Category: Content Series

The Customer Is Not Always Right

By James Hasik

At a point, customer closeness becomes “the worst thing possible” for a 21st-century defense business.   At what point does acting and thinking like your customer pass the point of marginal value in defense contracting? Hiring those bobble-head retired flag officers as marketing representatives is clearly a widely valued strategy. In recent essay on “Assimilating Disruption, or Offboarding Innovation,” I […]

Defense Contractors Are Not From Lake Wobegon.

By James Hasik

  Northrop Grumman will spend its cash buying back shares.   The board of Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), the Wall Street Journal reports, has just authorized the company’s management to buy back $3 billion of shares next year. That means that the company will return $3 billion to its shareholders, rather than investing it in its own […]

TTIP Action | December 2

By Global Business & Economics Program

  Donald Tusk Takes Office as President of the European Council“Both we and the Americans are responsible for the future of our relations. The year ahead will be crucial.”On December 1, former prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk replaced Herman van Rompuy as the President of the European Council. At the handover ceremony, he stressed […]

Crowdsourcing the New New Thing?

By James Hasik

DARPA’s Adaptive Vehicle Make program shows the measured promise of innovative approaches for engineering innovative armaments.   Anyone up for designing a new swimming tank? For counterattacks against possible Chinese landings in that first island chain, the Japanese Army wants to buy 52 amphibious assault vehicles. The most likely candidate, according to Stars & Stripes this […]

Are Lockheed, Raytheon, and L-3 “Ripe for a Spinoff”?

By James Hasik

The largest defense contractors are conglomerates, and excessive conglomeration may not be helping the customers.   Last month I argued that the rumored spinoff of Oshkosh’s military trucks business wouldn’t be good for either the company or its customers. But anti-mergers are in the air, as evidenced by the Wall Street Journal’s almost simultaneous article “Smucker, […]

Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge: 2015 Gallery

Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge: 2014 Gallery

Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge: 2016 Gallery

Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge: 2015 Registration

COMPETITORS Graduate and undergraduate students from US and international universities, including defense colleges and military academies, who are interested in the disciplines of cybersecurity policy, international relations, computer science, law, and other related fields are invited to apply to compete in teams of four individuals. Teams that register less than four competitors may be considered […]

2015 Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge Competition

By Atlantic Council

The Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge is the only student competition devoted to high-level policy recommendations for day-after responses to a major cyber incident. The annual event organized by the Atlantic Council and hosted by American University is the “must attend” student event in international cybersecurity policy. The Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge engages students with a […]