can close the gaps.

Our approach avoids both techno-utopianism and doomerism, instead offering realistic, grounded assessments of threats and practical pathways to address them. SAFEGUARD analysis translates complex technical vulnerabilities into policy imperatives that decision-makers can understand and act upon. Whether mapping the tactics of APTs, evaluating cybersecurity incentive structures, or assessing supply chain dependencies, this workstream provides the foundation for protecting America’s technological position in an era of intensifying competition.