Opportunities Born of Revolution

By Mark Pascale, Director, The Intelligence Project at Harvard’s Belfer Center

A revolution is underway across the national security domain. A historic, enduring revolution being driven by new technologies that permeate nearly every aspect of this space. The convergence and confluence of multiple technologies being developed and deployed in near real-time is a bit like the Oscar winning movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once”.

Unlike other humanity-altering inventions such as the printing press, gunpowder, and electricity, which required decades if not centuries for global adoption, the speed and scale of today’s revolution rewards those able to act and engage first. The opportunities are as expansive as the pace of change is rapid.

The dual-use nature of nearly every technology transforming the national security space augments both the potential and the challenges of smartly mitigating risk. Materials science, synthetic bio, satellites, quantum, robotics, autonomous systems and of course AI will impact the average consumer as much as they will forever change the way a soldier or intelligence officer executes Mission.

The vanguards of today’s innovation are individuals like Anduril founder Palmer Luckey who grew up using the beta versions of today’s cutting-edge technologies. Some of the most competitive drone companies are founded by champion gamers who mastered the joystick and FPV mindset. Indeed, the paradigm has shifted from the Silicon Valley of the 1960’s subsidized so heavily by Government commissioning.

Working with a handful of U.S. military veterans from Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management, I helped support the establishment in 2024 of a dual use national security technology incubator uniting student founders from across the Harvard and MIT ecosystems. We were brought together by our shared conviction that the U.S. and its allies needed to move with greater alacrity in adopting and integrating the cutting-edge technologies redefining the defense and intelligence space. All of us, in our own ways, had witnessed the tragic cost in human life of failing to have the best technology available on the front lines of national security.

Nearly two years into this experiment called QLab, the demand signal from both the market and the innovator has been compelling. The inaugural 2025 QLab cohort worked across the range of solutions and capabilities: cognition-based predictive AI, space, autonomous systems, manufacturing, to name a few. Of the 16 inaugural QLab Teams, eleven quickly received pre-seed support and two garnered Palantir Fellowships. The second cohort of 2026 saw a boom in applicants – nearly 100 from across the Harvard and MIT founder populations.

Participation in QLab—an independent, student run non-profit—provides founders a greater appreciation for how their products apply to the national security space. Enabling early partnerships between the startup and government stakeholders drove rapid iteration against real national defense problems. Many QLab Teams now work closely with the U.S. Government and major defense contractors. Illustrative examples include:

  • Diffraqtion: MIT Grad Johannes Galatsanos partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build quantum cameras that enable satellites to see at 20x higher resolution and 1000x faster processing.

  • Bandelier Technologies: Founded by Harvard Business School MBA and former U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret, Stephen Buchanan. Bandelier is commercializing quantum sensing technology developed with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Initially supported by federal research funding, the technology is being transitioned toward operational and commercial use.

  • CollarID: Patrick Chwalek of MIT Media Lab is developing a tracking device originally designed to monitor animals and their environment. The sensor suite captures sound, temperature, humidity, particulate matter, and gas along with full movement data.

  • ProDex Labs: Harvard undergrads Kushan Weerakoon, Rick Li, and Sean McCabe build AI software to optimize factory operations with direct relevance to the modernization of the US defense industrial base—a critical pillar in ensuring U.S. competitiveness on the world stage.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of this experience has been the commitment and passion evident among the student founders—a genuine desire to contribute to national security, no more or less than my own resolve to join the CIA over 20 years ago.

Programs like QLab accelerate diffusion of critical technologies by putting founders, defense customers, and end users in the same room week after week, creating a feedback loop that compresses what traditionally takes years of bureaucratic navigation into months of direct iteration. Across just two cohorts and 34 teams, QLab founders have raised approximately $45M in venture capital, secured over 10 government contracts, closed 20 pre-seed and seed rounds, and earned multiple acceptances into Y Combinator. But faster technology development alone does not guarantee adoption at scale.

The dual-use sector increasingly requires capital partners who understand both the commercial opportunity and the national security imperative, investors willing to navigate dual sales cycles and classified requirements alongside the enormous market potential. Matching the right technology with the right capital is now as critical as matching it with the right mission.

To sum up the moment we’re in, I’ll harken back to my study of the Mandarin language. The two characters that form the word commonly translated as crisis are ‘wei’ 危 , meaning instability and risk, and ji ’机, meaning a moment of change or opportunity. The investment opportunities in the dual use national security space right now are precisely a combination of risk and opportunity, with a lion’s share of the risk absorbed by those who fail to embrace this moment of change. And the rewards destined for those who seize the plethora of opportunities fundamentally transforming the national security domain as we currently know it.

About the Author

Mark Pascale is Director of the Intelligence Project at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center.  Mark served in the CIA for more than 20 years, to include as a multi-time Chief of Station. He speaks Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin and spent 14 years of his adult life in China, Russia, and Syria.

https://www.belfercenter.org/person/mark-pascale#:~:text=Mark%20previously%20had%20a%20distinguished,China%2C%20Russia%2C%20and%20Syria.

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Jesús Mantas

Jesús Mantas

Former Global Managing Partner, IBM
Board Director, Biogen, IFF, and National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD)

Jesús Mantas is the former Global Managing Partner responsible for Business Transformation Services in IBM. Prior to this, he led IBM Business Consulting, IBM Global Process Services, and IBM GBS Latin America. Before IBM, he was a Partner in the High Technology practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, and worked at Procter & Gamble in Spain.

He serves as the Chair of Compensation and Management Development of the Board of Director of Biogen Inc.(NASDAQ: BIIB), as well as a Board Director of IFF (NYSE: IFF) and NACD. He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Council and serves on the Boards of HITEC and NACME, non-profits focused on leadership development of diversity in technology. He is the emeritus chair of IBM’s Hispanic Diversity Council.

Jesús holds degrees in Telecommunications, Software Engineering, and Business Administration, was a professor at University of California, Irvine Graduate School of Management, and served as an officer in the Air Force of Spain.

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Glen Dodson

Glen Dodson

Job Title, Cyberistics

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David Ulevitch Portrait2

David Ulevitch

General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

David Ulevitch is an entrepreneur and investor. As a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, he leads the firm’s American Dynamism practice, which focuses on investing in companies advancing American interests — including supporting builders in areas such as defense, national security, public safety, nuclear and aerospace. David sits on the boards of Alloy Automation, Anduril, AnyRoad, Charthop, Firstbase, Flock Safety, Orderful, Rewatch, Skydio, Superhuman, Supermove, Vitally, and WorkBoard. David has written extensively on the role of technology in advancing American interests, including how nuclear technology can untether our military, the future of public safety and how the U.S. can rewire the Pentagon for a new era. David was previously the founder and CEO of OpenDNS, a cloud-delivered security service that was acquired by Cisco in 2015 for $635 million. While at Cisco, David was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security — a $2.4 billion annual revenue business with more than 5,000 team members — where he oversaw the company’s global cybersecurity strategy, product portfolio, and business. Prior to OpenDNS, David founded EveryDNS, an authoritative DNS service, and grew it into the world’s largest free DNS service. He sold it to Dyn (now Oracle) in 2010.

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John M. B. O'Connor

John M. B. O’Connor

Chairman and CEO, J.H. Whitney Investment Management

John M. B. O’Connor is CEO of J.H. Whitney Investment Management, LLC. Previously, Mr. O’Connor was Chairman of JP Morgan Alternative Asset Management. Mr. O’Connor is also CEO of Whitney Strategic Services and Whitney Data Services. Mr. O’Connor serves on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including Oceus Networks, LLC., Sequoia Holdings, Inc., and Boon Logic, Inc.

Mr. O’Connor is a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he lectures on the Economics of National Security. He served as a member of the U.S. Department of War Business Board from 2005 to 2021 and as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for New York from 2014 to 2019. He is a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Air Force Distinguished Public Service Award and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award. Mr. O’Connor earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tulane University and a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

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Sherif Nahas

Sherif Nahas

Director of Private Equity, Ford Foundation

Sherif works at The Ford Foundation, where he manages approximately $7 billion in private investments, including venture capital, private equity, real estate, and natural resources. He previously managed private investments for the University of Virginia endowment, and before that worked at BankBoston and Sand Hill Capital. Sherif started his career as an engineer and product strategist at The Ford Motor Company. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. and M.E in Aerospace Engineering, and received an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

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Byron Loflin

Byron Loflin

Global Head of Board Advisory & Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence, Nasdaq

Byron Loflin is the Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq where he leads the governance team in driving board and governance effectiveness. Byron founded the Center for Board Excellence (CBE) in 2010 and was CEO until it was acquired by Nasdaq in 2019.

Prior to CBE, Byron was the CEO and president for two private companies between 1992-2009. Along with speaking on and teaching corporate governance effectiveness, Byron is a graduate of James Madison University (BA) and Harvard Business School (OPM) and several HBS Executive Education Certificates including Havard’s Board Effectiveness program.

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Gen. David Stilwell

General David Stilwell

Ret. General USAF; Fmr Assistant Secretary of State (Asia)

Brig Gen (Ret) David Stilwell is the Fox Fellow for Future Pacing Threats at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Institute for Future Conflict. In this role, he educates cadets and faculty on the growing military threat presented by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including its use of political and information warfare to undermine democracies. His teachings help prepare future officers for the challenges they will face immediately after commissioning. Stilwell most recently served as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of EastAsian and Pacific Affairs from 2019 to 2021. Before that, he served in the U.S.Air Force for 35 years. Stilwell enlisted as a Korean linguist in 1980, served as a fighter pilot and commander for 25 years, and was later the Defense Attaché in Beijing. He retired in 2015 as the Asia advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He speaks Korean, Chinese, and some Japanese.
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Adam Segal

Ira A. Lipman Chair in Emerging Technologies and National Security, and Director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

Adam Segal is the Ira A. Lipman chair in emerging technologies and national security and director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on security issues, technology development, and Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Segal was the project director for the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force reports Confronting Reality in Cyberspace, Innovation and National Security, Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet, and Chinese Military Power. His book The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age (PublicAffairs, 2016) describes the increasingly contentious geopolitics of cyberspace. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among others. From April 2023 to June 2024, Segal was a senior advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where he led the development of the United States International Cyberspace and Digital Policy. Before coming to CFR, Segal was an arms control analyst for the China Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There, he wrote about missile defense, nuclear weapons, and Asian security issues. He has been a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has taught at Vassar College and Columbia University. Segal is the author of Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge (W.W. Norton, 2011)
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Nazak Nikakhtar Portrait

The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar

Partner and National Security Chair, Wiley Rein LLP
Former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce

The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar brings over two decades of experience in international trade and national security to help clients succeed in the domestic and global marketplace. Through leadership roles in the U.S. government and private sector, Nazak has leveraged her valuable insights into the expansive range of U.S. and international laws, regulatory and policy processes, and federal agency resources to achieve clients’ business objectives. 

 

From 2018 to 2021, with unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Nazak served as the Department of Commerce’s Assistant Secretary for Industry & Analysis at the International Trade Administration (ITA). Nazak also served the duties of the Under Secretary for Industry and Security at Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). In these roles, Nazak was the agency’s primary liaison with U.S. industry and trade associations, and she shaped major initiatives to strengthen U.S. industry competitiveness, promote innovation, and accelerate economic and job growth.

 

As one of the key national security experts in the U.S. government, she developed and implemented innovative laws, regulations, and policies to safeguard strategically important technologies, strengthen the U.S. industrial base, and protect the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. As the Department’s lead on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), she played a key role in shaping U.S. investment policy. As the head of the agency’s trade policy office, she advised the U.S. government on legal and economic issues impacting critical technologies, advanced manufacturing, financial services, e-commerce, data privacy, cybersecurity, critical minerals/rare earths, and energy competition. Finally, as the federal agency’s lead on supply chain assessments, Nazak spearheaded the United States’ first-ever whole-of-government initiative to evaluate and strengthen supply chains across all strategic sectors of the economy.

 

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R.P. Eddy

R.P. Eddy

CEO, Ergo

R.P. Eddy is the CEO of Ergo, a geopolitical and economic intelligence firm known for forecasting critical world events. Leaders of allied governments and the world’s most consequential global businesses rely on Ergo to navigate what the firm calls “The Fastest Year in History”—with each year faster still.

Previously, R.P. served as a Director at the White House National Security Council and as a senior U.S. and UN diplomat. He has represented the U.S. in peace negotiations, played a role in the (flawed) creation of the International Criminal Court, and led attempts to recover American hostages. He was an initial architect of the Global Fund, which has since been credited with saving over 50 million lives; the UN team was honored with a Nobel Peace Prize. Recognized by Foreign Policy magazine as one of “America’s most respected national security experts,” R.P. was also named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum.

R.P. co-authored the award-winning bestseller Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes (HarperCollins). His advocacy work spans leading counterterrorism programs for the NYPD and LAPD, promoting Western industrial competitiveness with DARPA, advocating for safe social media, and supporting the responsible development of AI. He has testified before Congress, spoken at the UN General Assembly and the Nobel Prize Summit, and is a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

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Christina Alfonso

Executive Director, CGCI

Christina Alfonso is a senior advisor to leaders across government and industry, specializing in national security, economic competitiveness, and emerging technology policy. As the Executive Director of the Council on Global Competition and Innovation (CGCI), she leads an initiative championed by the U.S. Department of War and private sector executives to advance resilient, market-driven security investments and foster strategic growth. As a Senior Advisor at DARPA, Christina prioritized developing public-private partnerships and advised on strategies to strengthen the U.S. defense innovation ecosystem.

Previously, as co-founder/CFO of Novata, a Microsoft and S&P-backed technology platform, Christina enhanced private market transparency through non-financial data reporting. As co-founder/CEO of Madeira Global (2012-2020), she pioneered values-based investment solutions for the private equity and credit sectors.

She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executives in National and International Security program. Christina holds an M.B.A. from ESADE Business School (Spain) and a B.S. in Finance and Economics from Fordham University. Christina is a trustee and treasurer of the RWJBH Monmouth Medical Center Foundation and has served on the advisory boards of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle, PathNorth, and the Women’s Society for the Economy and Society. She has extensive international experience, most recently in São Paulo, and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.