OpinionNote: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of SMA, Inc.News InsightsOpinion Pathways Forward for China and the United States SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton summarizes some positive Sino-US discussions following last November's APEC meeting. March 6, 2024 Opinion China: Two; Treverton: Zero Greg Treverton, SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair, meets the surveillance state during his recent visit to China for... January 22, 2024 Opinion Influencing Policy from Outside SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton reflects on two times he sought to influence US foreign policy... January 16, 2024 Opinion Intelligence Analysis Dos and Dont's SMA Executive Advisor and former Chair of the NIC, Greg Treverton, tell us his dos and don’ts when analyzing national... December 12, 2023 Opinion The Global Sources of America’s Mess Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton muses on whether the current US polarization and gridlock is self-inflicted or foreign influenced. November 27, 2023 Opinion Reframing China Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton examines the future of the Sino-American relationship: collaborative, competitive, and/or adversarial. November 10, 2023 Opinion AI and Intelligence: ChatGPT Output Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton asked ChatGPT to write how he would assess the impact of AI on the US... October 3, 2023 Opinion The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Intelligence Analysis Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton asked ChatGPT to write how he would assess the impact of AI on the US... October 1, 2023 Opinion Thinking about Future World Order Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton says that any confident predictions about China’s future, let alone Sino-American relationships, are suspect. September 15, 2023 Opinion Dimensions of Future Intelligence Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton presented the nine dimensions of challenges facing national intelligence in our August 3, 2023 Town... August 14, 2023 Opinion Ukraine and the Future of the Global (Dis)Order After the Putin-Prigozhin clash, what is the future for Ukraine and the Global (Dis)order? Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton has... June 29, 2023 Opinion The CIA Discovers Crowdsourcing SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair, Greg Treverton discusses how the CIA is at long last seeking to recruit... May 26, 2023 Opinion Understanding China’s Gen Z Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton ponders how China's Generation Z may change after the end of China's zero-Covid lockdowns. April 13, 2023 Opinion The Endless War SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton ponders whether we can or cannot afford to have Russia lose the war in Ukraine. March 13, 2023 Opinion It’s Time to “Reboot” Earned Value Management SMA Senior Program Advisor, Wayne Abba, recently published an opinion piece on the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) website, stated the... March 3, 2023 Insights, Opinion Memoirs of a Nuclear Age Baby SMA Executive Advisor & Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton looks at the history of nuclear weapon stalemate and whether we... January 25, 2023 Opinion Thinking about the Third Nuclear Age SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton realizes we have more questions than answers in this third nuclear... January 20, 2023 Opinion Government That Works With Biden's first two years in office, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton shows Government can work, even amidst polarization and... January 6, 2023 Opinion How the US Army Can Appeal to Gen Zers A Fox News opinion piece by Greg Treverton and David Sprott shows how US Army Recruiting can appeal to Gen... December 29, 2022 Opinion Reflections on the Nation-State States are once more front and center in international politics, after 20 years of concern about non-state actors, especially terrorists December 19, 2022 Opinion The Looming Chip War Can the US win the looming semiconductor war against China? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton offers his opinion... November 7, 2022 Opinion Geopolitics and Climate in the Arctic The conflict in Ukraine has halted cooperation through the Arctic Council. Let's hope that, minus Russia, it restarts soon to... October 31, 2022 Opinion Will the Ukraine War Upend the Emerging World (Dis)Order? Does the Ukraine War threaten the emerging post-9/11 world order? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton thinks it won't end well... July 15, 2022 Opinion Denying Delegation…and Ending Government as We Have Known It SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses the Supreme Court's recent decisions and how they may affect the future of US... July 11, 2022 Opinion Relearning Old Lessons in Ukraine The tragic war in Ukraine underscored lessons we learned, or should have, long ago. SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton provides... June 13, 2022 Opinion The End of Russia as a Major Power? Considering the implications of the Ukraine war, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton believes this may be the end of Russia... May 26, 2022 Opinion Imagining the Endgame in Ukraine Of all the possible endgames of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is the best or least less bad? Greg... April 22, 2022 Opinion The Geopolitics of the War in Ukraine SMA Executive Advisor and former National Intelligence Council Chair, Greg Treverton, tries to make sense of the Russian invasion of... April 11, 2022 Opinion Truth is the Best Way to Defeat Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Ben Wachendorf, SMA Executive Advisor and retired U.S. Navy Admiral, explains his insights on the invasion of Ukraine. March 7, 2022 Opinion Confessions of an Analyst As an analyst with training in economics and a lifetime in politics, SMA Executive advisor Greg Treverton explains how he... February 3, 2022 Opinion Thinking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have an impact on virtually all jobs, but beyond that, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton wonders... January 17, 2022 Opinion Lessons in Thinking about the Future SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton's experience provides a framework for the what to dos and what... November 10, 2021 Opinion China’s Government Capitalism SMA Executive Advisor and former chair of the NIC, Greg Treverton asks why China's President Xi is turning against the... October 11, 2021 Opinion Geopolitics and Decoupling from China In his latest opinion piece, SMA Executive Advisor and former Chair of the National Intelligence Council, Greg Treverton discusses the... September 14, 2021 Opinion A Revolution in Intelligence Affairs? SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton asks whether the intelligence agencies are agile enough to herald a... July 21, 2021 Opinion The Simple Analytics—but Impossible Politics—of Immigration Based on the facts of US immigration, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton, former Chair of the National Intelligence Council, advocates... July 6, 2021 Opinion The Russia Riddle Greg Treverton, SMA Executive Advisor and former Chair of the National Intelligence Council, ponders whether the Biden administration is inclined... June 17, 2021 Opinion Global Trends: Peering into the Future SMA Executive Advisor and former National Intelligence Council (NIC) Chair Greg Treverton reviews the NIC's latest Global Trends report which... June 7, 2021 Opinion Anecdotes in Search of a (North) American Federation For our 6 May Town Hall, with its Cinco de Mayo theme, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton reminisced on his... May 11, 2021 Opinion Agenda for the Director of National Intelligence SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton lays out the top of the agenda for the new Director... April 19, 2021 Opinion Biden Will Test the Paradoxes of Modern Economics What will be the effect of the Biden Administration on today's post-modern economy, with its paradoxes of late last century... April 5, 2021 Opinion Systems Thinking and National Intelligence Could national intelligence analysis benefit from a systems thinking approach? Greg Treverton, SMA Executive Advisor and former chair of the... March 17, 2021 Opinion The Solar Winds Wake-up Call SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton makes the case that international rules of the road in the cyber world are long... February 19, 2021 Opinion Thinking about—and Preparing for—Climate Engineering In his latest opinion piece, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton argues that ready or not, climate engineering (CE) is coming,... February 16, 2021 Opinion Building Back Better SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses the issues facing soon-to-be President Biden with enacting his campaign promise for America to... January 4, 2021 Opinion The Case for Policy Planning Greg Treverton, SMA Advisor and former Chair of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, offers national security policy advice for the... December 22, 2020 Opinion A MAD Analogy for Mad Policy toward China SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton looks at the United States' current relationship with China. Are we looking at a new... October 23, 2020 Opinion American Democracy: Worth Voting For! In his opinion piece, SMA Principal Associate Dan Harrison makes the case for future leaders for American Democracy, an institution... September 28, 2020 Opinion The Future International Order? In his latest opinion piece, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses whether, post-pandemic, the United States can remain the leader... September 10, 2020 Opinion 10 Steps for US to Succeed in Complex Era of Great Power Competition How can the United States succeed in today's complex era of competition between the great powers? SMA Executive Advisor and... July 30, 2020 Opinion A Rubik’s Cube with Flags: Lessons for Multinational Armaments Programs SMA Executive Advisor and a former NATO Assistant Secretary General Peter Flory presents lessons learned and best practices to help... July 17, 2020 Opinion Understand Bureaucratic Behaviors to Improve Systems Acquisition in the DoD Dave Patterson discusses the nature of bureaucracy in the US Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition process, and offers simple incentives... July 7, 2020 Opinion Rethinking National Security SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton advocates for rethinking U.S. national security in terms of health and biosecurity, not just a... June 24, 2020 Opinion Is China Waging Warfare Against the U.S.? In their White Paper, James Farwell and Dave Patterson ask whether China is waging war against the U.S. and other... April 24, 2020 Opinion Accountability at the DoD SMA Executive Advisor Ben Wachendorf (RADM US Navy, Ret.) shows how a poor decision making process at the DoD is... April 20, 2020 Opinion Slow-Down at the Pentagon: What Would Baldwin Say Today (Redux) Update! Nearly 2 years ago, we commented on how Hanson Baldwin would've been pleased that DoD Instruction 5000.2 is only... April 15, 2020 Opinion What Can DoD Do for the A&D Industry in the Midst of COVID-19? Now! Dave Patterson details some efforts that the US DoD can make right now that would help small businesses (and large... April 9, 2020 Opinion Why Earned Value Management is on the Endangered Species List EVM is effective to manage programs because it integrates cost, schedule, technical, and risk attributes. Jacque Keats, SMA COO, asks... April 2, 2020 Insights, Opinion North Korea’s Nuclear Program: Learning from Sig Hecker Will North Korea ever give up its nuclear weapons? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton reports on the views of Sig... March 20, 2020 Opinion Reflections on the Future of the National Intelligence Council and U.S. Intelligence SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton reflects on the past and future of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which he led... March 6, 2020 Opinion Defense Spending and Deployments: A Little History In 2019, the United States spent $686 billion on defense, more than the combined total of the next six countries... February 4, 2020 Opinion The Future of Nuclear Non-Proliferation The future of efforts to limit the danger of nuclear weapons in global affairs is clear. SMA Executive Advisor... January 7, 2020 Opinion The Imperative of Diplomacy A timely reminder from SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton that today’s young people will need to reshape both diplomacy and... October 23, 2019 Opinion Whither Nuclear Deterrence? From the end of the Soviet Union until now, the sole purpose of nuclear weapons was to deter nuclear attacks.... August 29, 2019 Opinion Europe Coming Apart? Will the European Union become less effective as an American partner? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton looks at the EU's... August 27, 2019 Opinion The Chinese Way of War…and Ours SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton suggests that the US need to rethink its "way of war," designed for a time... July 17, 2019 Opinion North Korea a Year Later: Demonstrating Einstein? Einstein supposedly said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different... June 20, 2019 Opinion When the Antagonist Doesn’t Play by the Same Playbook Is "If They Can Do It, So Can We" an ethically acceptable playbook? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses the... June 18, 2019 Opinion All
Pathways Forward for China and the United States SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton summarizes some positive Sino-US discussions following last November's APEC meeting. March 6, 2024 Opinion China: Two; Treverton: Zero Greg Treverton, SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair, meets the surveillance state during his recent visit to China for... January 22, 2024 Opinion Influencing Policy from Outside SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton reflects on two times he sought to influence US foreign policy... January 16, 2024 Opinion Intelligence Analysis Dos and Dont's SMA Executive Advisor and former Chair of the NIC, Greg Treverton, tell us his dos and don’ts when analyzing national... December 12, 2023 Opinion The Global Sources of America’s Mess Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton muses on whether the current US polarization and gridlock is self-inflicted or foreign influenced. November 27, 2023 Opinion Reframing China Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton examines the future of the Sino-American relationship: collaborative, competitive, and/or adversarial. November 10, 2023 Opinion AI and Intelligence: ChatGPT Output Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton asked ChatGPT to write how he would assess the impact of AI on the US... October 3, 2023 Opinion The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Intelligence Analysis Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton asked ChatGPT to write how he would assess the impact of AI on the US... October 1, 2023 Opinion Thinking about Future World Order Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton says that any confident predictions about China’s future, let alone Sino-American relationships, are suspect. September 15, 2023 Opinion Dimensions of Future Intelligence Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton presented the nine dimensions of challenges facing national intelligence in our August 3, 2023 Town... August 14, 2023 Opinion Ukraine and the Future of the Global (Dis)Order After the Putin-Prigozhin clash, what is the future for Ukraine and the Global (Dis)order? Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton has... June 29, 2023 Opinion The CIA Discovers Crowdsourcing SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair, Greg Treverton discusses how the CIA is at long last seeking to recruit... May 26, 2023 Opinion Understanding China’s Gen Z Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton ponders how China's Generation Z may change after the end of China's zero-Covid lockdowns. April 13, 2023 Opinion The Endless War SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton ponders whether we can or cannot afford to have Russia lose the war in Ukraine. March 13, 2023 Opinion It’s Time to “Reboot” Earned Value Management SMA Senior Program Advisor, Wayne Abba, recently published an opinion piece on the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) website, stated the... March 3, 2023 Insights, Opinion Memoirs of a Nuclear Age Baby SMA Executive Advisor & Former NIC Chair Greg Treverton looks at the history of nuclear weapon stalemate and whether we... January 25, 2023 Opinion Thinking about the Third Nuclear Age SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton realizes we have more questions than answers in this third nuclear... January 20, 2023 Opinion Government That Works With Biden's first two years in office, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton shows Government can work, even amidst polarization and... January 6, 2023 Opinion How the US Army Can Appeal to Gen Zers A Fox News opinion piece by Greg Treverton and David Sprott shows how US Army Recruiting can appeal to Gen... December 29, 2022 Opinion Reflections on the Nation-State States are once more front and center in international politics, after 20 years of concern about non-state actors, especially terrorists December 19, 2022 Opinion The Looming Chip War Can the US win the looming semiconductor war against China? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton offers his opinion... November 7, 2022 Opinion Geopolitics and Climate in the Arctic The conflict in Ukraine has halted cooperation through the Arctic Council. Let's hope that, minus Russia, it restarts soon to... October 31, 2022 Opinion Will the Ukraine War Upend the Emerging World (Dis)Order? Does the Ukraine War threaten the emerging post-9/11 world order? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton thinks it won't end well... July 15, 2022 Opinion Denying Delegation…and Ending Government as We Have Known It SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses the Supreme Court's recent decisions and how they may affect the future of US... July 11, 2022 Opinion Relearning Old Lessons in Ukraine The tragic war in Ukraine underscored lessons we learned, or should have, long ago. SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton provides... June 13, 2022 Opinion The End of Russia as a Major Power? Considering the implications of the Ukraine war, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton believes this may be the end of Russia... May 26, 2022 Opinion Imagining the Endgame in Ukraine Of all the possible endgames of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is the best or least less bad? Greg... April 22, 2022 Opinion The Geopolitics of the War in Ukraine SMA Executive Advisor and former National Intelligence Council Chair, Greg Treverton, tries to make sense of the Russian invasion of... April 11, 2022 Opinion Truth is the Best Way to Defeat Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Ben Wachendorf, SMA Executive Advisor and retired U.S. Navy Admiral, explains his insights on the invasion of Ukraine. March 7, 2022 Opinion Confessions of an Analyst As an analyst with training in economics and a lifetime in politics, SMA Executive advisor Greg Treverton explains how he... February 3, 2022 Opinion Thinking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have an impact on virtually all jobs, but beyond that, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton wonders... January 17, 2022 Opinion Lessons in Thinking about the Future SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton's experience provides a framework for the what to dos and what... November 10, 2021 Opinion China’s Government Capitalism SMA Executive Advisor and former chair of the NIC, Greg Treverton asks why China's President Xi is turning against the... October 11, 2021 Opinion Geopolitics and Decoupling from China In his latest opinion piece, SMA Executive Advisor and former Chair of the National Intelligence Council, Greg Treverton discusses the... September 14, 2021 Opinion A Revolution in Intelligence Affairs? SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton asks whether the intelligence agencies are agile enough to herald a... July 21, 2021 Opinion The Simple Analytics—but Impossible Politics—of Immigration Based on the facts of US immigration, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton, former Chair of the National Intelligence Council, advocates... July 6, 2021 Opinion The Russia Riddle Greg Treverton, SMA Executive Advisor and former Chair of the National Intelligence Council, ponders whether the Biden administration is inclined... June 17, 2021 Opinion Global Trends: Peering into the Future SMA Executive Advisor and former National Intelligence Council (NIC) Chair Greg Treverton reviews the NIC's latest Global Trends report which... June 7, 2021 Opinion Anecdotes in Search of a (North) American Federation For our 6 May Town Hall, with its Cinco de Mayo theme, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton reminisced on his... May 11, 2021 Opinion Agenda for the Director of National Intelligence SMA Executive Advisor and former NIC Chair Greg Treverton lays out the top of the agenda for the new Director... April 19, 2021 Opinion Biden Will Test the Paradoxes of Modern Economics What will be the effect of the Biden Administration on today's post-modern economy, with its paradoxes of late last century... April 5, 2021 Opinion Systems Thinking and National Intelligence Could national intelligence analysis benefit from a systems thinking approach? Greg Treverton, SMA Executive Advisor and former chair of the... March 17, 2021 Opinion The Solar Winds Wake-up Call SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton makes the case that international rules of the road in the cyber world are long... February 19, 2021 Opinion Thinking about—and Preparing for—Climate Engineering In his latest opinion piece, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton argues that ready or not, climate engineering (CE) is coming,... February 16, 2021 Opinion Building Back Better SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses the issues facing soon-to-be President Biden with enacting his campaign promise for America to... January 4, 2021 Opinion The Case for Policy Planning Greg Treverton, SMA Advisor and former Chair of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, offers national security policy advice for the... December 22, 2020 Opinion A MAD Analogy for Mad Policy toward China SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton looks at the United States' current relationship with China. Are we looking at a new... October 23, 2020 Opinion American Democracy: Worth Voting For! In his opinion piece, SMA Principal Associate Dan Harrison makes the case for future leaders for American Democracy, an institution... September 28, 2020 Opinion The Future International Order? In his latest opinion piece, SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses whether, post-pandemic, the United States can remain the leader... September 10, 2020 Opinion 10 Steps for US to Succeed in Complex Era of Great Power Competition How can the United States succeed in today's complex era of competition between the great powers? SMA Executive Advisor and... July 30, 2020 Opinion A Rubik’s Cube with Flags: Lessons for Multinational Armaments Programs SMA Executive Advisor and a former NATO Assistant Secretary General Peter Flory presents lessons learned and best practices to help... July 17, 2020 Opinion Understand Bureaucratic Behaviors to Improve Systems Acquisition in the DoD Dave Patterson discusses the nature of bureaucracy in the US Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition process, and offers simple incentives... July 7, 2020 Opinion Rethinking National Security SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton advocates for rethinking U.S. national security in terms of health and biosecurity, not just a... June 24, 2020 Opinion Is China Waging Warfare Against the U.S.? In their White Paper, James Farwell and Dave Patterson ask whether China is waging war against the U.S. and other... April 24, 2020 Opinion Accountability at the DoD SMA Executive Advisor Ben Wachendorf (RADM US Navy, Ret.) shows how a poor decision making process at the DoD is... April 20, 2020 Opinion Slow-Down at the Pentagon: What Would Baldwin Say Today (Redux) Update! Nearly 2 years ago, we commented on how Hanson Baldwin would've been pleased that DoD Instruction 5000.2 is only... April 15, 2020 Opinion What Can DoD Do for the A&D Industry in the Midst of COVID-19? Now! Dave Patterson details some efforts that the US DoD can make right now that would help small businesses (and large... April 9, 2020 Opinion Why Earned Value Management is on the Endangered Species List EVM is effective to manage programs because it integrates cost, schedule, technical, and risk attributes. Jacque Keats, SMA COO, asks... April 2, 2020 Insights, Opinion North Korea’s Nuclear Program: Learning from Sig Hecker Will North Korea ever give up its nuclear weapons? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton reports on the views of Sig... March 20, 2020 Opinion Reflections on the Future of the National Intelligence Council and U.S. Intelligence SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton reflects on the past and future of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which he led... March 6, 2020 Opinion Defense Spending and Deployments: A Little History In 2019, the United States spent $686 billion on defense, more than the combined total of the next six countries... February 4, 2020 Opinion The Future of Nuclear Non-Proliferation The future of efforts to limit the danger of nuclear weapons in global affairs is clear. SMA Executive Advisor... January 7, 2020 Opinion The Imperative of Diplomacy A timely reminder from SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton that today’s young people will need to reshape both diplomacy and... October 23, 2019 Opinion Whither Nuclear Deterrence? From the end of the Soviet Union until now, the sole purpose of nuclear weapons was to deter nuclear attacks.... August 29, 2019 Opinion Europe Coming Apart? Will the European Union become less effective as an American partner? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton looks at the EU's... August 27, 2019 Opinion The Chinese Way of War…and Ours SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton suggests that the US need to rethink its "way of war," designed for a time... July 17, 2019 Opinion North Korea a Year Later: Demonstrating Einstein? Einstein supposedly said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different... June 20, 2019 Opinion When the Antagonist Doesn’t Play by the Same Playbook Is "If They Can Do It, So Can We" an ethically acceptable playbook? SMA Executive Advisor Greg Treverton discusses the... June 18, 2019 Opinion All