Severing Military’s Ties With Harvard Is a Mistake (opinion)

Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth introduced this month that the Division of Protection will now not ship active-duty army for graduate-level skilled army training at Harvard College. In a video saying the choice on social media, he claimed that officers returned from Harvard with “heads filled with globalist and radical ideologies.” He added, “We prepare warriors. Not wokesters.”

Earlier than I start, I’ll lay my playing cards on the desk. I’m a medically retired Air Power main from a conventional, conservative, Southern Baptist background in east Tennessee. At Harvard Kennedy Faculty, I used to be elected government vp of the coed authorities, which represents greater than 1,000 graduate college students. I say this to not posture, however as a result of I consider this resolution warrants a response from somebody who was in these lecture rooms, not as an observer, however as a chief within the scholar physique.

Politics apart, severing ties between the army and Harvard is a mistake. Whereas at HKS, I had the chance to take part in most scholar organizations, meet with each scholar and administrator management, and drive lots of the social and coverage discussions (formal and casual) throughout the varsity. In every of those settings, army members had been energetic members: injecting eager perception, stimulating sturdy dialogue or voicing views that nobody else within the classroom had thought of.

What troubles me most about Hegseth’s announcement is that he supplied neither information, proof nor metrics to assist the declare that Harvard-educated officers graduate much less succesful. Whereas invoking Common Washington’s assumption of command of the Continental Military in Harvard Sq. or the variety of Harvard-trained Medal of Honor recipients, Hegseth performed to emotional enchantment somewhat than demonstrable metrics or information that assist his motion. However playing with our nation’s high officers’ skilled training from a well-established world-class establishment is a high-risk, low-reward proposition.

In July 2025, the Kennedy Faculty launched the American Service Fellowship, the most important single-year scholarship within the college’s historical past, for no less than 50 totally funded scholarships value $100,000 to American public servants, with about half of awardees anticipated to return from army service. Dean Jeremy Weinstein stated within the press launch saying the fellowship, “There’s nothing extra patriotic than public service.”

Over the previous decade, HKS has skilled quite a few active-duty, veteran and reserve members. The listing of distinguished leaders with army ties consists of Hegseth himself, former protection secretary Mark Esper, Senator Jack Reed and U.S. representatives Dan Crenshaw and Seth Moulton. If Harvard really “loathes” the army, then why is the establishment investing hundreds of thousands to deliver extra service members to campus?

In justifying the choice, Hegseth additionally asserts that Harvard has partnered with the Chinese language Communist Get together in its analysis packages. A June 2025 investigation in The Wall Road Journal reported that a 2014 Shanghai Observer article referred to HKS because the CCP’s high “abroad celebration college,” as a long time of Chinese language officers have pursued government coaching and postgraduate research at HKS. However somewhat than supporting Hegseth’s case, this truth undermines it. If China’s future leaders and officers are vying for entry to Harvard’s college and sources, why would we voluntarily give up our home infrastructure for future officer growth? The correct response to a competitor’s funding in an establishment is to not abandon it, however to double down as an alternative.

Take into account what we’re depriving our nation’s high army leaders of benefiting from. Harvard ranks among the many high universities in nationwide and world rankings, and Harvard’s Workplace of Know-how Improvement experiences roughly 391 new improvements, 159 U.S. patents issued and $53.7 million in commercialization income in fiscal yr 2025 alone. As a prior procurement-contracting officer, these are big-deal numbers. They characterize cutting-edge analysis and growth that may quickly speed up our protection capabilities and applied sciences. I stay skeptical about an unfounded resolution to deprive our high future army leaders of entry to that caliber of institutional infrastructure and the chance to construct interpersonal relationships with HKS’s students, policymakers and school.

Personally, given my preconditions—reasonable conservative, white male with a Southern Baptist upbringing, east Tennessee native and ex-military—I didn’t face discrimination at Harvard. Actually, I used to be elected to the second-highest scholar place at HKS. I didn’t encounter wokeism outright (it nearly appears archaic at this level). I can say I used to be not brainwashed or compelled into indoctrination camps for expressing differing viewpoints whether or not at school or on paper. I discovered that I’m not alone on this thought, both.

Former Indiana governor Eric Holcomb, a Republican, printed an op-ed in The Washington Submit titled “I used to be a crimson state governor. What I noticed at Harvard shocked me.” The governor writes that he was warned by mates about “woke lions” however discovered open-minded, problem-solving–oriented college students from all 50 states. Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, additionally a Republican, served as an Institute of Politics resident fellow at Harvard in fall 2024, when he led small scholar teams on bridging America’s political divide, which I attended. Throughout my tenure at HKS, the Harvard Republican Membership hosted Steve Bannon, Peter Thiel and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the Institute of Politics hosted Kellyanne Conway and Kevin McCarthy. Briefly, I discover it troublesome to characterize Harvard as an echo chamber.

After I suppose again to my tenure, I bear in mind the numerous conferences with the dean of HKS and directors. I bear in mind a seasoned scholar nearly obsessively pushed to seek out widespread floor by way of constructive dialogue. I bear in mind the imaginative and prescient committees navigating modifications in coverage, governance, know-how and AI. The highest scholar affairs directors I met with on a weekly foundation had been real and empathetic people who needed one of the best for scholar outcomes no matter differing political or spiritual ideologies. I witnessed deep studying occurring with many service members, each senior and junior officers, in my lessons and heard their sentiments of appreciation for his or her instructional expertise at Harvard.

Harvard makes a simple goal, however a give attention to straightforward targets makes for dangerous coverage. This resolution doesn’t shield our army; as an alternative, it reduces its capabilities. It deprives our greatest officers of entry to the form of rigorous, various, uncomfortable and mental surroundings that produces high strategic-level thinkers, not worse-off ones. Pulling our officers out of those environments does the very reverse of coaching resilient warfighters: It perpetuates a homogeneous surroundings and denies our future leaders publicity to world leaders. If we really consider that we should domesticate one of the best minds and capabilities of the warrior class, then we should always belief our officers, make investments the sources and meet the problem, not run from it.