The Warrior’s Edge: Balancing Lethality and Ethics in Modern Warfare
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has pushed for the Pentagon to focus almost exclusively on lethality. In response, retired Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Michael Nelson recently published an essay in The Atlantic arguing that while a warrior ethos is essential to winning battles, discarding professional and ethical values threatens to erode military professionalism. Drawing on firsthand experiences, including in Afghanistan, Nelson underscores that true military strength requires a warrior ethos that is guided by greater values.
The Quincy Institute’s Veterans in Foreign Policy Initiative held a conversation on how to strike the right balance between preparing troops for the brutal realities of war and upholding the standards that must guide their conduct. The panel featured Michael Nelson, a retired Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel, who currently serves as a member of the Atlantic Council’s Counterterrorism Project, and was moderated by Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East Program and director of the Veterans in Foreign Policy Initiative at the Quincy Institute.
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Panelists
Michael Nelson
Michael Nelson served as an Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel and is currently a member of the Atlantic Council’s Counterterrorism Project, previously of the Global Energy Security Institute and the Institute for the Study of War. During his military career, he served as the Deputy Director of the Commander’s Action Group at United States Central Command for General Joseph Votel. Prior to that, Mike served as the Future Operations Director for Combined Joint Interagency Task Force – Syria and was one of the architects of the United States military’s initial efforts to counter ISIS. He has extensive experience at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels throughout eleven deployments with the 82nd Airborne Division, the 5th Special Forces Group, and Joint Special Operations Command to Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Qatar, and Kosovo. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the Virginia Military Institute, a Master of Science in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School, a MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and a Master of Science in Strategic Communications from Columbia University.
Adam Weinstein
Adam Weinstein is deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, whose current research focuses on security and rule of law in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. He is also a non-resident fellow at Tadblab, a think tank and advisory firm based in Islamabad, and regularly travels throughout Pakistan. Adam’s analysis has been featured in the Washington Post, Guardian, Foreign Policy, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, and The National Interest. He served as a US Marine and deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 as part of a detachment to the 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company where he served in Uruzgan Province in support of Australia’s 2nd Commando Regiment.