Jason Dempsey

Jason Dempsey writes extensively on Army efforts toward gender integration, the experiences of Hispanics in the military, and our counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. He served for over twenty years in the Army, where he last served as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dr. Dempsey served as an infantry officer during his military service, deploying twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. In 2005 Dr. Dempsey volunteered for deployment to Iraq, traveling between Baghdad and Kirkuk working with State Department and military personnel to help draft and coordinate policy towards Kirkuk and the reconciliation of conflict stemming from the displacement of Kurdish and Shiite populations in northern Iraq.

Gil Barndollar

Gil Barndollar is a Senior Research Fellow at CSS and a Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities. From 2018 to 2019 he was Director of Middle East Studies at the Center for the National Interest. From 2009 to 2016, Gil served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. He deployed twice to Afghanistan, as a light armored reconnaissance platoon commander and as a combat advisor with the Georgian Army. He also led a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) platoon during deployments to Guantanamo Bay and the Persian Gulf. At CSS he is working on a book examining America’s All Volunteer Force, conscription, and future national security threats.

Joy Damiani

Joy Damiani is a writer, podcaster, and musician. Recruited as a teenager into the U.S. Army out of hometown Syracuse, N.Y., months after 9/11, Joy spent six years as an enlisted public affairs specialist, emerging after two deployments to Iraq with an altered sense of patriotism. Joy has toured the U.S. extensively and is currently based in Portland, Ore. Joy co-hosts a podcast, What the Folk, with writer Sarah Baranauskas, which features independent music and conversations with creatives, educators, and visionaries doing the best they can to make the apocalypse a better place. Joy has published various articles, essays, and poems, and is in the process of publishing a book inspired by her military experiences.

Erik Edstrom

Erik Edstrom graduated from West Point in 2007. He was then deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as an infantry platoon leader. Erik spent the remainder of his service as the Presidential Escort Platoon Leader during the Obama administration. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School, was selected for the U.S. Special Forces (SFAS), and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. After the military, Erik went on to earn both an MBA and a Master of Science, studying climate change, from Oxford University. After graduate school, Erik moved to Australia for five years, where he worked as a management consultant for both Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and McKinsey & Company.

Andrew Bacevich (Moderator)

Andrew Bacevich co-founded the Quincy Institute in 2019 and is the Chairman of the institution’s board of directors. He is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University. A graduate of West Point and Princeton, he served in the army before becoming an academic. Bacevich is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books, among them: The New American Militarism (2005), The Limits of Power (2008), Washington Rules (2010), America’s War for the Greater Middle East (2016), The Age of Illusions (2020), After the Apocalypse (2021), and Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out against America’s Forever Wars (2022).