An advance screening of Deterrence: Winning the 2nd Cold War and a conversation with Shyam Sankar and H.R. McMaster
What will it take to preserve peace and secure America’s future, and who will build the technologies and industries that make it possible?
Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir Technologies and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster (Ret.), former National Security Advisor and the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow, come together for an advance screening of Deterrence: Winning the 2nd Cold Warand a conversation about innovation, national renewal, and American security. At a moment of intensifying competition with China and other adversaries, how can the United States renew the military and industrial strength on which deterrence depends?
Created by Sankar with filmmaker Peter Berg, the documentary follows founders putting autonomous vessels in the water, developing hypersonic vehicles, and building autonomous factories. Their stories bring the challenges of national defense into focus, connecting technological ambition with the people, enterprises, and reforms needed to turn new ideas into lasting strength.
Prior to the screening, Sankar and McMaster will explore the relationship between technological innovation and deterrence, the lessons of America’s industrial past, and the role today’s students can play in shaping its future. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, challenge the ideas presented, and consider how their own work might contribute.
As America begins its next 250 years, join us to consider what it will take to build a nation capable of preserving peace, and how a new generation can help.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
H.R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. At Stanford, he is also lecturer at the Graduate School of Business. He is the host of Today's Battlegrounds and is a regular on GoodFellows, both produced by the Hoover Institution.
Shyam Sankar is the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Palantir Technologies. Since joining Palantir as employee #13, Shyam has spent more than two decades scaling the company from a Silicon Valley startup into a global, industry-leading software and AI company. In addition to his work at Palantir, Shyam is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps, a group of elite technologists who bring commercial sector expertise to the Army’s critical missions. Shyam is a leading voice on defense technology and innovation. He is the author of the New York Times-bestselling book Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III. Shyam holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
