Annual Intellectual Theme

Academic Year 2023-24 Theme

Innovation, Technology, and the Future of National Defense

The academic year 2023-2024 is dedicated to the exploration of innovation and technology and how it is shaping warfare and national defense strategy. Throughout the year, we will host fireside chats, podcasts, and other events that examine this topic through the lenses of different academic disciplines. The goal of the annual intellectual theme is to bring the West Point community together in a shared intellectual experience by encouraging interdisciplinary discourse and research. The theme shapes events over the year and works best when faculty, staff, and cadets are inspired by how their current interests can be framed with the theme in mind.

Dean's Reading List

Military Innovation

Military Innovation in the Interwar Period - Williamson Murray

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050 - MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray

Wars of Revelation: The Transformative Effects of Military Intervention on Grand Strategy - Rebecca Lissner

Organizational Innovation

Think Again: The Power Knowing What You Don’t - Adam Grant

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error - Kathryn Schulz

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries - Peter Sims

Emerging Technology

The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI - Ben Buchanan

Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology - Chris Miller

The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power - Jacob Helberg

Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - Paul Scharre

Future of National Defense

2034: A Novel of the Next World War - Elliott Ackerman and Admiral (Retired) James G. Stavridis

Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence - Amy B. Zegart

Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century - P.W. Singer

War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict
- Mick Ryan

Highlights

Podcast

Inside West Point: Ideas that Impact

Join Brigadier General Shane Reeves, Dean of the United States Military Academy at West Point, as he takes you behind the scenes to explore the applied research and cross-disciplinary work being done by the Academy's scholars.