Colloquium: Digital Infrastructure in 2025 – Black Hole or Big Bang?

Important: This event requires a SECRET clearance or above to attend.

Abstract

Global dependence on distributed digital infrastructure has created unprecedented fragility, with stabilizing forces in geopolitics, technology, and economics eroding rapidly. Nationalism, antitrust pressures, and uneven regulation are reshaping the landscape, while technological innovation outpaces both resilience and governance. China now leads in the majority of foundational and transformative technologies, raising strategic concerns for the United States and its allies, who retain advantages in a shrinking set of areas. The concentration of private-sector innovation and the vulnerability of global supply chains further heighten systemic risk.

Threats such as cyberattacks, climate-driven disruptions, and technological dislocations now propagate more rapidly and with greater impact, challenging traditional approaches to risk management. Key technical challenges include securing artificial intelligence, protecting supply chains, ensuring data provenance, and integrating security into increasingly autonomous and interconnected systems. The diffusion of responsibility for digital defense, particularly toward operators and private actors, complicates resilience efforts.

To navigate this volatile environment, success depends on integrating resilience with innovation, fostering unified coalitions across organizational boundaries, and adopting a systems-level perspective that aligns technical, strategic, and human factors. The ability to adapt and lead in resilience, thought, and practice will define those organizations and nations that prosper amid ongoing instability and accelerating change.

About the Speaker

The Honorable John C. (Chris) Inglis is a Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force and Naval Academies, a senior advisor to Paladin Capital and the Hakluyt Company; and a member of the MITRE, AIG and Huntington Bancshares Boards. He previously served on the U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group, the U.S. Department of Navy’s Science and Technology Board and of the U.S. Department of Defense Science Board.

From 2021 to 2023 Mr. Inglis served in the White House as the inaugural Senate confirmed U.S. National Cyber Director, building on his service as a Commissioner on the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission (2019-2020), and eight years as the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the National Security Agency (2006-2014), the culmination of a 28-year career at the NSA.

Mr. Inglis holds advanced degrees in engineering and computer science from Columbia University, the Johns Hopkins University, and the George Washington University, and an honorary doctorate from the National Intelligence University. Mr. Inglis’ military career includes 30 years of service in the US Air Force and Air National Guard. He retired as a Brigadier General and holds the rating of US Air Force Command Pilot.