Distinguished Speaker Series – Orchestrating Power

You are invited to a Distinguished Speaker Series dinner event on June 17, 2026, in the atrium of the Lewis and Clark Center on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (100 Stimson Ave.). A reception begins at 5:30 p.m., the buffet dinner starts at 6 p.m. and the presentation will begin at 7 p.m.

In this edition of the Distinguished Speaker Series Col. Nathan K. Finney, director of the Commander’s Initiative Group for the U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command, will discuss his book, Orchestrating Power, which explores how the expansion of the American state for World War I reshaped the nature of governance. This wartime state expansion includes military power, resource mobilization, and social action, each providing insight into how America can generate domestic resources for military power overseas.

Tickets are $35/person in advance or $40/person at the door.

Please register using the form below.

Guests without military ID or CAC card must also pre-register to access Fort Leavenworth using the Visitor Registration Portal no more than 10 days and no less than 24 hours before the event.

Colonel Nathan K. Finney is an Army Strategist currently serving as the director of the Commander’s Initiatives Group at U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command. He has served from the platoon to combatant command level, including combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and plans and strategy positions focused on the Indo-Pacific, Europe, Africa, and Central and South America.

Finney was a founding executive board member of the Military Writers Guild and is currently serving as the chairman of the advisory board. He was also a founder of The Strategy Bridge and the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum. He is a managing editor at the British Journal for Military History and serves on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Military History. Among many other academic endeavors, he is a senior mentor for the Project on International Peace and Security (PIPS) and an affiliate of the Whole of Government Center at the College of William & Mary.

Finney is the co-editor and author of Redefining the Modern Military: The Intersection of Profession and Ethics (USNI Press), the editor and author of On Strategy: A Primer (Army University Press), and author of Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War (Cornell University Press). He is currently researching his next book, which is focused on Taiwan in the Cold War.

Finney earned a doctorate in history from Duke University in 2022 while also serving as a Goodpaster Scholar. Previously, he received master’s degrees in public administration from Harvard University and the University of Kansas, and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona.

The CGSC Foundation and Alumni Association through its Simons Center conducts the Distinguished Speaker Series (DSS) program to offer extracurricular, educational lectures intended to help enrich the Command and General Staff School curriculum and provide opportunities for outreach to the public. Topics covered in the Distinguished Speaker Series of lectures span the gamut of leadership and ethics, organizational effectiveness, collaboration, as well as current events and issues in business, government and the military.  

~ Thank you to our 2026 DSS Sponsors ~

~Five Stars~

Pritzker Military Foundation
The Tim and Karen Carlin Family Foundation

~Four Stars~

Armed Forces Insurance

~Three Stars~

Col. (Ret.) Bill and Marge Eckhardt
First Command
Col. (Ret.) Bob and Terri Ulin

~Two Stars~

Demaranville & Associate, CPAs
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Rich and Mary Ann Keller
Shetlar Law Firm

~One Star~

Advantage Printing
Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Stan Cherrie
Lt. Col. (Ret.) William and Kathleen Connor, Sr.
Col. (Ret.) Tom and Candy Dials
Geiger Ready-Mix
Col. (Ret.) Todd and Leslie Schmidt