Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership

Featured Videos

From the Naval War College "Lecture of Opportunity" series, Stockdale Center Senior Fellow, Dr. Dr. George R. Lucas, Jr. talks about his book 'Ethics and Military Strategy in the 21st Century: Moving Beyond Clausewitz.'

This book examines the importance of 'military ethics' in the formulation and conduct of contemporary military strategy. Clausewitz's original analysis of war relegated ethics to the side-lines in favor of political realism, interpreting the proper use of military power solely to further the political goals of the state, whatever those may be. The book demonstrates how such single-minded focus no longer suffices to secure the interest of states, for whom the nature of warfare has evolved to favor strategies that hold combatants themselves to the highest moral and professional standards in their conduct of hostilities. Waging war has thus been transformed in a manner that moves beyond Clausewitz's original conception, rendering political success wholly dependent upon the cultivation and exercise of discerning moral judgment by strategists and combatants in the field.

Professor George Lucas, is “Distinguished Chair in Ethics” Emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Professor Emeritus of Ethics and Public Policy at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He most recently served as the Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Professor of Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College (Newport RI). His main areas of interest are applied moral philosophy and military ethics, and he has written on such topics as irregular and hybrid warfare, cyber conflict, military and professional ethics, and ethical challenges of emerging military technologies. In this interview for the U.S. Joint Special Operations University, he discusses his new book Ethics and Military Strategy: Moving Beyond Clausewitz (London: Routledge, 2019).

In an effort to draw connections between our national conversation about race relations and leadership, the United States Naval Academy Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership hosted a discussion among four recent black graduates. The forum seeks to recognize the experience of black Midshipmen and to exemplify how these conversations can and should be taking place among our ranks. Three members of USNA Class of 2020, Ensign Kaylah Hodge, Ensign Rahn Bailey, and 2nd LT Troy Monroe, are interviewed by their classmate, 2nd LT Ramesh Nagarajah. The experiences and reflections they share aim to help us all as we seek to more proactively engage with the topic of race, recognizing that doing such is essential to effective servant leadership.

Ensign Joshua Walton, 2020 graduate of the Naval Academy spent summer, 2020 with the Stockdale and, working with several prominent institutions across the nation (such as the Hoover Institution, Stanford University), compiled a researchers bibliography of the life of the Center's namesake Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale. Recently, Josh held a virtual meeting with the sons of Admiral Stockdale, the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, the author of "The League of Wives," Heath Lee, Stockdale Center personnel, folks from the Naval Academy Foundation and others from around the Yard, detailing his finds. His detailed findings present a clear and exciting roadmap for the path forward as the Center continues its efforts to be the go-to repository for all things related to the life of this remarkable man.

Stockdale Center Director, Dr. Joe Thomas, is guest with Dan Luna, of TEAM3LX, in episode 2 of their series "Triaging Time" to discuss the challenges we are facing during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Alden Mills is a three-time Navy SEAL platoon commander and was the CEO of Perfect Fitness, one of the fastest-growing companies in America. He is the author of Unstoppable Teams: The 4 Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership and Be Unstoppable: The 8 Essential Actions to Succeed at Anything. A longtime entrepreneur with more than forty patents and more than twenty-five years of experience working with high-performing teams, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Here are some videos from some of the Center's Influence the Influencer and other initiatives.