Welcome to Five Questions for a General, a new podcast from the Modern War Institute at West Point. The series features specially selected cadet hosts who are given an incredible professional development opportunity—to sit down with senior military officers and ask carefully crafted questions about everything from leadership to their unique experiences while serving to their expectations about the future of war.

This inaugural episode features a discussion with retired General Martin Dempsey and retired General Walter Sharp. Both members of the West Point class of 1974, General Dempsey retired from the US Army after serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Sharp culminated his Army career by serving simultaneously as the commander of United Nations Command, US Forces Korea, and ROK-US Combined Forces Command. Cadet Sebastian Witt hosts this episode and asks them about the military profession, emerging threats on today's strategic landscape, and the changes that have taken place at West Point since their graduation in 1974.