Welcome to Topic A: Defense, the newest blog from Roll Call, the primary source for news on Capitol Hill. Topic A: Defense presents policy analysis, commentary and thought-leader discussion for the national security community.

This is the first in a Roll Call network of “sponsored blogs” on specific areas of policy interest. Topic A: Defense, like the others to follow, will serve as a digital meeting place for industry and policy experts to exchange ideas and viewpoints on the most pressing questions facing Congress and the White House.

Topic A: Defense is brought to you by the Boeing Company, which will provide a portion of the content you find here.

While supported by a single sponsor, Topic A will be edited and managed by an independent team of editors hired by Roll Call — Chris Riback and Taegan Goddard. They are digital media experts and journalists who bring a range of knowledge and social media experience to the effort.

Riback (
@chrisriback
) is host of “Conversations with Thinkers,” high-level and engaging conversations on politics, business, international affairs, tech, culture and more. Conversations can be found at 
chrisriback.com
. He also serves as an occasional guest host on the Cumulus Radio Networks, and previously served as managing director at a global financial services firm.

Goddard is the founder of Political Wire (
@politicalwire
), one of the most successfull news aggregation sites on the web. He also curates the popular 
Wonk Wire
(
@wonkwire
) blog on rollcall.com. He was previously the chief operating officer of a prominent New York City investment firm and a policy adviser to a U.S. senator and governor.

Some of the content on Topic A: Defense is from Roll Call and some is original to this blog. The sponsor-generated content is clearly marked as such.

The most important content on this site will be your ideas, comments and suggestions for further reading. Please consider Topic A: Defense a destination for you and your professional colleagues to explore together.

David Rapp, Editor

Roll Call