The U.S. faces growing threats from authoritarian regimes aiming to discredit, destabilize, and ultimately destroy free societies and supplant the U.S. leadership with their own. Why? What weapon do U.S. adversaries fear the most? The F-35, our nuclear arsenal, the U.S. Marines?

Our adversaries fear the very idea of the U.S.

Russia, China, and Iran see the idea of the U.S. as an existential threat. Their authoritarian control, the wealth of their autocrats, and their impunity are threatened by a government of the people, for the people, and by the people with liberty and justice for all.

To prevail, the U.S. must harness all its strengths, including the power of the American people. Spirit of America has pioneered a new model of private assistance that supports national security by uniting Americans with our troops and diplomats in common cause.

Jim Hake, founder and chief executive officer of Spirit of America, will discuss how this approach is producing asymmetric impact in defending Ukraine against Russia’s aggression, deterring China’s aggression in Taiwan, and countering terrorism in the Middle East and West Africa. He will describe how private citizens are essential partners in the fight to defend America and the idea of America.

Spirit of America is a privately-funded, not-neutral 501c3 nonprofit founded in response to the attacks of 9/11. It has an unprecedented partnership with the US military. Its Board of Advisors includes former Secretary of Defense General (Ret.) Jim Mattis, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General (Ret.) Joseph Dunford Jr., Lt. Generals (Ret.) H.R. McMaster and Larry Nicholson, former Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy, and Ambassadors Ryan Crocker, William Taylor, Mike McFaul, and Greta Holtz.

Jim Hake founded Spirit of America in response to the attacks of 9/11. Prior to Spirit of America Hake was an entrepreneur. He founded and sold Access Media, one of the first internet media companies. In 2000 and 2001, he was named a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum. Hake has been honored at the Marines Evening Parade, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is an honorary member of the US Army Civil Affairs Regiment. He is a contributing author to Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military, a book edited by General Jim Mattis and Dr. Kori Schake. He has been published in The Wall Street Journal and given talks at the TED conference, the Bush School of Government, the Aspen Institute, the Fletcher School, Dartmouth’s Tuck School, SMU, and USC.