Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) research in the United States is in a dramatic upswing. Technical progress continues at a rapid pace and with the start of construction of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) this year the total U.S. budget for ICF for fiscal year 1997 stands at $380 million. The NIF is being built as an essential component of the U.S. Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program, which has been formulated to assure the continued safety, reliability and performance of the downsized nuclear weapons stockpile in the absence of nuclear tests. Thus the increase in funding originates in the Congressional armed services committees and is managed by Defense Programs of the Department of Energy. The NIF, however, is a fundamental research tool that will be of great benefit beyond its mission within the nuclear weapons program. Its experiments will promote fusion energy development and will open new areas of basic scientific research. This paper will discuss some of the directions that ICF research is now taking, the progress on the NIF Project, and the potential impact that these developments are likely to have on fusion energy development and on certain areas of the basic sciences.