Last month, a group of seven U.S. generals and admirals—including the top admiral in charge of U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific region—prepared to travel to the Aspen Security Forum, in Colorado. Security officials had spoken at the annual conference for years, including during Donald Trump’s first term, and were set to discuss topics such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the future of AI, and threats from China. But a day before the forum began, the officers’ staff got calls from the Pentagon telling them to stay away. On social media, Sean Parnell, the Defense Department’s top spokesperson, later made clear why.
The forum, he said, was “hosted by an organisation that promotes the evils of globalism, disdain for America, and hatred for our great president, Donald J. Trump.” Aspen, it turned out, was only the beginning. Within days, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the DOD to vet all future event attendance by any defense official. In a statement to Politico, Parnell declared that the move was meant to “ensure the Department of Defense is not lending its name and credibility to organizations, forums, and events that run counter to the values of this administration.” (The Aspen Institute, which sponsors the security forum, describes itself as nonpartisan.)
Parnell’s characterization of the new policy was vague, but it represented an abrupt departure from long-established DOD practices, and an important shift in the way that the military engages with the outside world: A Pentagon that has already grown more insular under Hegseth could end up cutting itself off from thinkers and ideas beyond the building, or at least those with which the administration disagrees. Military personnel and conference planners I spoke with described the decision as the latest battle in a broader war on ideas at the Pentagon under Hegseth. Earlier this year.
readiness against potential foes. Hegseth, who himself keeps a small group of advisers, was behind both decisions, defense officials told me. Troops and civilians attend hundreds of events annually on behalf of the Pentagon, and have been doing so for decades. Whether gatherings on heady topics such as economic warfare and “gray zone” tactics or highly technical symposia about combatting rust on ships and the future of drone warfare, these events keep the military plugged into ideas from scholars and industry. Particularly since the Iraq War, the military has said that it wants to seek out ways to challenge its assumptions and solicit outside views—to make officers think through their plans and strategies and the second- and third-order effects of their decisions.
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