Speaker: Todd Veazie (USN, Ret) and Dr. Nicholas Wright (Intelligent Biology)
Date: 26 June 2025
Speaker Session Summary
Forthcoming!
Speaker Session Recording
Also forthcoming!
Briefing Materials
Biographies:
Todd Veazie served as Director of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) office in the Joint Staff’s Operations Directorate. Prior to reentering public service, Todd was the Chief Operating Officer at Kiernan Group Holdings, Inc a global consulting firm specializing in law enforcement, risk services, defense, intelligence, emergency management, and critical infrastructure resiliency. Todd served for thirty years in the United States Navy attaining the rank of Captain. He transitioned to the federal executive service and was assigned to the National Counterterrorism Center. At NCTC he led a talented team that provided dispassionate, whole of government assessments and strategic decision support to the President and his National Security Council staff. He was born in Washington D.C. and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina and was commissioned in 1986. After commissioning he reported to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. As a Naval Special Warfare (NSW) SEAL officer he served in East and West Coast SEAL Teams and deployed to over fifty countries around the globe. He led Naval Special Warfare formations in the execution of combat and peacetime special operations missions in Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Western Pacific, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Command tours include SEAL Team SEVEN in San Diego, Naval Special Warfare Unit THREE in Bahrain as well as duty as Commodore, Naval Special Warfare Group FOUR in Virginia Beach. Todd served in numerous staff assignments that include the Executive Director of Joining Forces in the Office of the First Lady at the White House, personnel policy at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, the Assistant Chief of Staff for Resources, Requirements, and Assessments (J8) for the Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command and in the Operations Directorate (J3) on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He is a 2003 Graduate of the National War College earning a Master’s Degree in National Security Strategy.
Dr. Nicholas Wright uses insights from neuroscience, behaviour and technology to understand competition and conflict. He is an affiliated scholar at Georgetown University, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), Consultant at Intelligent Biology, and Adjunct Fellow (Non-Resident) at Washington D.C.’s Center for Strategic and International Studies. His new book, Warhead: How the brain shapes war and war shapes the brain, will be published in October 2025 by Pan Macmillan (UK) and St. Martin’s Press (US). He has advised the Pentagon Joint Staff for over a decade. On artificial intelligence (AI) he advises Europe’s largest tech company, SAP. DARPA used his definition of gray zone conflict for their recent AI programme on the gray zone. Foreign Affairs chose his piece on AI for its Top 10 of 2018 on the net. He edited the book Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia and Global Order (Air University Press, 2019), and co-edited Human, Machine, War: How the Mind-Tech Nexus will Win Future Wars (Air University Press, 2025). He has collaborated with Peking University. He has led Track 1.5 dialogues e.g., with the White House, UK Cabinet Office and Australian Prime Minister’s office, as well as with the Australian and Canadian Government Chief Scientists. He previously worked in nuclear policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC; used functional brain imaging at UCL and the London School of Economics; and was a neurology doctor in Oxford and London. The Economist and The New York Times covered his academic research. He has published in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and appeared on the BBC and CNN. He has a medical degree from UCL, a BSc in Health Policy from Imperial College London, Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), and an MSc in Neuroscience and a PhD in Neuroscience both from UCL.
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