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Defense Industrialist

Sep 23, 2015

A new New Look

By James Hasik

The West needs “a complete strategic rethink” of how it goes to war. In The Australian last November, David Kilcullen argued that “the West’s failed counter-terrorism strategy requires a complete rethink.” Set aside for the moment James Fallows’ screed in The Atlantic last December. Thirteen years of not-quite-winning two wars in the Middle East and South Asia, despite overwhelming material […]

Defense Policy Security & Defense

Art of Future Warfare

Sep 23, 2015

To cyber the kill chain, cyber the supply chain

By James Hasik

When safeguarding the global commons, should we rely on it less? Defense Secretary Ashton Carter would like to stop buying and launching navigation satellites—at least as a military project. Sure, Lockheed is testing GPS III, and a team at the University of Texas is working on centimetric accuracy without differential. Through the MEOSAR project, the Canadian military […]

Cybersecurity Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Sep 23, 2015

Take the money

By James Hasik

Defense contractors are repurchasing shares because investment incentives are lacking. About a month ago (14 August 2015), Politico Pro highlighted how the largest US defense contractors are running their businesses substantially for cash, passing as much of their earnings as they can to shareholders as dividends and share repurchases. “Top Pentagon officials,” the reporter went on, “have […]

Defense Industry Economy & Business

James Hasik was a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council.

Over the past sixteen years, his advisory work has assisted defense contractors and defense ministries with their problems in business strategy, planning, and policy analysis. He has undertaken over fifty discrete advisory projects in sectors spanning armored vehicles, shipbuilding, armaments, ammunition, precision munitions, and training & simulation. His engagements have functionally included operations analysis, supply chain analysis, marketing, product development, competitive analysis, facilities management, portfolio strategy, business forecasting, privatization planning, organizational design, merger due diligence, and antitrust analysis.

Hasik previously worked as senior consultant at Booz & Company, a senior defense consultant at Charles River Associates, a procurement consultant at IBM, a logistician at Accenture, and a weapon systems analyst at ANSER. He began his career as a shipboard officer in the US Navy.

Hasik is the author Arms and Innovation: Entrepreneurship and Alliances in the Twenty-First Century Defense Industry (University of Chicago Press, 2008), and the co-author of Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfighting (Naval Institute Press, 2002). He has authored a further five book chapters. His research has also been published in RUSI Journal, Defense and Security Analysis, Joint Force Quarterly, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Contemporary Security Policy, Defense Acquisition Research Journal, and Proceedings of the US Naval Institute.

Hasik earned his BA in history and physics at Duke University, his MBA in business economics at the University of Chicago, and his PhD in public policy at the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation, MRAP: Marketing Military Innovation, investigated the processes by which Coalition ground forces came to adopt blast-resistant armored vehicles during the counterinsurgent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. His research investigated the marketing strategies, supply chains, political relationships, and manufacturing strategies of every significant armored vehicle manufacturer in North America, Western Europe, South Africa, and Australia.