It’s been another big year for The Bridge and we’re thankful for the great community that helped us span our third year of work developing writers, thinkers, and practitioners in the realms of strategy, national security, and military affairs. Our community continues to grow and be recognized for its contributions, with our writers republished in a number of international outlets including Omar Mohamad in the Czech Republic’s On War On Peace and L. Burton Brender in India’s Salute Magazine. Appearing on the UK Chief of General Staff’s Army Professional Reading List, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Reading List, and The Australian Army Director General for Training and Doctrine’s Reading List are a few points of recognition which highlight the contributions of our writers and the import of the discussions happening on our pages. Our writers hailed from across the globe, with contributions from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Bahrain, Taiwan, Pakistan, Germany, France, India, and Bulgaria this year alone. Strategy is truly a global conversation.

Strategy is truly a global conversation. 

The Bridge exceeds the sum of its varied parts, and our editorial team and staff are also contributing in major ways to the conversation. This year members of our team participated in AUSA’s 2016 Annual Conference and DEFxAUS, and made presentations at the U.S. Military Academy’s Center for the Advancement of Leader Development. The Bridge continues to support the writing community through reviews and interviews with writers like Seth Folsom whose memoir Where Youth and Laughter Go won a Gold Medal from The Military Writers Society of America this year.

Our own Nate Finney co-edited Mission Command in the 21st Century: Empowering to Win in a Complex World, jointly published by The Strategy Bridge and Army Press and took to the air with our partner The Military Writers Guild Podcast The Pen and The Sword to discuss the "The Use and Misuse of History." Nate also published an article at Infinity Journal titled “Land Power: More than Simply the Element of Decision,” a piece in Consequence Magazine on the “Consequences of Fear,” and found time to write six articles for The Strategy Bridge, including a collaborative effort on “strategy-through-fiction” with Diane Maye and Phil Walter detailing Operation Iranian Freedom (Part II and Part III).

Rich Ganske completed two semesters of PhD coursework in International Relations and Methodology and earned methodological certifications in Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Time Series Analysis. Rich also successfully rebuilt his home following the Louisiana floods of August 2016—all while remaining a cornerstone of our editorial staff.

Mikhail Grinberg led the charge to establish The Strategy Bridge as a 501c3 non-profit organization, a status that reflects our commitment to our community and its continued development. Mikhail remains active in the National Security Space and will serve as a mentor at Georgetown University’s Hacking 4 Defense, a new education initiative sponsored by MD5 at the National Defense University, where he also serves as a Visiting Research Fellow. Mikhail continues to apply strategy daily serving as a Principal at a leading consultancy supporting premier firms in the aerospace, defense, space, intelligence, and government services industry.

Eric M. Murphy left Squadron Command in June of 2016 to move to the Grand Strategy program at the USAF War College. Eric led the The Bridge’s publication effort this year, synchronizing a growing team and an ever expanding bench of new writers. Eric is more than an amazing editor. He also wrote “The Why of Reading and Writing Poetry,” a foreword to In Cadence by C.Rodney Pattan and Lance B. Brender, and published "#Reviewing American Diplomacy" and "Women on the Battlefield: Data, Science, and War," the latter with Katherine A. Batterton and Kimberly N. Hale...who are our newest Bridge team members!

Ty Mayfield redeployed to Afghanistan for another tour, but found time write a little with a contribution in Consequence Magazine on the "Consequences of Fear" and also saw his critical essay on Phil Klay’s book Redeployment published in War Literature and the Arts. Ty attended The Blinded American Veterans Foundation annual awards ceremony with members of the Military Writers Guild to accept the Carlton Sherwood Media Award. Ty and Nate’s effort to publish The Strategy Bridge's book on #Profession and Ethics in the 21st Century continues, with the book out for a second round of peer reviews and pending publication in 2017.

Erich Simmers joined The Bridge team as an Associate Editor bringing with him a depth of editorial and subject experience from his work with Small Wars Journal and his pursuit of a PhD in postcolonial studies. Erich is an active member of DC’s Cigars Scotch and Strategy group, promoting National Security though thinking and writing as key development for emerging NatSec leaders.

Steve Foster joined the team as a Featured Contributor and then became a permanent member of The Strategy Bridge as an Associate Editor. Steve contributed to our #MondayMusings series, wrote about education and uncertainty in "Leadership in an Ambiguous World," looked at the Sykes-Picot Agreement on its 100th birthday, and reviewed God and Seapower, all on The Strategy Bridge. Steve also received the the MacArthur Writing Award at the Joint and Combined Warfighting School, demonstrating that solid writing is a skill honed through practice and effort. Steve also provided a chapter in The Strategy Bridge's #Profession and Ethics book and established a local chapter of the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum in the St Louis/Scott AFB region.

Diane Maye joined the team as a Featured Contributor and then became a permanent member of The Strategy Bridge as an Associate Editor. She started a tenure-track position at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University after serving as a visiting professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Diane worked with Steve Leonard, Steve Foster, and John Klug to create a predictive net assessment of the countries to watch for the year. A year ago, Diane asked a question which rings even more true today with "When Does Putin Become our Stalin" and collaborated with Nate and Phil Walter on "Operation Iranian Freedom" (Part II and Part III)—developing strategy and policy through fiction! Diane reviewed The Strategist for The Bridge, worked with Major Troy Mitchell and PhD Candidate Ibrahim Al-Hajjri to create "Yemen at a Crossroads: Four Scenarios," and took a look at "Military American Culture." Diane served as a CENTCOM Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment (SMA) contributor; published an academic piece in the Digest of Middle East Studies, and contributed to the CTS1 Smartbook on Counterterrorism.

Dan Clark took the helm as the Head of Communications for The Strategy Bridge, synchronized our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and led our team through a banner year of growth and development! Dan wrote an article for the Oct-Dec issue of Infantry Magazine explaining "What is Information Operations".  Dan wrote for The Bridge as well, taking a critical look at the changing dynamics of culture in the U.S. Army with "Old Culture and New Mission in the US Army."  Finally, Dan managed to squeeze a year's worth of graduate schooling into the fall semester as he works to complete a degree in strategic communications.

As our community enters a new year, we look forward to expanding not just our own individual efforts in the national security space, but our conversations and programming to develop new thinkers and writers. Your recent contributions to The Strategy Bridge will be instrumental in us providing the resources and network for the community—thank you. We look forward to working with you this year...and stay tuned for more great work from The Bridge community!

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