2024 Pritzker Military Symposium

Dr. Paul Poast is associate professor at the University of Chicago, a non-resident fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a foreign affairs commentator, and an award-winning author of numerous articles and books including Economics of War and Arguing About Alliances.

Dr. Emma Ashford is a senior fellow at the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center and teaches at Georgetown University. She is the author, most recently, of Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostate. She specializes in grand strategy, international security, and the future of U.S. foreign policy.

Dr. James Holmes is the J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College, former U.S. Navy surface-warfare officer, and expert in nuclear security and Indo-Pacific maritime security. His book, Red Star Over the Pacific, is a fixture on the Navy Professional Reading List and an Atlantic Monthly Best Book of 2010.

Dr. Sean N. Kalicis a Professor in the Department of Military History and former Assistant Dean at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He lectures internationally and publishes widely on topics such as U.S. space policy, the Cold War and post-Cold War security environment, Al Qaeda, and transnational terrorism.

Dr. Will Reno is professor and chair of Political Science at Northwestern University, author of three books and over 100 articles, and the principal investigator of the Minerva research project on improving foreign military training. For over 30 years he has conducted fieldwork and interviews in conflict zones across Africa, the Middle East and now Ukraine.

Dr. Alexandra Chinchilla, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University Bush School of Government and Public Service, and core faculty member with the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy. She is also an Irregular Warfare Initiative fellow. She has published articles and book chapters on security assistance, proxy war, NATO, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Dr. Renanah Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Brandeis University. She researches international security and U.S. foreign policy, security cooperation, and military and economic statecraft. She is a research affiliate of the MIT Security Studies Program, an adjunct political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and an external adviser for the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Dr. Jahara "Franky" Matisek (Lt. Col. USAF) is a military professor at the U.S. Naval War College, fellow at the European Resilience Initiative Center, and author of Old and New Battlespaces and over 100 articles on strategy, warfare, and security assistance. A command pilot with over 1,300 combat hours, he earned a Bronze Star in 2020.

Dr. Craig L. Symonds (Lt. USN Ret.) taught at the United States Naval Academy for thirty years and wrote hundreds of articles and seventeen books on the Civil War and naval history, including Nimitz at War, World War II at Sea, and Lincoln and His Admirals. He has won many prestigious awards, including the 2023 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

Dr. Craig L. Symonds (Lt. USN Ret.) taught at the United States Naval Academy for thirty years and wrote hundreds of articles and seventeen books on the Civil War and naval history, including Nimitz at War, World War II at Sea, and Lincoln and His Admirals. He has won many prestigious awards, including the 2023 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

Dr. Lyle J. Goldstein is Director of Asia Engagement at Defense Priorities and Visiting Professor at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Author of seven books, including Meeting China Halfway, he investigates the costs of the great power competition with Russia and China and military security.

Dr. Geoffrey Till,Advisor and Visiting Professor, Maritime Security Programme, RSIS Singapore, has taught at over 60 academic and defense organizations worldwide. Till has edited numerous publications and written 29 books, including Seapower: A Guide for the 21st Century and How to Grow a Navy: The Development of Maritime Power. The U.S. Naval College's Hattendorf Prize acknowledges his lifetime contributions to military scholarship.

Christopher J. Wehri (Col. U.S. Army) is currently a Visiting Military Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served on the Joint Staff as the Deputy Director for Politico-Military Affairs for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and as Eighth Army’s Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans and Policy.

Stephen C. Evans (Rear Admiral USN, Retired) is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Flag Bridge Global Solutions, LLC and Pritzker Military Museum & Library Board member. As a Navy Commander he implemented new digital technologies, helped create diverse Navy innovation initiatives, and led the strategic alignment of Intel, Cyber, and Information grid functions to improve integrated warfighting.

Dr. Thomas (T.X.) X. Hammes (Col. USMC, Ret.) is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University. Drawing on 30 years of Marine Corps infantry experience to author three books and over 200 articles, he expertly articulates the fourth generation of warfare and the future technological challenges for the military.

The Honorable John C. (Chris) Inglis (Brig Gen, USAF, Ret.) is a Visiting Professor of cyber studies at the U.S. Air Force and Naval Academies and serves on the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Advisory Council. He served thirty years in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard, then as the first National Cyber Director, and later as Deputy Director of the National Security Agency.

Phil Susmann is the President of Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI), a research and development organization focused on cybersecurity, defense technologies, information advantage, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. He has developed programs on National Security, Counterterrorism, and Cybersecurity at Norwich, as well as cyber exercise tools and training programs.