- History
- International Affairs
- Military
- Science & Technology
- Revitalizing History
- Understanding the Effects of Technology on Economics and Governance
Christian Brose is the president and chief strategy officer at Anduril Industries (the American defense technology company that builds advanced military systems using artificial intelligence, robotics, and software-driven platforms). He’s also the author of The Kill Chain. In this interview, he argues that despite massive defense spending, the United States is dangerously unprepared for a prolonged, high-intensity war, having built a military optimized for short conflicts with expensive, hard-to-replace weapons rather than sustained attrition. He explains how decades of procurement choices, limited industrial capacity, and lack of competition have left munitions stockpiles thin, while emerging conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East highlight the growing importance of mass, low-cost, and autonomous systems. The conversation explores the need for a new “high-low mix” of capabilities, the transformative but still cautious role of AI in warfare, and the strategic challenge posed by China’s industrial model, ultimately concluding that the core issue is not just process but leadership—the willingness to rethink assumptions and rapidly adapt to the changing character of war.
Recorded on April 6, 2026.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christian Brose is president and chief strategy officer at Anduril Industries. He is responsible for leading the company’s core growth-related functions, including corporate strategy, business development, government relations, communications, and international business. He is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, and author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High Tech Warfare.
RELATED SOURCES
- Christian Brose. The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare. Grand Central Publishing, 2020.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Secrets of Statecraft is a bimonthly podcast hosted by Distinguished Visiting Fellow Andrew Roberts that explores the effect that the study of history has had on the careers and decision-making of public figures. The podcast also features leading historians discussing the influence that the study of history had on their biographical subjects. The title is taken from Winston Churchill’s reply on Coronation Day 1953 to a young American who had asked him for life advice, to whom he said, “Study history, study history, for therein lie all the secrets of statecraft.”
