Late last year, Ash Carter, who was serving as the 25th Secretary of Defense, died at his home in Boston.

Yesterday, the Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington hosted the Ash Carter Exchange on Innovation and National Security – a forum in which a variety of experts discussed ways to advance cooperation in the pursuit of national security.

The day-long event concluded with Chairman of the Army Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, who provided his insight into Carter’s impact on national security and the Department of Defense.

“I have had the great privilege of working very closely with Secretary Carter on many, many occasions over the years and I can tell you that he was a great patriot, a true patriot and a great American,” Milley said. “The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Ash Carter is his human touch. He was of course a physicist, a scientist – but more than that: he was simply a great person. He was approachable and affable and understanding along with everyone. He was positive, he was optimistic and he communicated particularly well.”

What’s more, Austin said Carter was a dedicated public servant.

“Ash Carter’s decision-making has always been guided by the care and safety of the men and women in uniform,” Milley said. “He was incredibly talented at cutting out bureaucracy and accelerating bureaucracy to improve the lives of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.”

An example, he said, is the mine-proof and ambush vehicle — a vehicle that has been used in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the time, it was Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who came up with the idea, but it was Carter — then Undersecretary for Procurement, Technology and Logistics at the Department of Defense — who took it to the finish line.

“I witnessed it,” Milley said. “His action, Ash Carter’s action, saved American lives on the battlefield, including my own.”

The Ash Carter Exchange on Innovation and National Security took place for the first time this year. Carter’s wife Stephanie helped organize the event. According to the event’s website, the purpose of the exchange was to bring together “pioneers and champions of innovation” to “advance collaboration in the pursuit of national security.”

That kind of effort, Milley said, was something Carter himself excelled at.

“Perhaps his greatest legacy is the sense of urgency for the US military to embrace new technology, embrace risk, and think about creative solutions to our… problems,” Milley said. “Secretary Carter was prescient, he was always talking about generative AI [artificial intelligence] … he was the rare person who could understand and speak to both the science and the politics of the new technology.”

Carter’s vision and drive for innovation, Milley said, had changed the direction of the US military, making it more agile and nimble.

“I think … Ash Carter instinctively understood that we are in the midst of the greatest fundamental shift in the character of war in all recorded human history,” Milley said. “And he also understood that the stakes were enormous. Ultimately, it was about preventing a great power war and preserving the rules-based international order that had maintained great power peace for the past 80 years.”

Today, Milley said, both China and Russia are trying to disrupt that world order to advance their own interests, and Carter understood that better than most.

“Both China and Russia have the means to threaten our interests and our way of life,” Milley said. “But we must remember that war is neither imminent nor inevitable. And we must continue to prevent a great power war that has been the central goal of Ash Carter’s professional life. That’s what drives Ash Carter.”

Today, Milley said, the US would continue to deter a great power war by being ready and demonstrating its willingness to the world. That’s one of Carter’s “first principles,” he said.

“It’s the readiness for the future, also known as modernization, that Ash Carter recognized,” Milley said. “And he understood that we were at a turning point in human history where we are witnessing a fundamental change in the character of war.”

While the nature of war will always remain the same—one nation’s desire to impose its will on another nation—the way wars are fought has changed and will continue to change.

During the Second World War, Nazi Germany was the first country to successfully combine new technologies such as aircraft, wheeled and tracked vehicles and radio and to use them to its advantage.

“They took these technologies and combined them into a method of war — the German method of war — a method of war that allowed them … to overrun Europe in 18 months,” Milley said.

The United States, the Soviet Union and their allies against Nazi Germany eventually caught up, Milley said. But the Nazis’ initial mastery of technology had given them an early advantage.

“We’re in a comparative moment today,” Milley said. “And Ash Carter was one of the few who realized it very early on. He knew that when the next great power war breaks out, we might not have 18 months to ramp up production and build the military. He knew we had to be ready. Now we have to be ready for the future.”

The challenge now is to find the best combination of technologies integrated with the right training, doctrine and organizational structure. Some of those technologies — including secure communications, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing and 3D printing — were highlighted early on by Carter, Milley said.

“Your military was directed by Secretary Ash Carter years ago to develop these technologies,” Milley said. “And these come into play today. You see that in the army with a multi-domain task force and long-range fire. You see that in the Marines with a coastal regiment. You can see that in the Navy.” Experiments in the 5th Fleet in the operational area of ​​the Central Command with unmanned maritime surface and underwater ships. And you see it in the Air Force.

All of these concepts, Milley said, were initiated by Ash Carter. And the challenge for US forces today is to take new technologies and combine them into warfare that gives the US a tactical and strategic advantage over its adversaries.

“We are doing this to prevent war. And to do that, we need to operate seamlessly in our combined force,” he said. “On the first day of the next war, we must be fully integrated and able to maneuver through space and time in a fast-moving, high-tech, and rapidly changing environment. [while] remain invisible and in constant motion. And [if we] If we do that, we might prevail. But more importantly, if your enemy knows, you will deter them.”

To further those efforts, Milley said, the Department of Defense is initiating the third iteration of its common concept of warfare — the first version was designed by Carter.

Milley also urged attendees at the event to rejoin Carter’s vision of a military that includes the best of the best – based on merit.

“Everyone who is in this room now, everyone who is seeing this, and all of us who are wearing the uniform, we all need to recommit ourselves to Ash Carter’s vision,” Milley said. “We must always remember that we take our oath to the Constitution; Ash Carter never let us forget that.”

Carter, Milley said, understood that in America and for the US military, differences like race, religion, gender or social status didn’t matter

“What mattered was your dedication, your talent,” Milley said. “What matters is that you’re an American. What mattered to Ash Carter was your merits, your skills, your knowledge, your qualities. He understood it and he lived by it. And he knew that you would be judged by the content of your character. He was committed to this idea of ​​America. Ash Carter was someone we should all emulate. All he stood for is what we should reaffirm – the idea that is America. That was what Ash Carter had for his North Star, and that should always be our North Star.