Strategic Systems Competition
Building and scaling trusted systems across technology, infrastructure, capital, and alliances
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Artificial intelligence has entered a new phase. It is no longer a software race. It is a systems race.
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The question is no longer who builds the best model— but who can finance, power, govern, and deploy systems at global scale.
The Core Challenge
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Can open, citizen-empowering systems scale globally—and sustain advantage—in a world defined by fragmentation, rivalry, and interdependence?
What Has Changed
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Power no longer resides in individual technologies. It resides in systems— networks that connect compute, energy, capital, infrastructure, and alliances into something that works at scale.
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The systems that align—and deploy—these elements will shape economic leadership, national security and global influence.
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This is not a shift in degree. It is a shift in kind.
Trusted Interdependence
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The world will remain interconnected. The question is whether that interdependence is stable—or weaponized.
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Mark Kennedy’s work advances a simple but necessary idea: Trusted interdependence — systems that are open enough to scale, governed enough to be trusted, and structured to endure.
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This is not about choosing between openness and security. It is about designing systems where both can coexist. Because scale requires inclusion, inclusion requires trust, and trust must be built into the system itself.
Where This Work Focuses
This framework is applied across four areas:
AI Strategy
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From models to deployment—how the AI stack actually scales
Strategic Competition
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A two-bloc + interdependence world defined by system performance
Capital & Infrastructure
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The financing, energy, and industrial base that determine scale
Security & Alliances
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Deterrence through system coherence across military, economic, and technological domains
Recent Work
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Recent engagements include global forums in Paris, Geneva, Doha, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.
SPEAKING
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Mark Kennedy delivers executive briefings to leaders operating at the intersection of technology, capital, infrastructure and geopolitics.
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His flagship address:
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The AI Stack: Who Will Build Systems the World Trusts—and Scales
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These are not technology talks. They are strategic system briefings on how global power is actually being shaped.
ABOUT
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Mark Kennedy is Director of New York University’s Development Research Institute and leads the Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition.
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His experience spans:
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Fortune 100 executive leadership
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Service in the United States Congress
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Presidency of two flagship public research universities
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His work focuses on one question: How are systems built, aligned, and scaled in a world where technology and geopolitics are inseparable?
AVAILABILITY
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Based in Washington, DC and New York City
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Engaging globally
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Select advisory and speaking engagements annually
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Contact:
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