Join the PMML virtually for a timely conversation exploring the evolution of the all-volunteer force, the impacts of 9/11 on military service, today’s recruiting and retention challenges, and what military service may look like for the next generation.
The discussion will be moderated by Gil Barndollar and feature Jaron S. Wharton, Katherine Kuzminski, and Keith L. Carter.
Date: September 3, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM CT
Format: Virtual
Gil Barndollar is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship and a Non-Resident Fellow at Defense Priorities. Gil has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, among other publications. He provides frequent commentary and analysis on U.S. foreign policy to national and international media and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and the BBC World Service.
Keith L. Carter is the Associate Dean of the Naval War College at the Naval Postgraduate School. Keith is a retired U.S. Army infantry officer whose career spanned over two decades and included service in both conventional and special operations assignments.
Katherine Kuzminski previously served as the deputy director of studies and the director of the Military, Veterans, and Society (MVS) Program at CNAS. She returned to CNAS from the RAND Corporation, where she was a political scientist researching military personnel policy. During her time at RAND, she led research teams examining officer personnel management, reserve component utilization, senior officer selection and development, military culture, and ground force capability development.
Jaron S. Wharton is an infantry officer who most recently commanded an airborne brigade in the US Army. His traditional military assignments were within the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division. He also served on the National Security Council staff as a deputy executive secretary and later as the chief of staff to the deputy national security advisor for strategy. He is a former White House Fellow, Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, research Fellow at West Point's Modern War Institute (MWI), and military Fellow at both the Center for a New American Security and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
