America’s defense sector should be focused on one thing above all else: building the most effective weapons systems, technologies, and capabilities in the world. At a time of mounting geopolitical tension and growing threats from major adversaries, the companies responsible for equipping the United States military cannot afford to be distracted by the woke ideologies that have consumed so much of corporate America.
As Secretary of War Pete Hegseth often says, “We want you fighting real wars, not culture wars.”
That’s a conversation we’ve been having with America’s biggest defense contractors for the past year. As corporate engagement professionals, we represent a clientele that ranges from major nonprofits to ordinary American investors, all united around one cause: getting politics out of corporate America.
Nowhere, with the possible exception of health care, is this more critical than in our defense sector. As America protects its interests against one of our most outspoken geopolitical rivals, it’s abundantly clear that the companies behind our most advanced military capabilities need to be focused on creating powerful, innovative, and effective defense technology that defies our enemies and ensures continued American dominance.
Yet, to look at the past several years of activism in corporate America, it’s not entirely clear we’ve all been on the same page about that. For years, activists have been pounding on the doors of the American boardroom, attempting to foist a plethora of profoundly absurd ideas onto the companies tasked with protecting the country.
Perhaps part of that willingness comes as a consequence of just how bad the ideas from the other side have been. Many have been putting anti-Israel proposals on corporate ballots at companies, including Intel and Lockheed Martin, arguing for a reassessment of their relationship with Israel, and pushing for increasing numbers of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. These activists’ arguments are often simple, if not wildly anti-business: cut ties with Israel to keep a good ESG score. Implement more DEI initiatives or partnerships with organizations that push gender ideology, in order to demonstrate good corporate citizenship.
These arguments ignore the fact that Lockheed’s and Intel’s relationships with Israel are major drivers of business value. They do not address the brand damage created by controversial corporate partnerships and divisive DEI initiatives in the workplace. They do not address the obvious moral questions of withholding critical defense infrastructure from a nation fighting a war against terrorist organizations seeking their annihilation. They do, however, parrot standard-issue talking points while calling for these companies to ditch major investments or adopt diversity programming that is difficult to justify on fiduciary grounds.
DEI quotas. Divestment based on politics. Dubious gender transition treatments. What you might think, from looking at that fairly diverse (no pun intended) slate of demands, is that those are different coalitions trying to drag American businesses off course. And in certain ways, they are. But in a very critical way, they all share one idea in common: that the business of defending the homeland isn’t enough.
As a director of corporate engagement firm Bowyer Research, I meet with companies to defend the opposite idea: core business is enough — and the notion that you have to add abortion reimbursement or DEI questionnaires to a corporation to make it moral is beyond ridiculous. And, unsurprisingly, the defense sector’s been quite on board with that idea.
We’ve been having conversations on these issues with some of America’s most prominent federal contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, and others, urging them to distance themselves from past DEI initiatives, continue saying no to anti-Israel activism, and prioritize their core business. This work has been driven by our clients, including nonprofits such as The Heritage Foundation and financial professionals such as David Bahnsen, using their investment portfolios to engage with management at the companies they own.
This process, called corporate engagement, has, until recently, been almost exclusively the domain of left-of-center, ESG-aligned, DEI-aligned activist groups in past years. But no longer. The right-of-center is waking up and having tremendous success in rolling back many biased policies implemented in past years. And this momentum has only been helped by President Trump’s 2025 executive order rolling back government DEI initiatives. Lockheed Martin suspended identity-based employee workforce groups. RTX exited controversial public partnerships with groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, a major promoter of gender ideology. Boeing disclosed it would no longer incorporate DEI into its executive pay structure. And Texas Instruments stopped using the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate group’ list, which smears mainstream conservative organizations like Turning Point USA and Alliance Defending Freedom as hateful, to vet charities.
Engaging with the defense sector about returning to political neutrality has largely been a good-faith effort. Companies have been willing to have serious conversations about making changes. Why? Beyond compliance, our engagement is often seen as a breath of fresh air — a welcome change from the activists who want defense companies to divest from our allies, adopt DEI agendas, and… do less defense. This is corporate engagement at its best: in our uncertain world, and amid a multiplicity of threats to the American way of life, genuine investors are asking companies to reaffirm and stand by their core business model: national defense, and with it the continuation of the greatest nation in the history of our species.
You don’t need supplier quotas or activist pledges to run that play. You need grit, determination, and merit to run that play with the American people in mind. And right now, America’s defenders are doing just that.
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Isaac Willour is the director of corporate engagement at Bowyer Research, representing institutional investors before America’s biggest companies. He writes frequently on issues pertaining to business, faith, and culture, and can be found on X @IsaacWillour.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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