Panel 2 Speakers
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Moderator
Dr. Sam J. Tangredi
Leidos Chair of Future Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College
Dr. Sam J. Tangredi is the Leidos Chair of Future Warfare Studies and Professor of National, Naval and Maritime Strategy in the Center for Naval Warfare Studies of the U.S. Naval War College. He interprets “future warfare studies” broadly, to include strategy and military operations as well as technology. Sam has wide experience as a strategic planner and director of strategic planning teams. He has published seven books, over 200 journal articles, and numerous reports and presentations for a wide range of government and academic organizations. His latest book (co-authored with George Galdorisi) is Algorithms of Armageddon: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Future Wars (Naval Institute Press, 2024). He is also co-editor of AI at War: How Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning Are Changing Naval Warfare (Naval Institute Press, 2021) and Cyber Warfare and Navies: Digital Conflict in the Maritime Domain (Naval Institute Press, 2025). His previous writings have won professional literature awards including the U.S. Naval Institute’s General Prize and U.S. Navy League’s Alfred Thayer Mahan Award. In addition to military applications of AI, he is a leading expert on the future security environment, anti-access/area denial strategies and access to the global commons, and is author of Anti-Access Warfare: Countering A2/AD Strategies (Naval Institute Press, 2013) widely considered the definitive work on that topic. Dr. Tangredi is a retired U.S. Navy Captain who held command at sea.
Panelist
Dr. Peter Dombrowski
Ruger Chair of National Security Economics, U.S. Naval War College
Dr. Peter Dombrowski is the William Ruger Chair of National Security Economics and Professor of Strategy in the Strategic and Operational Research Department at the Naval War College. From August 2018 to November 2019, he was the first director of the Admiral James R. Hogg Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute (CIPI). Previous positions include Chair of the Strategic Research Department, director of the Naval War College Press, editor of the Naval War College Review, co-editor of International Studies Quarterly, Associate Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University and defense analyst at ANSER, Inc. He has also been affiliated with research institutions including the East-West Center, The Brookings Institution, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University among others. Dr Dombrowski is the author of over sixty-five books, monographs, articles, book chapters and government reports. His most recent book (coauthored with Simon Reich) is Across Type, Time and Space: American Grand Strategy in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press 2021). He co-edited with Jonathan Caverley, Security Studies in a New Era of Maritime Competition (Routledge, 2023). Awards include a Chancellor’s Scholarship for Prospective Leaders from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, and the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Medal. He received his B.A. from Williams College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
Panelist
Dr. Chris C. Demchak
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper Chair of Cyber Security, U.S. Naval War College
Dr. Chris C. Demchak is Grace Hopper Chair of Cyber Security, U.S. Naval War College. She holds degrees in engineering, economics, and comparative complex organization systems /political science. In publications and current research on conflict, surprise, and resilience in a modern conflict-prone, digitized world, Demchak takes a socio-technical-economic systems approach in studying emerging technologies, adversaries’ cyber/AI/ML campaigns, virtual wargaming for strategic/organizational learning, and global/national/enterprise resilience against complex systems surprise and adversarial attacks. Her latest book is the co-edited volume Cyber Wqrfare and Navies (Naval Institute Press, 2025). Recent articles of note include “ ‘Sea-hacking’ Sun Tsu: Deception in Global AI/Cybered Conflict” (2021), ““Achieving Systemic Resilience in a Great Systems Conflict Era” (2022), “Four Horsemen of AI” (US China AI competition, 2019), and “Cybered Conflict, Hybrid War, Informatization Wars" (2020), Works in-progress of note include “Great Systems Conflict: Cyber Westphalia, Warfare, and Collective Operational Resilience” (with emphasis on the lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war).
Panelist
James Cook
Professor of National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval War College
Jim Cook is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. He specializes in Strategy, Military Force Planning and the Middle East. A retired Army Air Defense Artillery officer, Professor Cook is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, and the Naval War College (College of Naval Command and Staff). He has served in a variety of command and staff assignments within the United States, Europe and the Middle East, most recently in Afghanistan. Professor Cook is an active participant in the Naval War College’s International Engagement program where he lectures on strategy and international security matters.