2024 Future Warfighting Symposium: Opening Remarks & Keynote Speaker Max Brooks

About the Speaker:
Mr. Max Brooks is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spoken at SOCOM, CENTCOM, and TRADOC’S “Mad Scientist” Forum. His essays on creative strategy were featured in Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict, Winning Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict, To Boldly Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond, and Power Up: Leadership, Character, and Conflict Beyond The Superhero Multiverse. His books include The Harlem Hellfighters, The Zombie Survival Guide, and World War Z—which was the inaugural read for the Presidential Book Club at the U.S. Naval War College.

About the Event:
While the nature of war remains constant, the character of war has undergone many changes throughout history. Cultures, technologies, economies, and societies change; to win, the warfighter must adapt.
The Future Warfighting Symposium (FWS) begins the Naval War College academic year by looking at the future of warfare. Welcoming a broad collection of subject-matter experts to address several topics identified by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as special areas of emphasis, including Conflict and Competition in Cyberspace, Space, Artificial Intelligence & Data Analysis, and Deterrence.

Innovation in warfare requires balance between reliable tried-and-true methods and new technologies and tactics. The Future Warfighting Symposium challenges officers from the uniformed services, civilian agencies of the U.S. government, and over seventy foreign countries to think about innovations that are changing the character of war and integrate those insights into the core curriculum of Perspectives on Modern War, Strategy and Policy, National Security Affairs, and Joint Military Operations.

The Future Warfighting Symposium serves as a basis for the Perspectives on Modern War (PMW) course as well as its first assignment. You will receive more guidance on this assignment from your PWM Professors.
Course Learning Objectives (CLOs) for the Perspectives on Modern War Course are:

CLO 1. Analyze trends, opportunities, and challenges joint, combined and interagency leaders face in warfighting and across the continuum of competition.

CLO 2. Analyze the ethical and cultural considerations of leadership in a complex and dynamic national security environment.

CLO 3. Synthesize the contribution of joint and combined operations, national security and strategic principles, and leadership attributes to mastering the challenges of the emerging international security environment.

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