DoD Priorities: Beards Over Strategy

The Office of Net Assessment is gone, but don’t worry—Hegseth is making sure military grooming standards get a thorough review

Good morning!

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced a decision this week to disestablish the Office of Net Assessment.

The Office of Net Assessment (ONA) has been the Pentagon’s in-house think tank for over half a century, tasked with identifying long-term military trends, assessing future threats, and ensuring the U.S. maintains its strategic advantage.

Established in 1973 by Andrew Marshall—known as “Yoda” within the defense world—ONA played a critical role in shaping American military strategy, from offset strategies against the Soviet Union to warning about China’s rise as a near-peer competitor.

Now, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has decided to shut it down. The decision appears to be tied to longstanding criticisms that ONA’s primary function in recent years has been funneling contracts to Beltway think tanks rather than generating truly groundbreaking analysis. While there's truth to the critique—some of ONA’s studies have indeed bordered on academic naval-gazing—elimi…