It all started in March 2020 when cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, left for spring break, expecting to return after a week of vacation. Little did we know that the COVID-19 pandemic would turn that week away from the academy into five months. Few people could have...

The company assembled for the ceremony in scorching heat. Thirty days into their deployment to Iraq, the troopers in the compound were looking forward to the award of their combat patches—or, more formally, the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia-Former Wartime Service, which recognized soldiers’ participation...

Their friendship mattered. Although distinct in personalities, Gens. Ulysses Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman treasured their relationship with one another as they led their forces and fought to preserve the Union. These officers were unique in that they did not fit the prototypical model for...

Nothing has transformed modern life like the microprocessor, and nothing has significantly shaped the modern global economy as the rise of cyberspace. In the first half of the 20th century, through two world wars, the U.S. Army transformed from a largely horse-powered constabulary force into the...

Military-to-military relations between the U.S. and France are at their closest and most dynamic since Benjamin Franklin strode the gardens of Versailles as minister to Louis XVI’s court late in the 18th century. Fast-forward to this year: Both armies—strategic partners and the oldest of allies—are...

If you are a leader in any organization, you will be asked on a regular basis to sign a variety of documents, and it is essential to balance speed with a number of other considerations. We all have worked, or will work, for someone who agonizes over every aspect of a document. It is especially...

Russia’s war with Ukraine that began in early 2022 and the decimation of entire Ukrainian cities highlight the fragility of civil infrastructure during military conflict. Civil infrastructure can present both challenges and opportunities in large-scale war. For example, bridges can facilitate an...