June 16, 2026

A Decade of Cyber Defense Scholarship: The Cyber Defense Review, 2016–2026

Over the past decade, The Cyber Defense Review (CDR) has served as a forum for military leaders, policymakers, practitioners, technologists, and scholars examining the evolving challenges of cyber defense and cyber conflict. Marking the journal’s tenth anniversary, this editorial presents a retrospective analysis of 311 articles published in the CDR between 2016 and 2026. The analysis provides a descriptive overview of the topics, perspectives, and forms of evidence that have characterized the journal’s first decade, highlighting its role in bridging military, governmental, academic, and industry communities. We identify major shifts in emphasis, from foundational debates about cyberspace and cyber conflict to questions of resilience, strategic competition, artificial intelligence, and institutional adaptation. The paper also introduces the themes represented in the anniversary collection of Senior Leader Perspectives and reflects on opportunities for the journal’s second decade. Rather than offering a definitive account of the cyber defense field, this retrospective documents the evolution of one influential publication and the community of practice it has helped cultivate.

June 16, 2026

The Futures They See: Cyber Leaders’ Visions of the Next Decade

Ten years ago, in the first Senior Leader Perspective published by The Cyber Defense Review (CDR), Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Edward Cardon envisioned a future in which cyber forces would shape the battlefield before the first shot was fired and operate as an integral component of combined arms warfare. Much of that vision has come to pass, though at times in ways that differed from early expectations. As The Cyber Defense Review marks its tenth anniversary, a new generation of cyber leaders offers its own perspective on what lies ahead. Drawing on the essays contributed by military commanders, government officials, policymakers, scholars, and industry leaders, we explore how influential voices across the cyber community imagine the next decade. Their articles reveal eight recurring imaginaries of the future of cyber power, spanning AI-accelerated conflict, cyber as a core warfighting domain, persistent strategic competition, critical infrastructure resilience, institutional integration, allied and whole-of-nation ecosystems, workforce transformation, and strategic uncertainty. These imaginaries provide more than anticipated technological developments or security challenges. They illuminate the assumptions, priorities, concerns, and strategic logics that currently shape elite cyber discourse and offer insight into the future-oriented assumptions that may influence doctrine, governance, capability development, and strategic decision-making in the years ahead.

June 14, 2026

2036 Starts Today: A Call to Action for NATO's Cyber Future

Ten years after NATO recognized cyberspace as a domain of military operations, the Alliance faces a rapidly evolving threat landscape shaped by geopolitical competition, persistent malicious cyber activity, and transformative advances in artificial intelligence (AI). Looking ahead to 2036, this perspective explores a future in which cyber capabilities provide real-time situational awareness, support multi-domain operations (MDO), and enable collective defense at machine speed. While this vision is ambitious, it is not unattainable. Achieving it will require more than technological innovation and increased investment. The author contends that the cyber domain must mature rapidly to meet the demands of modern deterrence and defense, requiring a fundamental shift in mindset, governance, and operational practice. He proposes four calls to action to accelerate this transformation. The Alliance and its partners must adopt new technologies more rapidly, rethink risk and procurement processes, strengthen cooperation among governments, military organizations, industry, and critical infrastructure operators, and reinforce cyber hygiene and resilience measures. Finally, the author argues that effective cyber defense must be complemented by broader deterrence strategies capable of imposing costs on adversaries and addressing threats at their source.

June 12, 2026

Building Mission Assurance into the Space Defense Industrial Base

This article examines the cybersecurity challenges facing the Space Defense Industrial Base (S-DIB) as military space operations become increasingly dependent on commercial partnerships, interconnected digital infrastructure, and rapidly expanding industrial capabilities. The establishment of the U.S. Space Force and the growing integration of commercial providers into national security space missions have created unprecedented opportunities for innovation, scalability, and operational agility. At the same time, these developments have expanded the cyber attack surface available to adversaries and increased the potential for supply chain compromise, mission disruption, and cascading operational effects across the broader space enterprise. The article discusses key initiatives designed to strengthen cybersecurity across the S-DIB, including the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), Zero Trust Architecture, cyber threat information sharing, Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), and the Space Attack Research and Tactic Analysis (SPARTA) framework. It also highlights the challenges associated with rapidly scaling production, uneven cybersecurity maturity among industry partners, and persistent workforce shortages. The perspective concludes that cybersecurity must be treated as a mission assurance function rather than simply an information technology requirement, requiring shared responsibility, collective risk management, and consistent security standards across the entire space enterprise.

June 12, 2026

Forging Multi-Domain Advantage to Match the Speed of Conflict

This commentary reflects on three years leading the Directorate of Strategic Operations (DAMO-SO) within the Army's G-3/5/7 during one of the largest institutional transformations in a generation. Writing for fellow cyber and electromagnetic warfare practitioners, and the industry and academic partners who support them, I argue that the central challenge confronting the modern Army is not a deficit of talent or technology but a deficit of integration. Capabilities in cyberspace, space, the electromagnetic spectrum, and the information environment are developed by specialized communities whose very experience can unintentionally create the blind spots and seams that ultimately work against the intent behind transformation. The piece describes how DAMO-SO worked to close those seams by 1) building deliberate governance forums that let the institutional Army think and act as one; 2) reuniting fractured electromagnetic warfare efforts under one coherent strategy and synchronized enterprise; and 3) relentlessly advocating to translate tactical needs into resourced programs. Throughout, the guiding principle was delivering strategic capabilities for tactical impact. Looking ahead, I offer three reflections. First, the Army must ensure the integration model is institutionalized so it outlasts leadership transitions. Second, sustained advantage depends on investing in integrators and sharing information at the lowest possible classification. Finally, the Army must continuously streamline its administrative processes to match the rapid tempo of modern conflict.

June 12, 2026

Forging the Digital Ecosystem for the Arsenal of Freedom

As the Department of War enters a new era of technological competition, achieving decision advantage at the speed of modern conflict requires a fundamental transformation of its digital enterprise. This perspective outlines the Chief Information Officer’s vision for building a resilient, secure, and AI-enabled digital ecosystem that empowers the joint warfighter and strengthens the nation’s Arsenal of Freedom. The strategy is anchored in four mutually reinforcing priorities: establishing an enduring digital foundation, accelerating the delivery of agile digital capabilities, transforming cybersecurity into a warfighting function, and investing in the people and partnerships that provide a lasting strategic edge. Together, these efforts seek to modernize infrastructure, strengthen cyber resilience, secure critical operational technology and supply chains, and enable seamless collaboration across the joint force, the Defense Industrial Base, and allied coalitions. The perspective argues that digital transformation is no longer an administrative or technical undertaking but a strategic imperative. By unifying technology, cybersecurity, and modernization under a single vision, the Department can build the digital advantage necessary to deter, dominate, and defeat our nation's adversaries.

June 11, 2026

The Agentic Cyber Protection Team: Trading Mass for Mastery in the Algorithmic Battlespace

Cyberspace has become an algorithmic battlespace in which success depends on achieving decision superiority and continuous overwatch at machine speed. This perspective argues that the current 39-person Cyber Protection Team (CPT), a core defensive element of the U.S. Cyber Mission Force, reflects an industrial-age organizational construct attempting to maneuver in a data-centric domain characterized by exponential speed, scale, and complexity. Human-centered workflows, leadership structure, and manual analytical processes have become operational bottlenecks that constrain the effectiveness of big data platforms such as Gabriel Nimbus and limit the Cyber Mission Force’s ability to keep pace with advanced adversaries. To address this challenge, the article proposes the Agentic Cyber Protection Team (aCPT), a force design that elevates human operators from manual analysts to supervisors of autonomous software agents operating at scale. The aCPT trades raw personnel mass for technical mastery and algorithmic leverage, enabling continuous hunting, investigation, and response while preserving human oversight and decision authority. By upskilling personnel to leverage domain expertise to act as AI orchestrators and integrating agentic capabilities across defensive and offensive cyber missions, the Cyber Mission Force can foster a culture of rapid innovation, and maintain decision superiority against advanced adversaries without reducing overall end-strength.

June 11, 2026

A New Era of Army Cyber Transformation

The Army’s Continuous Transformation reflects a once-in-a-generation effort to prepare the force for future conflict in an increasingly contested and technology-driven environment. As cyber capabilities become central to military operations, the role of the Army’s Principal Cyber Advisor (PCA) has grown in importance across strategy, force development, acquisition, and operational integration. Drawing on reflections from his first year as the Army’s third PCA, the author examines the evolving role of cyber in national security, including the growing recognition of cyber as a strategic instrument of power and its integration across military domains. The article outlines four priority areas shaping the Army’s cyber transformation: the adoption of artificial intelligence for cyber defense, the protection of defense critical infrastructure, the development of cyber talent and force structures, and acquisition reform to accelerate the delivery of innovative capabilities. Through examples including AI-focused tabletop exercises, critical infrastructure initiatives, force generation reforms, and industry engagement, the author highlights efforts to strengthen the Army’s cyber ecosystem and ensure the force remains prepared to meet emerging threats in cyberspace.

June 10, 2026

Protect What Cannot Fail: Operational Resilience for America’s Most Consequential Critical Infrastructure

In an era of heightened geopolitical competition, state-sponsored cyber actors are actively pre-positioning themselves within United States critical infrastructure networks to secure strategic leverage during potential conflicts. This shift from espionage to potential disruption demands a fundamental evolution in national homeland defense. The Federal Government and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) must adopt a strict, consequence-driven approach to risk management. Resources must be rigorously prioritized toward infrastructure whose disruption or failure would imperil national security, public safety, military readiness, and economic continuity. This approach requires identifying critical dependencies, focusing risk-reduction investments, and measuring success through operational outcomes rather than activity metrics. Drawing on recent national policy guidance and CISA initiatives, including CI Fortify, the author outlines key principles for prioritization, continuity planning, interagency coordination, and outcome-based risk management. Ultimately, it calls for a disciplined national effort to ensure that the infrastructure Americans depend upon can continue functioning when adversaries seek to disrupt it, thereby strengthening homeland defense and preserving public trust.

June 10, 2026

Seven Insights from a Cyber Operations Maneuverist

Cyberspace will not be mastered through borrowed concepts from other domains. As cyberspace operations continue to mature, military organizations must ensure that doctrine, force generation, and operational concepts evolve alongside operational experience. Drawing on decades of service across intelligence, military operations, and senior cyber leadership, this perspective offers seven insights intended to challenge prevailing assumptions and inform the next phase of military cyber development. It argues that cyberspace should be understood on its own terms rather than through overextended analogies to physical warfare or indiscriminate notions of convergence. The discussion advocates a distinct understanding of cyber maneuver, emphasizing the importance of cyberspace control operations, intelligence–operations integration, cyber logistics, disciplined risk management, grassroots innovation, and sustained operational tempo. Central to the argument is the concept of the cyber maneuverist: a practitioner who integrates intelligence, logistics, operational design, and risk-informed decision-making to achieve meaningful outcomes in and through cyberspace. Future success, it contends, will depend on developing a shared operational language, refining doctrine, and cultivating leaders capable of generating strategic advantage in a domain defined by persistence, complexity, and continual adaptation.