Chad Williamson
As SOF Week 2025 opens in Tampa on Monday, two messages may shape every interaction while speaking to the urgency of now. The first—Palmer Luckey’s very vivid TED Talk, depicting a catastrophic failure of deterrence in a Taiwan invasion scenario. The second—a newly penned Letter to the Force by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and General Randy George, launching the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI). This initiative was catalyzed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s directive on Army Transformation and Acquisition Reform.
Luckey warns, “Our sheer shortage of tools and platforms means we can't even get into the fight.” The Army’s top leaders now agree: “Adaptation is no longer an advantage — it's a requirement for survival.”
This alignment—between defense industry disruptors and senior military leadership—could define the strategic tone of SOF Week 2025.
Belief, Not Bureaucracy
In his seminal RAND paper, Understanding Deterrence, senior political scientist Mike Mazarr argues that deterrence is about shaping the thinking of a potential aggressor. The adversary must believe they cannot win. “Countries only go to war,” Luckey reminds us, “when they disagree as to who the victor will be.”
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