The Trump administration’s move to cut off research funding to universities—ostensibly, for failing to adequately address antisemitism on campus—has implications far beyond the current political debate. It directly threatens one of the most critical foundations of U.S. national security: the longstanding partnership between the federal government and American research universities. This partnership has been essential to maintaining the U.S. military’s technological edge against adversaries such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and now, China.
President Trump has declared that “peace through strength” is a central pillar of his national security strategy, and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has emphasized the need to increase the “lethality” of the U.S. military to counter 21st-century threats. But these goals will be unattainable if we undermine the very talent base and research infrastructure that makes American military strength possible in the first place.
The partnership between government and academia has deep roots. During World War II, Vannevar Bush—former dean of MIT’s School of Engineering and asked by President Roosevelt to oversee the Office of Scientific Research and Development—helped mobilize American scientific talent based at U.S. universities to support the war effort. OSRD was instrumental in developing game-changing technologies, from radar and proximity fuses, to new blood substitutes to assist wounded troops, to the atomic bomb through the Manhattan Project.
Given the role science played in the U.S. success during the war, FDR asked Bush to present a vision for how the federal government should support science during peacetime. In response, Bush wrote Science, The Endless Frontier, a visionary report he submitted in July 1945 to then-President Truman. In it, he warned that America’s wartime scientific success had come dangerously close to failure due to inadequate peacetime preparation. He called for a permanent investment in scientific research — particularly at civilian universities — as both a national-security imperative and as a means to achieve other critical national economic and public health goals. That vision became the blueprint for a postwar ecosystem of innovation grounded in a close collaboration between government, academia, and industry.
Bush’s vision was based on two key core beliefs. First, funds for scientific research should be awarded by the federal government based upon merit as judged by other top scientists, not distributed based on political or geographical considerations. Second, by awarding government research funds to universities and supporting their existing educational and research infrastructure, as opposed to creating a federalized system of research laboratories, these federal dollars would do “double duty,” supporting not only new scientific advances and innovation, but simultaneously helping to educate and train the next generation of scientific talent required to protect future U.S. national and economic security interests.
This model helped the United States outpace the Soviet Union in everything from nuclear propulsion to microelectronics. And it continues to serve the nation well today in areas critical for our future military success including AI, advanced manufacturing, material research, and biotechnology.
During my tenure as Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration from 2021 to 2024, I saw firsthand the vital role that universities play in U.S. national security.
For example, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester conducts critical implosion experiments in support of the national Inertial Confinement Fusion program. These experiments and the large and complex research tools and equipment they support are essential to ensuring the reliability of America’s nuclear arsenal without conducting live nuclear tests.
Another key partnership is the Consortium on National Critical Infrastructure Security, which includes institutions like the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and North Carolina A&T. This program helps train students for careers in cybersecurity—an area of growing strategic importance given the evolving threat landscape. It also supported fundamental scientific research for which while the potential public benefits for the work were great, industry would not invest because the research was far too risky and potential direct returns to the company uncertain.
These are just two examples of the thousands of collaborations between federal agencies and American universities that contribute directly to the safety and security of the United States and its allies.
Today, the stakes are higher than ever. The United States faces an unprecedented strategic competitor in China, which is pursuing a whole-of-government approach to becoming a global science and technology superpower. According to a recent threat assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, China is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing, and semiconductors—areas vital to both economic and military dominance. It is also investing heavily in its universities to provide the infrastructure and required STEM talent base to achieve its goal of global scientific and technological leadership.
China’s technology sectors are projected to account for as much as 23 percent of its GDP by 2026, more than double their 2018 level. In April, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology warned that “China is quickly ascending to biotechnology dominance,” and that the United States has only a narrow window—just three years—to respond.
In this context, weakening the U.S. research ecosystem—especially by severing ties between the federal government and leading universities—is not just short-sighted. It is dangerous.
For more than 80 years, the collaboration between the U.S. government and its universities has been one of the greatest engines of innovation and national strength in the world. To win the race for the future—and to preserve peace through strength—we must reaffirm this partnership, not dismantle it.
Yes, universities must do more to uphold the values of open debate, pluralism, and accountability. But punishing institutions that house the very laboratories, research centers, and talent pipelines our national defense depends on is not the answer.
Now is the time for strategic investment, not political retribution. The future of American security—and global leadership—depends on it.
Frank A. Rose is President of Chevalier Strategic Advisors, a strategic advisory firm focused on geopolitics and defense technology. He previously served as Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration from 2021-2024, and Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance at the U.S. Department of State from 2014-2017.
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