On the dispute between the Department of War (DOW) and Anthropic, DOW is right and Anthropic is wrong. And the stakes in this fight go far beyond one contract. Here’s why:
First, DOW exists to defend the United States and keep Americans safe, not to outsource battlefield decisions to a progressive company’s compliance team. When the U.S. government lawfully purchases a technology, it must be able to use it for lawful national security purposes. Anthropic signed a contract knowing was dealing with the U.S. military. It cannot now insist that its internal “values” override the elected government’s constitutional authority to wage war and protect the country. This would be corporate control of our military.
Second, as former congressional chiefs of staff, we know what it looks like when corporations try to push the government around. We have seen industries threaten to pull investment, withhold cooperation, or weaponize public pressure campaigns to extract leverage over policymakers. That is not how the constitutional system works. When a vendor decides it gets to define the permissible scope of lawful government action after the ink is dry on a contract, that is dangerous for the DOW.
Right now, Anthropic is claiming this is only about mass surveillance of Americans (bad an unlawful) and unmanned use of dangerous autonomous weapons (something this DOW would never try to do). But here’s the problem. What does this mean in practice? What if DOW is working on some spy technology to take on the Chinese Communist Party–does DOW need to certify to Anthropic that it can only be used against China? Is there some Anthropic compliance officer that Secretary Hegseth is supposed to come before and beg for permission before every development of weapons?
This would set a dangerous precedent. No other company gets to tell the Department of War when it can use its products or what type of military use is permissible.
Third, this is about deterrence. China is racing to integrate AI into its armed forces. The United States cannot afford to handicap itself because a private company wants veto power over how AI is deployed. If Anthropic wants to be a defense contractor, it must operate under the defense department.
Under the Pentagon’s current tech leadership, including Secretary Hegseth and Undersecretary Emil Michael, the Department has made clear that innovation and national security must move together. Anthropic should know its role, and put the country first–not its progressive ideology.
