Lieutenant General Joe Berger

From Five Questions for a General by Modern War Institute at West Point

January 23, 2026 · 50 min

About this episode

Cadet Emily Wilczek interviews retired Lieutenant General Joe Berger about his military career and insights on leadership and decision-making.

Welcome back to Five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern War Institute at West Point. This series features specially selected cadet hosts who are given an exceptional professional development opportunity—to sit down with senior military officers and ask carefully crafted questions about leadership, their unique experiences in uniform, and their expectations for the future of war. In this episode, Cadet Emily Wilczek speaks with retired Lieutenant General Joe Berger, who began his thirty-three-year career as a military police officer and saw combat in Somalia before transferring to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, served in such units as the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Joint Special Operations Command, and US Cyber Command, and finished his career as the judge advocate general of the Army. In the conversation, he reflects on how disciplined legal judgment and ethical clarity inform sound decision-making in complex environments—from advising commanders in conflict zones to leading the Army’s ten-thousand-strong legal community.

People in this episode

Host: Emily Wilczek

Guest: Lieutenant General Joe Berger

Topics covered

leadership
military experience
legal judgment
decision-making
future of war

Keywords

military police
Judge Advocate General’s Corps
combat
Iraq
Afghanistan
legal community

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan