Erik Tiersten-Nyman

Research Associate, Futures Lab
Erik Tiersten-Nyman

Erik is a research associate with the Futures Lab under the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He conducts work on drone warfare, battlefield evolution, military technology, and AI proliferation, among other topics. Broader interests include conflict studies, non-state armed actors, fragile state politics, and middle-power and developing nation dynamics. Erik completed his BA in economics at the University of Michigan, where he also worked for several years as a research assistant, followed by two years with the Economic Research division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He joined CSIS immediately after completing his MPP at the University of Chicago in 2026, graduating with a specialization in global conflict studies.

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Understanding the U.S. Federal Government’s AI Spending

Federal agencies obligated $4.1 billion across 2,255 AI-related contracts since FY 2019, and 83 percent of those dollars went to the Defense Department. The CSIS Futures Lab follows the money trail and tracks the evolution of federal AI demand.

Critical Questions by Yasir Atalan, Erik Tiersten-Nyman, and Benjamin Jensen — September 22, 2026