Ryan Vest
Executive Editor
Ryan Vest is the Executive Editor of the Texas National Security Review at The University of Texas at Austin. He holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London, where he focused on Russian military and maritime strategy. He also holds a MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, and a BS in Systems Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy.
Prior to joining the University of Texas team, Ryan served for 23 years as a Naval Aviator. During the last nine years of his active-duty career, he was a Military Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He was a founding member, and later director, of both the Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) and the Holloway Advanced Research Program for the study of high-intensity conflict with Russia.
He is finishing the manuscript of his first book, Some Principles of Russian Maritime Strategy: Understanding Maritime Power in Putin’s Russia and is under contract for a second, coauthored book, Hands Bound: Russia’s Post-Soviet Navy 1990-2025. He also teaches Warfare Studies and Making Decisions: Strategy and War for the Air Force Global College’s master’s degree program.
Author's Articles
Iran’s Nuclear Tightrope: Between Power and Peril
The article discussed is “What Good Is a Nuclear Threshold Capability? Lessons from Iran’s Nuclear Program and Recent Regional Conflict.” YouTube · Apple Podcasts · Amazon Music Hosts: Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Ryan Vest Producer:…
New Tech, Old Traps: The Persistent Pitfalls in Military Innovation
Herb Lin joins the podcast and explains US reliance on technological overmatch through the first offset (nuclear deterrence against Soviet conventional superiority), second offset (high-tech conventional systems like precision-guided munitions and stealth),…
The Balance of Control and Vulnerability: Cyber and Nuclear Risks
Dr. Jackie Schneider moves beyond Hollywood analogies and pop-culture fears, and argues that common understandings of how cyber operations impact nuclear stability are often misguided. She unpacks three specific pathways to escalation—deliberate,…
Challenges and Opportunities for AI in Military Systems
Michael Horowitz discusses his recent TNSR article tackling misconceptions about AI, how militaries have long used algorithms, and why use cases and data matter—especially when nuclear applications rely on simulated data. He examines human-machine teaming,…
Beyond the Hype: The Reality of Precision-Strike Weapons in Ukraine
Cameron Tracy joins to discuss his TNSR article on “technological surprise” and “normalization through use” in the Russo-Ukrainian war. He explains how forecasting about warfare often overweights extreme scenarios and is reinforced by professional and…
Psychological Biases in the Era of Nuclear Weapons and AI
Rose McDermott explains how common judgment biases can undermine nuclear deterrence and strategic stability, especially under time pressure and with emerging technologies like AI, using Kahneman’s Type 1 (fast, intuitive) and Type 2 (slow, analytic) thinking…
Understanding Schelling’s Nuclear Paradigms with Francis J. Gavin
Francis J. Gavin explains why Thomas Schelling remains foundational to nuclear strategy despite being an economist, and argues that “strategic stability” is often invoked without clear definition. He highlights tensions between mutual vulnerability and US…
Strategic Stability in a Rapidly Changing World
Harold Trinkunas previews our special issue on strategic stability by explaining how Cold War deterrence assumptions rooted in a bilateral US–Soviet relationship no longer hold amid more nuclear-armed actors, wider access to AI, cyber, hypersonics, and the…
A Dystopian Take on Rising Authoritarianism and Resistance
Melissa Chan joins to discuss her career reporting across Asia and why she pivoted from journalism to co-creating the graphic novel "You Must Take Part In Revolution" with activist-artist Badiucao. We discuss the book’s visual style, the subversive…
The Principle of Distinction in the Autonomous Age
Are concerns about autonomous weapons overblown? In our latest episode, Nathan Wood argues that we must move past catch-all terms and focus on the distinct legal and ethical challenges of specific systems.
Ensuring US Military Readiness in the Indo-Pacific
Eyck Freymann and Harry Halem argue that the United States can sustain conventional deterrence against China into the 2030s through targeted investments in logistics and the industrial base. They join our editors to discuss why a holistic view of the military…
US Military Primacy and Alliance Resilience
In 1956, the Suez Crisis revealed the limits of British power. Could a similar event hollow out the US alliance system today? Bence Nemeth applies his "five factor theory of defense cooperation" to answer this critical question.