WHERE POWER RESIDES Velocity, Surge, and Why Readiness Has Become Regional

By Shaun Broeker, Chairman of the National Security Crossroads Alliance (NSCA)

For much of the last century, American warfighting readiness was measured by scale. We optimized for reach and global integration because delay rarely proved decisive. Production expanded across borders, supply chains lengthened, and fragmentation was tolerable. That era is over. Power is no longer a question of presence–it’s a race against time.

In this environment, readiness is measured by the velocity of relevance. This is the ability to deliver capability to warfighters on timelines that outpace threat evolution. Our near peer adversaries understand which technologies matter. The question is whether those technologies can be produced, scaled, and fielded in time to shape outcomes. We saw this tested when Ukraine’s frontlines demanded drones faster than Western partners could supply them. We saw it again when global semiconductor shortages quietly delayed upgrades to U.S. defense systems.

This is the defining feature of modern power. Advantage no longer belongs solely to the nation that invents first. It belongs to the nation that translates known capability into fielded effect at speed. Capabilities that arrive late, even if superior on paper, lose their influence. In this environment, velocity determines not only effectiveness, but whether a capability remains relevant to the fight at all.

The Proof Is in the Surge

The ability to surge is a time-based alignment test for velocity of relevance. It measures whether an industrial system can accelerate in sequence under real world constraints to deliver urgently needed capability. It reveals how quickly labor can be trained and redirected, how fast materials can move from extraction to processing to manufacturing, and whether capital, infrastructure, logistics, and regulatory approvals can align behind a shifting requirement.

When surge fails, chokepoints appear across the system. Supply chains fracture. Workforce pipelines lag demand. Capital waits on infrastructure that is not ready. Delay compounds, and in a high intensity conflict, compounded delay becomes strategic risk.

Surge rarely fails because of a single missing input. It fails because systems move out of sequence. Individual components may be strong on their own, but surge exposes whether they can move together under pressure. Velocity proves itself here.

Why Execution Is Regional

The conditions that determine velocity of relevance, and are revealed under surge, are physical and time-constrained. Workers do not need to be fully trained in advance, but training pipelines must already exist and expand quickly. Facilities do not need to be fully built, but sites, tooling pathways, permitting authorities, and utilities must already be in place so capacity can come online without delay. Suppliers do not need to sit idle, but they must be within reach and able to shift production without fracturing upstream or downstream flows.

These enabling conditions cannot be improvised in crisis or assembled across distance at speed. They emerge and reinforce one another where industry, labor, infrastructure, and capital already operate together within a shared environment. That environment is regional by nature.

In the Midwest, efforts like the National Security Crossroads Alliance (NSC Alliance) have made this operational, connecting critical minerals in Missouri to production in Kansas and onward to advanced manufacturing elsewhere in the region. In the Mountain West, initiatives such as Elevate Quantum are knitting together universities, startups, and national labs into a federally designated quantum Tech Hub–proof that velocity scales through regional density, not nationwide dispersion.

Regions matter because they concentrate the conditions velocity depends on. Proximity reduces friction in ways no digital coordination framework can replicate. When these elements co-locate, coordination becomes the operating system rather than the exception.

This logic is not new. It is the historical blueprint of American power. Detroit powered wartime production because labor, tooling, and logistics aligned in one place. Silicon Valley reshaped the global economy through the same density. If velocity is the measure and surge is the proof, then regions are the unit of execution.

Why Capital Alone Isn’t Enough

The phrase From Mine to Mission describes a sequential execution problem. It asks whether raw materials can move from extraction to operation in sequence, under real world constraints, without breaking. Capacity alone does not answer that question. Execution under pressure does. Regions that co-locate the required assets can literally compress time.

This reality should shape strategic capital decisions. National organizations such as the Council on Global Competition and Innovation – CGCI play an essential role in national security by directing attention and investment toward assets and technologies of strategic importance. That work matters because it clarifies what must scale and where national priorities lie. But capital alone does not guarantee execution.

Defense production does not operate like a normal market because workforce, permitting, infrastructure, and production constraints do not clear on surge timelines. Those constraints sit across firms, agencies, and jurisdictions, and no single actor controls the sequence. Capital may allocate efficiently, but it cannot sequence execution across fragmented regional systems. That’s why readiness gaps persist even amid record investment. This creates an orchestration gap when no mechanism exists to align regional elements into a functioning system. Bridging that orchestration gap requires something more than coordination–it demands an operating system built at the regional level.

This is where investor logic must evolve. The Department of War increasingly favors execution environments that reduce surge risk and deliver on time under pressure. Firm-level excellence remains necessary, but it is no longer sufficient. Regional coordination has become a critical screening lens. Execution risk now lives at the regional level, and capital that ignores it misprices outcomes.

Regional Coordination an Operating System

The NSC Alliance exists to close that orchestration gap at the regional level. It aligns strategic priorities through experienced national security leaders. It tests those priorities against what manufacturers can realistically produce or surge. It then executes through coordinated mobilization across workforce, logistics, and infrastructure. This structure enforces sequence so velocity can emerge. This is not just industrial policy; it’s deterrence by execution. The capacity to field capability on time is itself a signal of national resolve.

The NSC Alliance operates in the Midwest because the region meets those requirements. It contains one of the most complete national security ecosystems in the country, bringing together critical minerals, defense research, production capacity, and mission assets within an inland geography. The NSC Alliance organizes these assets into a single operating system, shortening the path from regional capacity to fielded capability for warfighters.

Time has replaced territory as the decisive terrain of power. The nations that can translate strategic intent into operational reality first will define the century. America’s advantage now depends on the regions that can move in sequence–compressing time from mine to mission, aligning factory floors with battlefronts, and turning industrial readiness into deterrence.

The question is no longer whether we can innovate, but whether we can execute–together, at speed, and in place. That is where power truly resides.

To learn more about the NSC Alliance and our work strengthening regional readiness, visit nsc-alliance.org or contact Shaun Broeker at sbroeker@thompsoncoburn.com.

About the Author:

Shaun Broeker is an attorney and Iraq War veteran focused on industrial readiness and regional mobilization. He serves as Chairman of the National Security Crossroads Alliance, where he works to organize regional capability in the American Heartland to solve national security problems for the Department of War.

In his professional practice, Shaun works at the intersection of defense industry, workforce development, and supply-chain resilience, collaborating with manufacturers, state and federal officials, veterans’ organizations, and national security leaders to translate strategic demand into executable regional capacity. He is a partner at Thompson Coburn LLP in St. Louis, where he is a complex commercial litigator and serves as a lead within the firm’s Defense and Aerospace service industry.

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In parallel with his civilian career, Graham has served as a Naval officer, leading multiple innovation initiatives. He was Deputy Director of NavalX, the U.S. Navy’s innovation cell; Director of Global Technology Scouting and Co-Investments at the Office of Strategic Capital within the Office of the Secretary of War; and a technology scout with Task Force 59 under the U.S. Navy’s Central Command.

Graham, a New Hampshire native, is also deeply involved in civic and nonprofit work, having served as a Director or Advisor to organizations such as New Hampshire Public Radio, the St. Anselm College Ethics in Governance Program, and the Business School at Southern New Hampshire University.

He holds a B.A. in Political Science with High Distinction from the University of California, Berkeley; an M.A. in Public Policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy; a J.D. from Duke University School of Law; and a Certificate in Transnational Law from Duke and the University of Geneva Faculty of Law.

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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.