Of Banana Suits and Battle Scars: Why America Needs a Citizen-Soldier Revival
Recently, I participated in a regional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament as one of the assistant coaches of the US Naval Academy’s extracurricular Brazilian Jiu Jitsu team. Due to unforeseen travel restrictions brought on by the government shutdown, I, the 45-year-old Army veteran, ironically ended up being the lone competitor representing the Navy team that day. It […]
Like Spartans
Shall we be Athens or Sparta? As long as there have been service academies, this comparison has been trotted out in debates over their proper form and function. For just as long, it has been a false dichotomy. Citing a 1979 work by John Lovell, Dr. Joe Thomas suggests the academies truly exist in an […]
Does Terminator Have Rights?
Within contemporary discourse on the ethics of AWS (autonomous weapons systems), one of the most popular in-principle moral arguments against the use of such technologies is the so-called ‘responsibility gap’ argument popularized by philosopher, Rob Sparrow. The argument can be summarized as follows: I have argued elsewhere, and continue to argue, that this argument fails […]
Great Power, Responsibility, and Killing in War
[T]he current surge … in robotic warfare is being driven by the promise of efficiency and control and the hunger for what militaries have tasted in Nagrorno-Karabakh and in Ukraine: the power of universal precision. George Dougherty, Beast in the Machine Smart. Fast. Lethal. Precise. These are the qualities our military needs in an era […]
The Yugoslav Wars and the Dangers of an Emotion Fueled Media Environment
Introduction In 1992, Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia, following in the footsteps of Croatia and Slovenia, who had done the same the previous year. Bosnian Muslim control over the new government immediately upset the large Bosnian Croat and Serb minorities in the country. With support from Croatia and Yugoslavia (Serbia), the Bosnian Croats and Serbs […]
This Kind of Academy
“The problem is to see not what is desirable, or nice, or politically feasible, but what is necessary.” – T.R. Fehrenbach, This Kind of War Fehrenbach, as usual, has it right. Those examining the purpose of the Academies will profit by revisiting Fehrenbach’s masterful discussion of the kind of military we need to defend a […]
Reflections on Stockdale A Quarter-Century Later
As a newly hired ethics instructor at the Stockdale Center, I think it somewhat appropriate at this moment in time to share some of my thoughts and reflections on the man whom this center is named after, his legacy, and my specific relationship to both. In life, some people, some types of people, dare I […]
Neither Athens nor Sparta—Reconsidering the Mission of the Naval Academy
Since the COVID pandemic, the word unprecedented has been used constantly—almost always, I believe, incorrectly. There’s a precedent for just about everything if you examine history carefully enough. Alongside this overuse, we’ve also seen a growing tendency to catastrophize nearly every national news story. I believe we’re in one such moment at the Naval Academy. […]
The Liberal Arts and the Formation of the American Military Officer
In the education of a military officer, it is not sufficient to cultivate technical competence alone. One must also nurture judgment, moral discernment, and a steadfast devotion to the constitutional order the officer is sworn to defend. Nowhere is this dual imperative more urgent than in the United States, where military power is embedded in […]
Remembering the Primary Mission of Our Academies
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While the academies do provide a world-class education in exchange for years of military service—one that is both rigorous and enriching for its recipients—it is both impractical and irresponsible for academy leadership to get these […]