Jim Mattis was raised in southeastern Washington State and graduated from Central Washington State College. He served over 40 years in the Marine Corps as an infantry officer; plus duty in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; as NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation; and as Commander of U.S. Central Command comprised of 250,000 U.S. and allied troops in combat across the Middle East and South Asia. Retiring in 2013, he was a Davies Family Scholar at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Subsequently he served as the 26th Secretary of Defense from January 2017 through December 2018.

Since retiring from the Navy in 2012, Vice Admiral Architzel has had several roles in the private sector.  He is currently the Senior Advisor to the President of the Miller Group on Strategic Initiatives, before which he was Vice President for Maritime Operations with Fairlead Integrated Inc.  He was also at the Defense Acquisitions University advising on acquisition matters.  He was LSO with the Fairlead and Miller group and was director of military affairs at Old Dominion University, where he was the principle advisor to the President on all military related issues and served as the University’s liaison with DOD and other military operations. After 40 years of service, he retired as a Vice Admiral in 2012.  His last assignment was as Commander, Naval Air Systems Command headquartered in Patuxent River, Md. Prior to that he was Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy Research, Development and Acquisition. His other flag assignments included Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers and as Commander of several other operations. At sea, he served as Commanding Officer Sea Control Squadron Thirty (VS-30), Executive officer, USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) and Pre-commissioning Unit John C. Stennis (CVN 74), Commanding Officer, USS GUAM (LPH 9); flagship for Commander Amphibious Squadron (CPR) 2; and as the sixth Commanding officer of USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71).

Rear Admiral Cedric Pringle, University of South Carolina graduate, received his commission through Naval ROTC. Some of the highlights of his extraordinary naval career include in July 2004, he assumed command of USS WHIBEY ISLAND Island (LSD 41). During his tour, he participated in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in response to Hurricane Katrina in September 2005. In February 2012, he took command of the Navy’s first hybrid propulsion drive ship, USS MAKIN ISLAND (LHD 8).  He also served as Navy Senate Liaison for the Secretary of the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs. From September 2015 to November 2017 he served as deputy director of Joint Interagency Task Force South. During this tour, he also served as Commander, Joint Task Force Matthew, leading relief and recovery efforts in Haiti following Hurricane Matthew in 2016. In December 2017, he assumed duties as Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 3. His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and various unit and service awards. RDML Pringle is also the recipient of the 2015 Navy’s Stars. He currently serves as Commandant of the National War College in Washington, DC.

A ninth-generation Arkansan, French Hill has served central Arkansas since January 3, 2015, in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is the Majority Whip on the Committee on Financial Services. Congressman Hill also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Corporate Finance under President George H. W. Bush from 1989 until 1991. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mr. Hill led the design of U.S. technical assistance to the emerging economies of eastern and central Europe in the areas of banking and securities. From 1982 until 1984, he served on the staff of U.S. Senator John Tower (R-TX), as well as on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He is a long-term member of the TRA and is currently a member of the TRA Advisory Board. Over the years he has developed such an in-depth knowledge of TR that he can often answer questions that other scholars cannot. For example, he was the only person who could prove that TR had ever been on Theodore Roosevelt Island. A magna cum laude graduate in Economics from Vanderbilt University, he is married to the former Martha McKenzie of Dallas, Texas, and they have a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth McKenzie Hill, and a son, William Payne Hill. The Hill family resides in Little Rock.

Dr. Jerry Hendrix is a retired Navy Officer with experience in strategy, force structure planning, carrier strike group operations, and anti-submarine warfare. Outside of his military experience, Dr. Hendrix has held posts with senior staffs including the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, the Secretary of Defense’s Office of Force Development, and the Office of Net Assessment, where he served as the Senior Military Assistant to its Director.

Prior to joining the Telemus Group, Dr. Hendrix served as the Director of the defense program at the bi-partisan Center for a New American Security where he authored a number of cutting-edge studies on the need for a larger Navy, the evolution of the carrier air wing, the long range heavy bomber, and the growing gap in anti-submarine capabilities in the North Atlantic.
While on active duty he served as an instructor Naval Flight Officer in the P-3C Orion aircraft as well as a Tactical Action Officer and an Air Operations Officer on nuclear and light amphibious aircraft carriers. He supported combat operations in operations Desert Storm, Allied Force, Deliberate Forge, and Iraqi Freedom. In addition, he served as the Director of the Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Panel and as Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Dr. Hendrix holds graduate degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and Harvard University as well as a doctorate from King’s College, London.

David writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column, and has written eleven spy novels: “The Paladin” (2020), “The Quantum Spy,” (2017), “The Director,” (2014), “Bloodmoney” (2011), “The Increment” (2009), “Body of Lies ” (2007), “The Sun King” (1999), “A Firing Offense” (1997), “The Bank of Fear” (1994), “SIRO” (1991), and “Agents of Innocence” (1987). "Body of Lies" was made into a 2008 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
Joining The Post in 1986 as editor of its Sunday Outlook section, he became foreign editor in 1990, and in 1993 became assistant managing editor for business news. David’s column began in 1998 and continued even during his three-year stint as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris, from 2000 to 2003. Earlier in his career, he was a Wall Street Journal reporter, covering at various times the steel industry, the Departments of State and Justice, the CIA, the Senate, and the Middle East. As The Post’s foreign editor, David supervised the newspaper's 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Iraqi’s invasion of Kuwait.
Growing up in Washington, D.C., David studied political theory at Harvard College and economics at Kings College, Cambridge. He lives in Washington with his wife and has three daughters.
He has been awarded the George Polk Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary, the Edward Weintal Prize, the Urbino International Press Award, the Overseas Press Club Award for Foreign Affairs Commentary, the Lifetime Achievement Award, of the International Committee for Foreign Journalists, and was awarded the Legion D'Honneur by the French government.

Admiral Mike Mullen, USN (Ret.) is President of MGM Consulting, LLC, based in Annapolis, MD. MGM Consulting provides counsel to global clients on issues related to geo-political developments, national security interests, and strategic leadership. ADM Mullen served as the 28th Chief of Naval Operations from 2005-2007, and as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Presidents Bush and Obama from 2007-2011. He led the military during a critical time of change and transition, overseeing the end of the combat mission in Iraq and the development and implementation of a new military strategy in Afghanistan. Mullen advanced the rapid fielding of innovative technologies, championed emerging and enduring global partnerships, and promoted new methods for countering terrorism, all of which culminated in the killing of Osama bin Laden. He spearheaded the elimination of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, ushering for the first time in U.S. military history the open service of gay and lesbian men and women. ADM Mullen is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a Distinguished Graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School, a Distinguished Alumni of Harvard Business School, and a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and a trustee at Caltech. Since his retirement from the United States Navy in November 2011, Mullen joined the boards of General Motors and Sprint, as well as Bloomberg Philanthropies. He actively supports and participates in a wide array of non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the growth, development, recovery and transition of military veterans and their family members. Additionally, he taught National Security Decision-making and Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University from 2012-2018, Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy in 2019 and holds a Master’s Degree in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Admiral Dennis Blair is the first Knott Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Practice at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Peace, War, and Defense Curriculum. He was formerly the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA. He serves as a member of the Energy Security Leadership Council; is on the boards of Freedom House, the National Bureau of Asian Research, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Atlantic Council. From January 2009 to May 2010, as director of National Intelligence, Admiral Blair led the sixteen national intelligence agencies. He was president and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Defense Analyses from 2003-06. Prior to retiring from the Navy in 2002 after a career of 34 years, Admiral Blair was the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Admiral Blair earned a master’s degree in history and languages from Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. He is the author of Military Engagement: Influencing Armed Forces Worldwide to Support Democratic Transitions. Three commissions he co-chaired have issued recent reports: A National Security Strategy for 5G; Oil Security 2025: U.S. National Security Policy in an Era of Domestic Oil Abundance; The Report of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property.

Michèle Flournoy is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors, and former Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she currently serves on the board. She has served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012. She was the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and in National Security Council deliberations. Michèle serves on the boards of Booz Allen Hamilton, Amida Technology Solutions, The Mission Continues, Spirit of America, The U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, and CARE. She serves on the advisory boards of SINE, Equal AI, The War Horse and The Leadership Council for Women in National Security. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affair, a current member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group, and a former member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, the CIA Director’s External Advisory Board and the Defense Policy Board. Michèle earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s from Balliol College, Oxford University, where she was a Newton-Tatum scholar.