With engineering, economics, and comparative complex organization theory / political science degrees, Chris C. Demchak is the Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper Professor of Cyber Security and the senior cyber scholar of the Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute at the U.S. Naval War College. In her research on cyberspace as a globally shared insecure complex "substrate," Demchak takes a systemic approach to emergent structures, comparative institutional evolution, adversaries' use of systemic cybered tools, virtual worlds and gaming for operationalized organizational learning, burgeoning roles of artificial intelligence as "cyber's offspring," and designing systemic resilience against imposed surprise.
In the time since this article was submitted, the United States , Israel commenced combat operations against Iran. Among Irans' responses has been to target merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf and potentially embark on a mining campaign to close the Strait of Hormuz. These evolving events highlight the enduring relevance of the lessons and ex- perience described here from the Navys' ad hoc ordnance disposal effort in similar waters more than three decades ago. Interested readers also should reference "Short-Term Solutions, Long-Term Problems: The U.S. Navys' Approach to Mines during the Tanker War," by Matthew Kastler, published in the 2025 Winter/Spring issue.
