Editor's note: What follows is exclusively adapted from a longer essay that was published as a part of the Ronald Reagan Institute's Essay Series on Presidential Principles and Beliefs which is premised on the conviction that President Reagan's words and ideas hold important lessons for today. You can find more about the essay series here. At the height of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan had the foresight to call upon the nation to support the Strategic Defense Initiative, later known as the "Star Wars" defense system, to protect the United States from a potential USSR missile attack. Due to fierce Democrat opposition, our nation never fully built out our missile defense capability and doubled down on nuclear deterrence. We have relied upon our adversaries' fear that our nuclear weapons could destroy them to deter their use of nuclear weapons against us or our allies.

To illustrate how artificial intelligence (AI) could affect the future battlefield, consider the following scenario based on a future book I am writing entitled The Senkaku Paradox: Risking Great Power War over Limited Stakes. The scenario, imagined to occur sometime between now and 2040, begins with a hypothesized Russian "green men" attack against a small farming village in eastern Estonia or Latvia. Russia's presumed motive would be to sow discord and dissent within NATO, weakening the alliance. Estonia and Latvia are NATO member states, and thus the United States is sworn to defend them. But in the event of such a Russian aggression, a huge, direct NATO response may or may not be wise.

Laser weapons are on a roll. The U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, and the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization are testing them. Plans include mounting them on Humvees to shoot down drones. You can see them destroy drones on YouTube. The Missile Defense Agency wants to test laser-equipped drones as a defense against North Korean missiles.