Williams College will host a conference on the new biography George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis from 8:45 am to 3 pm on Saturday, April 7, in Griffin 3. Gaddis is a noted historian of the Cold War and grand strategy. He has been called the “Dean of Cold War Historians” by The New York Times. Gaddis is best known for his analysis of the strategies of containment employed under the presidencies ranging from Harry S. Truman to Ronald Reagan. Gaddis recently won the American History Book Prize for his work. He will offer concluding remarks at 2:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
8:45-10:15 a.m. Panel 1: The Making of a Cold War Intellectual
Moderator: Mark Lawrence, UT-Austin/Williams College
Frank Costigliola, University of Connecticut
Walter Hixson, University of Akron
Christina Klein, Boston College
Frank Ninkovich, St. Johns University
10:15-11:45 a.m. Panel 2: Kennan and the Art of Foreign Policy
Moderator: Fredrik Logevall, Cornell University
David Ekbladh, Tufts University
Hope Harrison, George Washington University
David Mayers, Boston University
Anders Stephanson, Columbia University
1:00-2:15 p.m. Panel 3: Kennan, Realism, and American Grand Strategy
Moderator: James McAllister, Williams College
David Kaiser, Naval War College
Douglas Macdonald, Colgate University
Mark Sheetz, Belfer Center at Harvard University
2:15-2:30 Concluding Remarks: John Lewis Gaddis
Williams College SALT I/NSP Conference
Saturday, March 3, 2012 in Griffin Hall, Room 3
Williams College will host a conference with the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State to mark the publication of the SALT I, 1969-1972, and the National Security Policy, 1969-1972, volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States series. The March 3 conference is the culmination of the 150th anniversary of the Foreign Relationsseries, which publishes declassified documents that record historic foreign policy decisions and diplomatic activity.
The conference will explore the themes of the two volumes, which contain extensive information about U.S. policy initiatives in the 1970s post-hegemonic era. Each volume incorporates U.S. government records from a wide variety of sources—including dealings between the White House and Congress, transcripts of White House meetings with high-level policymakers, and coverage of interagency efforts to define and articulate U.S. policy—to provide a thorough record of major policy formation.
The panel discussions and keynote address are free and open to the public and will take place on Saturday, March 3, in Griffin Hall.
The conference is sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the Department of Political Science.
The full schedule is as follows:
8:30 – 10:15 a.m. Panel: Deterrence in an Era of Parity
Moderator: Prof. James McAllister, Williams College
Panelists: Dr. William Burr, National Security Archive
Prof. Sir Lawrence Freedman, King’s College London
Prof. Brendan Green, Williams College
Prof. Joshua Rovner, U.S. Naval War College
10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Panel: Problems of Perception
Moderator: Dr. Stephen Randolph, Office of the Historian
Panelists: Prof. Richard Immerman, Temple University
Prof. Robert Jervis, Columbia University
Prof. Melvyn Leffler, University of Virginia
Prof. Keren Yarhi-Milo, Princeton University
12:30-2:00 p.m. Lunch Panel: Compiler and Participant Perspectives on FRUS
Moderator: Ambassador Edward Brynn, Office of the Historian
Panelists: Prof. M. Todd Bennett, East Carolina University
Dr. Edward Keefer, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Dr. Erin Mahan, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Gen. Robert Pursley, USAF (ret.)
2:00 -3:30 p.m. Panel: Evolving Constraints
Moderator: Prof. Mark Lawrence, Williams College, University of Texas
Panelists: Prof. Beth Bailey, Temple University
Prof. Thomas Schwartz, Vanderbilt University
Dr. Chris Tudda, Office of the Historian
3:45-4:30 pm SALT I: Historical Turning Point?
Keynote address, Prof. Jeremi Suri, University of Texas
Evelyn Denham ’12 Awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Theories of International Politics and Zombies
Daniel W. Drezner received his BA from Williams in 1990 with a degree in Political Economy. He is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a senior editor at The National Interest, and a contributing editor at Foreign Policy. Prior to Fletcher, he taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has previously held positions with Civic Education Project, the RAND Corporation and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Drezner has written four books, including All Politics is Global (Princeton, 2007), and edited two others, including Avoiding Trivia (Brookings, 2009). He has published articles in numerous scholarly journals as well as in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. He is an occasional commentator for NPR’s Marketplace, and keeps a daily weblog for Foreign Policy magazine. His latest book, Theories of International Politics and Zombies, was published by Princeton University Press in February 2011.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
7 pm in Griffin 6
New Approaches to the Vietnam War
Mark Atwood Lawrence is Associate Professor of History and Senior Fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of two books, Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam (2005) and The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (2008). Lawrence is currently the Stanley Kaplan Visiting Professor in American Foreign Policy at Williams College. International Studies Colloquium.
Tuesday, September 28, 2011
2:45 pm in Griffin 6
