When people talk about how the United States dominates the world, the first explanation is obvious: its military. With the largest army, navy, and air force on the planet, the U.S. can project power anywhere. Its ships, planes, weapons, and millions of active and reserve personnel give it unmatched reach.
But there is another “military” that often goes unnoticed—an intellectual one. This second force is made up of professors, researchers, and students across U.S. universities. Backed by powerful funding agencies like the NSF and NIH, they are guided toward solving problems of national and global importance. Their classrooms and labs are not just places of study, but training grounds where future scientists and engineers sharpen their skills—just as soldiers drill to stay combat-ready.
The traditional military recruits nationally, but the intellectual military recruits globally. Talented students from every corner of the world come to U.S. universities, learning from some of the best-trained professors in fields from linear algebra to machine learning—the foundations of today’s breakthroughs in deep learning and AI. Afterward, industries like NVIDIA, Google, and NASA turn this expertise into innovations that shape the future.
This intellectual reserve is often called upon, even in global emergencies. During the 2018 Thailand cave rescue, for example, scientists and engineers from around the world—including NASA—contributed expertise and technology to help solve the crisis. That kind of rapid mobilization of knowledge mirrors how a military responds to sudden threats.
But beyond emergencies, this is also a form of soft power. When other countries face major challenges, they often look to U.S. scientists or professors for solutions, or they send their brightest students to study in America. This is why so many transformative technologies and startups have their birthplace in the United States. Facebook, for instance, succeeded partly because it arrived very early—before the space was crowded. Timing mattered, but so did the ecosystem of talent, capital, and academic culture that only a place like the U.S. could provide.
The same is true in medicine and science. From vaccines to new treatments, many breakthroughs originate in U.S. labs before spreading worldwide. Other nations try to model their curricula and universities on the American style, hoping to replicate its success. In global conferences, when a U.S. professor chairs a session or appears as an author, the work is often perceived as higher quality. This is the bar the United States has set—and, in many ways, dictates.
History shows the broader impact: whether it was the Manhattan Project in the 1940s or modern advances in space exploration and AI, the U.S. intellectual military has consistently risen to meet critical challenges. Like Tyrion Lannister once said, a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone. Professors teach, research, and publish not only to share knowledge but also to stay sharp.
In this sense, America’s dominance is not built on one military, but two: one of soldiers and one of scholars. Together, they form a unique structure of power—military might reinforced by intellectual leadership.