The Changing Nature of Warfare with John Nagl

Name: The Changing Nature of Warfare with John Nagl
Start: 2024-09-25T13:30:00-0400
End: 2024-09-25T14:45:00-0400

Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

The inaugural Intelligence Project seminar for the 2024-2025 academic year welcomes Dr. John Nagl, Professor of Warfighting Studies at the U.S. Army War College to discuss changes in the nature of warfare. Intelligence professionals face formidable tactical, operational, and strategic challenges from the ongoing conflicts between Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Hamas, as well as proxy warfare across the Middle East and geopolitical tension across Asia. Technological innovations – including Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence – represent dynamic advancements in the character of warfare.

Dr. Nagl will discuss changes in the character of warfare, as well as how the nature of warfare and intelligence transforms political and social structures. As a leader with experience from tactical to strategic levels, Dr. Nagl will discuss the role of intelligence, the relationships between military command and political decision-making, and many of the challenges posed by contemporary conflict. This event will be moderated by Nathaniel Moir, former Ernest May Postdoctoral Fellow and former Associate in Applied History at the Belfer Center.

The seminar is in person only, open to Harvard ID holders, and will be under the Chatham House Rules. It will take place from 1:30-2:45 pm in Wexner G02. Attendance was capped at the first 35 people to register. Registration is now closed.

Date: Wed, Sep 25, 2024 Time: 01:30pm - 02:45pm Location: Wexner Building - Wexner G02

Four Ukrainian soldiers carry a drone as they walk across a snow-covered field.

John Nagl is Professor of Warfighting Studies at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A retired Armor Officer and Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army with combat experience in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Nagl graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was a Rhodes Scholar, and earned a D.Phil in International Relations at the University of Oxford. He was the inaugural Minerva Research Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, lectures at George Washington University, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Foreign Policy Research Institute and at the Center for a New American Security where he also served as President from 2009 to 2012. Dr. Nagl recently completed a term as a Fellow of the Irregular Warfare Initiative and has influenced the study of irregular warfare and counterinsurgency, in particular, through his efforts developing Field Manual 3-24 on Counterinsurgency for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps in 2006. In addition to his extensive work on warfare, Dr. Nagl served as the ninth Head of the Haverford School outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leading an organization dedication to the education and character of boys and young men. In addition to his numerous articles and other academic work, his books include a historical account of counterinsurgency in Malaysia and Vietnam titled, Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife (University of Chicago Press, 2005), and Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice (Penguin, 2014). He recently published a monograph entitled A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force (USAWC Press) with co-author Katie Crombe and an article entitled "A Long, Hard Year: Russia-Ukraine War Lessons Learned 2023" with Michael T. Hackett in Parameters.