Over the last quarter century, digital technologies have transformed the way we ways we communicate, the way we shop, the way we bank, and even the way we socialize and consume information. With these advancements have come a number of vulnerabilities that adversaries and malign actors have sought to exploit in the cyber age.

Joining The Debrief to help weigh the challenges and opportunities posed by cyberspace is Dr. Derek S. Reveron, professor and chair of the National Security Affairs Department and co-author, with John E. Savage, of Security in the Cyber Age: An Introduction to Policy and Technology (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The Arctic encompasses not only the territory of eight countries, but also vital geological features and strategic waterways that have made the region an area of ecological concern and geopolitical contestation.

To help navigate these waters, The Debrief talks with Dr. Mary Thompson-Jones, a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer and professor and chair of Women in Diplomacy and National Security, who is the author of America in the Arctic: Foreign Policy and Competition in the Melting North (Columbia University Press, 2025).

Today, economics is more a part of the national security equation than it has ever been. Trade, science, technology, innovation, and supply chains – to name a few issues – intersect with national security with more depth, breadth, and frequency every year. As a consequence, U.S. economic agencies are increasingly called to the table to solve national security challenges.

To help understand these many connections and what economic security looks like in practice at the highest levels of decision-making, The Debrief spoke with Don Graves, who served as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce from 2021-2025.

Admiral Verma offers an overview of the growing importance of the Indian Ocean basin—stretching from South Africa across the Middle East and South Asia to Southeast Asia—for global security. In particular, how will developments in this region of the world become more important for U.S. national security?

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Guest:

Admiral (Ret) Nirmal Verma served as Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy from 2009-2012 and concurrently held charge as the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee from June 2011. His afloat appointments include commands of a frigate, a destroyer and aircraft carrier INS Viraat. His assignments as Flag Officer include an operational theater command, and policy formulation on budget management, acquisitions and human resources. Post retirement he served as India's High Commissioner (Ambassador) to Canada. The Admiral is currently a U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Distinguished International Fellow at the U.S. Naval War College.

Synopsis:

The Space Force is the United States’s newest military service branch, established in 2019 to secure the nation’s interests in space. Organized within the Department of the Air Force, the Space Force joins a number of organizations within the Department of Defense operating within what is an increasingly contested warfighting domain. Joining The Debrief to help navigate the changes to the United States’s posture toward this new frontier is Dr. David Burbach, associate professor of national security affairs and the inaugural director of the Space Studies Group at the U.S. Naval War College.

About the Speaker:

Professor Burbach teaches the politics of U.S. foreign policy, space security and international relations. His scholarly interests include civil-military relations, defense planning and the relationship between international security and technology, particularly space and nuclear

policy. Before joining the Naval War College faculty in 2007, he taught at the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies and also worked for several policy analysis and information technology organizations.

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The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.

Synopsis:

How have new technologies, such as autonomous drones and applying artificial intelligence, changed how strategists and policymakers view conflict in the 21st century? While they have had clear impacts in the tactical and operational levels of war, how game-changing are they when it comes to strategic objectives? Are we in thrall to "strategic myths" arising from technological determinism? Join us for this important conversation.

About the Speaker:

LTC Paul Lushenko is an Assistant Professor and Director of Special Operations at the U.S. Army War College. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in International Relations from Cornell University. He also holds an M.A. in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, an M.A. in International Relations and a Master of Diplomacy from The Australian National University, and a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy. Paul has deployed continuously, directing intelligence operations at the Battalion, Combined Task Force, and Joint Task Force levels. In his most recent operational assignment, Paul served as the Senior Intelligence Officer for the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan and was also responsible for shaping the coalition’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State and helping to regionalize U.S. counterterrorism policy and strategy. Paul is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member, Adjunct Research Lecturer at Charles Sturt University, and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute. He is the co-editor of Drones and Global Order: Implications of Remote Warfare for International Society (2022), which is the first book to systematically study the implications of drone warfare on global politics. He also has a book forthcoming on the public’s perceptions of legitimate drone strikes, entitled The Legitimacy of Drone Warfare: Evaluating Public Perceptions (2024).

The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.

Synopsis:

The 2022 National Security Strategy identifies the People’s Republic of China as “the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.” What is the nature of the threat China poses, and how is the United States adapting to meet it? To address these questions, The Debrief draws on the expertise of Kathleen Walsh, Associate Professor of National Security Affairs and Director of the Asia Pacific Studies Group at the U.S. Naval War College, and Brian Chao, Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and associate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Contemporary China.

About the Speakers:

Kathleen (Kate) Walsh is associate professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College where she has taught policy analysis since 2006. Walsh is a member of the Faculty Advisory Council, the NWC’s Asia Pacific Studies Group (APSG) director and the founder/director of the Oceanography & Maritime Security Group (OMSG). She was a senior consultant to Washington, D.C.-area think tanks including senior associate at the Stimson Center and senior associate at a D.C.-area defense consulting firm, among other past positions there. Her research focuses on China and the Asia-Pacific region, particularly issues of security, technology, innovation and ocean or "blue" economy issues.

Prof. Brian C. Chao researches great-power relations, naval power and geostrategy, and US Indo-Asia-Pacific defense and foreign policies. His work appears in “Navies in Multipolar Worlds: From the Age of Sail to the Present" (Routledge), “Security, Development and Sustainability in Asia: A World Scientific Reference on Major Policy and Development Issues of 21st Century Asia” (World Scientific), International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, and Territory, Politics, Governance, among others. He teaches theater and national-security decision-making, as well as an elective course on Taiwan. He is also an associate of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Study of Contemporary China.

The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.

Synopsis:

The interagency process coordinates the development and implementation of national security policies across executive departments at all levels of the federal government. How does the Defense Department translate policy guidance into operational-level planning, and how do national security professionals in regional theaters coordinate with their interagency counterparts to implement these policies? Capt. Jeff W. Benson, USN, joins The Debrief to address these questions, drawing on his experience in contributing to the interagency process on U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. Capt. Benson will be the first Commanding Officer of the new Flight III guided missile destroyer, USS LOUIS H. WILSON, JR (DDG 126), being built in Bath, ME. He is a graduate of the Naval War College and previously served as the Division Chief for China and Taiwan on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J5).

About the Speaker:

Capt. Benson will be the first Commanding Officer of the new Flight III guided missile destroyer, USS LOUIS H. WILSON, JR (DDG 126), being built in Bath, ME. He is a graduate of the Naval War College and previously served as the Division Chief for China and Taiwan on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J5).

The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.

Synopsis:

The African continent is often viewed through the prism of humanitarian crises, a region defined by famines and pandemics. This approach ignores Africa’s critical importance to the global economy, especially in the transition to “green” technologies; its role as an interconnector between the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific basins; its role as part of the rise of the Global South in the 21st century. Dr. Naunihal Singh lays out a new strategic approach for the United States to the continent grounded in Africa’s importance for achieving its national security objectives.

About the Speaker:

Professor Naunihal Singh joined the Naval War College in 2016. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University and his B.S. at Yale University. He is a scholar of African Politics, Civil-Military Relations. Author of “Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups” (2014) a book on the dynamics and outcomes of military coups based on 300 hours of interviews and a statistical analysis of 471 coup attempts.

The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.

The Honorable Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, visits the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) on board Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island Feb. 22, 2024. During the visit Amb. Emanuel met with NWC President Rear Adm. Pete Garvin before addressing students, staff, and faculty on U.S., Japanese relations. Ambassador Emanuel became the 31st U.S. Ambassador to Japan in December 2021, prior to his current role he served as the 55th Mayor of the City of Chicago.

About the Speaker:

Rahm Emanuel was confirmed in a bipartisan vote as the 31st United States Ambassador to Japan on December 18, 2021. Previously, Ambassador Emanuel was the 55th Mayor of the City of Chicago, a position he held until May 2019. During that time, he made the critical choices necessary to secure Chicago’s future as a global capital.

As Mayor, the Ambassador added four years to a student’s education. He increased the school day by 75 minutes and added more than 200 hours to the school year, marking the largest single increase in educational time by any city and taking Chicago from having the least educational time of any large school district in the country to being on par with its peers. He implemented universal pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten for every Chicago child, and made Chicago the first city in America to provide free community college.

The Mayor’s comprehensive public safety strategy focused on expanded prevention programs for at-risk youth, smarter policing strategies, and empowering parents and communities to reduce violence. The Ambassador made it a priority to bring global companies to the city, helping Chicago to lead the U.S. in corporate relocations and foreign direct investment for seven consecutive years. His administration invested in infrastructure, public transportation, open space, and cultural attractions. From the $8.5 billion O’Hare International Airport modernization program that is cementing Chicago’s status as a global leader in travel, tourism, and trade to the development of the iconic 1.25-mile Chicago Riverwalk, the City’s investments are creating thousands of good-paying jobs and making Chicago a better place to live, work, and play.

Prior to becoming Mayor, from November 2008 until October 2010, Ambassador Emanuel served as President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff. In addition to being the President’s top advisor, the Ambassador helped the Obama administration secure the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Ambassador Emanuel was elected four times as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois’s 5th Congressional District (2002-2008). As Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Emanuel helped pass legislation to raise the minimum wage and authored the Great Lakes Restoration Act.

From 1993 to 1998, Ambassador Emanuel was a key member of President Bill Clinton’s administration, rising to serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Politics. During this time, Emanuel served as a legislative liaison to Congress and spearheaded efforts to pass several of President Clinton’s signature achievements, most notably the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, and the historic Balanced Budget Act, which created the Children’s Health Insurance Program that expanded health care coverage to 10 million children. The Ambassador also worked closely with President Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a U.S. Senator, to shepherd the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 through Congress.

As a former Senior Counselor at Centerview Partners and former Managing Director at Wasserstein Perella & Co., Emanuel brings a depth of financial experience to the post.

Ambassador Emanuel graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981 and received a Master’s Degree in Speech and Communication from Northwestern University in 1985. He is married to Amy Rule, and they have three children.

The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.