To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution

Join the World Affairs Council of Charlotte for an exclusive private dinner on Tuesday, September 22 with Michael O’Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Director of Research for the Foreign Policy Program, inaugural holder of the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy at the Brookings Institution, and author of “To Dare Might Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution.”

O’Hanlon is one of Washington’s most trusted thought leaders on U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, and national security policy. His career spans more than three decades of advising the Pentagon, the CIA, and Congress and it has taken him from the halls of the Congressional Budget Office to front-row policy debates over NATO, China, Ukraine, and the future of American power.

Seating is limited to 24.

This evening, O’Hanlon draws on everything from the Civil War to the war in Afghanistan to examine how America conducts military operations and what 250 years of conflict reveal about a nation still defining its identity as a military superpower at the moment of its semiquincentennial.

• WACC Private Dinner Sponsorship and Underwriting – DOWNLOAD LINK 

Program Information: 

Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026
Check-In & Networking: 6:00 – 6:30 PM
Dinner & Discussion: 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Location: TBA
Cost: $160 (WACC Member Rate) | $180 (Non-Member Rate) — limited to 24 people
*Includes pre-dinner wine, salad, entrée, dessert, wine during dinner, and coffee service