- Pritzker Fellows
- Current Fellows
- Alex Wagner
Alex Wagner
Former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force
Biography
Alex Wagner served as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower & Reserve Affairs from 2022 to 2025. Nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he was responsible for the entire human capital enterprise of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, including recruiting and retention, talent management, compensation, health care and dependent care, discipline, oversight of the U.S. Air Force Academy and Air Force ROTC detachments, and reserve component affairs impacting nearly 700,000 Airmen, Guardians, and civilians across the Department of the Air Force.
Previously, as Vice President at the Aerospace Industries Association, Alex led policy efforts on behalf of America’s most prominent aerospace and defense companies focused on talent development, including specific programs to enhance workforce diversity, expand STEM education access, and protect employees’ health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the Obama administration, he served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Army, spearheading creation of the Army Rapid Capabilities Office and the Army Digital Service, and closely involved in developing and implementing key personnel policies, including opening all combat roles to women, enabling transgender Americans to openly serve their nation, and updating the Army’s uniform and grooming regulations to enhance recruiting and retention of soldiers of faith. Over the course of several prior appointments in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he shaped the development and implementation of DoD policies on nuclear and conventional weapons, including emerging autonomy in weapons systems.
Prior to his government service, as a lawyer in private practice, Alex helped draft the briefs and refine argument strategy for a First Amendment case decided on the merits by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alex has also worked in various capacities on six U.S. presidential campaigns, including principal staffer responsible for engaging Obama for America’s 150-member National LGBT Steering and Policy Committee in 2008. He earned a J.D. from Georgetown Law, an A.B. from Brown University, and is currently an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Seminars
"Politics, Power & the Pentagon: Inside America's National Security Machine"
The Trump administration is employing the U.S. military in ways without precedent, often breaching long-standing norms. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced sweeping new restrictions on journalists, requiring them to pledge not to publish certain information - even some unclassified material - and sharply limiting their movement inside the Pentagon. At the same time, President Trump has deployed National Guard troops into U.S. cities without local consent and continues to threaten new mobilizations despite a federal ruling that one deployment violated the law. In the Caribbean, the Navy has fired on three boats, killing occupants, under the novel legal theory that drug trafficking constitutes “narco-terrorism” - and therefore justifies the use of wartime force. Together, these moves reveal a shift in our military serving purely as an instrument of foreign policy, but rather increasingly as an extension of Trump’s domestic political agenda.
Who is promoted to general? Politics. What weapons systems get billions in funding, or which states get new military bases? Politics. Whether the U.S. goes to war or seeks to negotiate peace? Politics.
Drawing from his experience as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force and other senior political appointments in the Pentagon, Alex Wagner will examine the complex relationship between politics and national security policy. He's seen how skilled political appointees can turn good ideas into reality, how the right people in the right positions can transform military culture, and how understanding the politics of the Defense Department is essential for anyone who wants to make a difference.
This is the ultimate insider guide to how the Pentagon actually operates - and how politics, when done right, serves both the people in uniform and the nation - taking you behind the curtain of the most complicated and powerful institution in the U.S. government, where law, politics, policy, and technology collide.
By the end, you'll never look at the news the same way again.
Fellows seminars are off the record and open to current UChicago students only.
Ever wonder who actually decides whether America goes to war or makes peace? It's not just the President sitting alone in the Oval Office. Behind every major national security decision, from the bin-Laden raid to the recent military takeover of Washington, is a complex web of political appointees, career government workers, and military officers - each with their own backgrounds, biases, and agendas. We'll pull back the curtain on the real power players and who really matters in the Trump administration. Who gets these incredibly powerful jobs, and how do their personal experiences shape life-and-death decisions? We'll also tackle an uncomfortable truth: as former National Security Advisor Susan Rice noted, the people making these decisions are often "too white, male, and Yale." Does this matter, and what happens when the only people in the room don't reflect the diversity of America?
“Why aren’t you wearing a uniform?” This question gets asked of some of the most senior civilian Defense Department officials on a regular basis and underscores an important concept: from the President on down, civilians run the military and the national security decision-making process. But while civilians are authorized to control applications of force, how does that actually work when generals have all the prestige and expertise? We'll decode the confusing alphabet soup of Pentagon leadership: What are the different responsibilities of the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs? What should civilian leaders do when provided “best military advice” and what goes on in "The Tank" - the secretive room where top military leaders meet? This seminar will help you understand who really calls the shots in the world's most powerful military.
Special Guest: The Honorable Eric Fanning, 22nd Secretary of the Army
The Pentagon of Donald Trump’s second term is unlike any in modern history. He fired multiple generals and admirals, held campaign-style rallies in front of soldiers in uniform, ordered the National Guard into American cities, and federalized the D.C. police department. And Trump’s Defense Secretary? A former Fox News host with no relevant experience nor gravitas. What happens when the Commander-in-Chief politicizes the military in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago? We'll explore these unprecedented tensions and what they mean for American democracy and the troops who swear an oath to defend it.
Less than 1% of Americans serve in the military today, and most who do come from military families or communities. This creates two separate Americas: one that serves and one that doesn't really understand what modern military service means. Most civilians - including some who may be appointed to leadership positions in the DoD - have little idea what today's military actually does beyond the Hollywood stereotypes. Meanwhile, military members can become isolated from rapid changes in civilian society. This growing gap has real consequences for democracy and policymaking.
We'll hear from General CQ Brown Jr., who served as Chief of Staff of the Air Force and then as the 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs before being fired by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth in early 2025. Brown will share his unique perspective on military leadership at the highest levels, from advising presidents on global threats to navigating complex relationships with civilian bosses. We’ll discuss his historic career, leadership lessons along the way, and reveal what senior political appointees should know when working alongside military leadership. This is a rare opportunity to engage the highest-ranked military officer in the nation and someone at the center of one of the most politically charged periods in modern civil-military relations.
Special Guest: General CQ Brown (Ret.), 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Shortly after taking office for the second time, President Trump issued an executive order declaring that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life ... [and ergo] is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.” His Pentagon subsequently purged the military of transgender troops, ensuring those currently serving would be discharged either involuntarily or their jobs would be made so unbearable that they left on their own accord.
My view is that America’s military requires healthy young Americans to join who can meet its high standards, and that includes transgender Americans. My co-IOP Fellow Dan Caldwell, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, disagrees, and we will model respectful discourse on this topic.
Special Guest: Dan Caldwell, former Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Defense & Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics
In 2019, America created its first new military service in over 70 years: the Space Force. But this wasn't just about the military’s role in space—it was about politics, personalities, and power. How do you build a military branch from nothing? What should their uniforms look like? Does the Space Force really need a distinct uniform and song? How is its mission different from NASA’s? We'll examine the political maneuvering that created the Space Force and how it's deliberately trying to attract a new generation of tech-savvy recruits with different competencies than the other military branches.
Time to put your money where your mouth is! In this hands-on simulation, you'll play senators grilling a nominee for a top national security position. How do you prepare for one of Washington's highest-stakes job interviews? What questions should senators ask, and which ones are just political theater? How can a nominee survive hostile questioning while avoiding saying anything that will come back to haunt them? You'll learn the unwritten rules of confirmation hearings, learn the art of the nonanswer, and discover what it really takes to get confirmed in today's polarized political environment. By the end, you'll understand why some of Washington's smartest people sometimes look foolish on C-SPAN.