Archived Events

The Middle East Today: New Hopes, Old Dangers and Choices for the U.S., Israel, and Palestine

“Interrogating Terrorists”

Matthew Alexander was a senior military interrogator in Iraq who led the
interrogations that located Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former Al Qaida leader, who was killed in a subsequent airstrike. Alexander conducted or supervised over 1,300 interrogations. He shunned torture and abuse and instead taught his interrogators a new way to interrogate based on his experience as a criminal investigator and knowledge of Middle Eastern culture. His team of interrogators leveraged compassion, intellect, and ingenuity to convince several high-ranking Al Qaida leaders to cooperate, leading to the numerous successful kill or capture missions that helped turn the tide of the war. Alexander is the author of How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq and the forthcoming book Kill or Capture.
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“Leadership and the art of military dissent”

October 06, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Schapiro Hall, room 129

Student discussion on dissent vs. insubordination, Gen McChrystal’s resignation. Informal Q&A.

“The Biggest Lie: How the CIA and the Advertising Industry Taught Us to Start Worrying and Love the Cold War”

October 05, 2010 at 2:45 p.m.
Schapiro Hall, room 129

Kenneth Osgood will explore the CIA’s collaboration with the advertising industry to sell the Cold War to the American public. He will focus on one of the longest-running and most extensive campaigns of political advertising in U.S. history: the Crusade for Freedom. Largely forgotten today, the Crusade saturated the American media with anti-communist propaganda for more than two decades – from 1950 to 1971. Secretly orchestrated by the CIA with the blessing of five presidents (Truman through Nixon), the campaign sought to whip-up anti-communist fervor and stir American patriotism. The Crusade had a particularly wide reach because of the extensive support it received from the Advertising Council – an industry association that donates time, talent and money for public service advertising (such as the Smokey the Bear campaign). In addition, the CIA’s propaganda campaign was both wittingly and unwittingly supported by a wide range of powerful institutions in postwar American life, including conservative patriotic organizations like the American Heritage Foundation, special interest groups, politicians, celebrities, major corporations, and the mass media. By publicizing the evils of communism and the perils of life behind the Iron Curtain, the campaign instructed Americans on the moral righteousness of the anti-communist “crusade”, thus transforming a distant geopolitical battle into a high-minded struggle for freedom. Kenneth Osgood is the Stanley Kaplan Visiting Professor of American Foreign Policy for 2010-2011.

“Ground Zero Mosque Discussion”

October 03, 2010 at 6:00 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 3

Donald W. Goodrich, Chairman of the Board of Families of 9/11, is a partner in the law firm of Donovan & O’Connor in North Adams, MA. One of the founders of FOS11, Don analyzed and recommended improvements to the Victim Compensation Fund as well as various forms of ongoing and potential litigation against organizations whose actions have affected victims’ rights. Don helped develop questions for the online 9/11 Grief Survey; was involved in petitioning Congress for legislation in support of the 9/11 Commission; and raised money to build a girls’ school in Afghanistan. His son, Peter Goodrich, was on United Airlines Flight 175.

“First They Killed my Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers”

September 13, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room

Lecture and discussion with Loung Ung, author, landmine activist. Loung is a survivor of the killing fields of Cambodia, one of the bloodiest episodes of the twentieth century. She was five years old when the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh. Over the next three years, Loung lost half of her family, including both parents, and spent time in a camp for child soldiers. After the war was over, she and her older brother relocated to Vermont, where she grew to adulthood. Today she is an internationally best-selling author and a well-known human rights activist. Sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy. Book signing to follow.

“Clash of Cartoons: Debates over the Headscarf and Relations with the US in Turkey”

April 22, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Griffin Hall, Room 6

Pinar Batur, the Director of International Studies at Vassar College and John VanderLippe, Associate Dean at the New School for Social Research in New York will speak on he role of metaphors and icons in the rhetorical lexicon of Turkish political discourse. They will focus on political cartoons as image-based narratives of the conflict between secularist and Islamist forces to explore how icons and metaphors have evolved over time in response to the changing political situation in Turkey, and global circumstances. In this context, they will discuss the politics of images of the headscarf debate and Turkish-American relations.

“From Bandung to Tehran: Transnational Networks in the Postcolonial World”

April 17, 2010 at 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Griffin Hall, Room 3

9:00 am Panel I: The 1950s Panelists: Devyn Benson, Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies, Williams College; Robson Taj Frazier, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California; Christopher Lee, Assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Commentator: Magnus Bernhardsson, Williams College

10:45 am Panel II: The 1960s Panelists: Ryan Irwin, Dissertation Fellow, Yale University; Judy Wu, Associate Professor of History, Ohio State University; Mark Lawrence, Associate Professor of History, University of Texas-Austin; Jeffrey Byrne, Senior Instructor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Commentator: Jessica Chapman, Williams College

1:30 pm The Poorer Nations, Address by Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies, Trinity College

2:30 pm Panel III: The 1970s Panelists: Victor McFarland, Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University; Paul Chamberlin, Postoctoral Fellow, Williams College; Piero Gleijeses, Professor of American Foreign Policy, Paul H. Nitze, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University

Commentator: Doug Little, Clark University

“The Cuban Drumbeat: Cuba and Southern Africa, 1975-88”

April 16, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Griffin Hall, Room 3

Piero Gleijeses is professor of United States foreign policy in the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. He is an author of a number of books on the subject of Latin America, including several on the role of US intervention in Latin America, including the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état and the 1965 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic. In 2002, Gleijeses published his book Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976 on the Cuban involvement in the decolonization of Africa (particularly the Cuban intervention in Angola), which won the 2002 Robert Ferrell Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. In November 2003, the Cuban Council of State decorated Gleijeses with the Medal of Friendship at the initiative of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples.

“Self-Styled Revolutionaries: Forgotten Struggles for Social Change and the Problem of Unintended Dissidence”

March 11, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 7

Lillian Guerra is Assistant Professor of Caribbean History. Born in New York City and raised in Marion, Kansas, Professor Guerra is the author of two books, Popular Expression and National Identity in Puerto Rico (University of Florida Press, 1998) and The Myth of José Martí: Conflicting Nationalisms in Early Twentieth Century Cuba (University of North Carolina Press, 2005). She has also published two books of Spanish-language poetry on themes of displacement and Latino identity.

As a teacher and scholar, Professor Guerra is committed to forging ties of connection and understanding between Caribbean diasporas in the United States and their national communities at home through the study of history. She has over two hundred relatives in Cuba and travels there frequently for research and family reasons. Guerra is the principal author of an archival guide to the Cuban Revolution Collection, an enormous resource for researchers comprised of 5,000 original photographs and 60 unedited archival films in the Manuscripts and Archives division of Sterling Memorial Library at Yale. Together with materials and interviews gathered in Cuba, this collection forms a key part of Guerra’s most recent book project, “Visions of Power: Revolution and Redemption in Cuba, 1956-1971.”

The fourth in a series of talks on The Cuban Revolution: 50 Years Later.

“10 China Myths for the New Decade”

March 02, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 6

At Heritage, Scissors focuses on the Chinese economy as well as broader Asian economic trends and challenges facing the United States. In addition to his duties with the think tank, Scissors is an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, where he teaches a course on the economy of the People’s Republic of China.

Before joining Heritage in August 2008, Scissors was a China economist at Orbis Publications, which was acquired by Intelligence Research, a global political risk assessment firm. In that role, he wrote and edited the firm’s China Weekly Bulletin, China Watch and China Quarterly Forecast.

“Media and War in Vietnam and Iraq: Déjà Vu All Over Again?”

February 22, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Griffin Hall, Room 7

Daniel C. Hallin is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of The Uncensored War: The Media and the Vietnam (1986), a groundbreaking study of the media’s influence on the Vietnam War. Far from being a consistent adversary of government policy in Vietnam, Hallin shows, the media were closely tied to official perspectives throughout the war, though divisions in the government itself and contradictions in its public relations policies caused every administration, at certain times, to lose its ability to “manage” the news effectively.

Hallin’s research concerns political communication and the role of the news media in democratic politics. He has written on the media and war, including Vietnam, Central America, and the Gulf War. He has written on television coverage of elections, demonstrating the shrinking “sound bite” and offering an interpretation of its meaning for political journalism. His new research focuses on comparative analysis of the news media’s role in the public sphere, concentrating on Europe and Latin America.

“U.S. Cuba Relations in the Twenty-First Century”

November 04, 2009 at
Griffin Hall, Room 7

Julia E. Sweig is the Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies and director for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

She is the author of Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century (PublicAffairs, 2006), as well as numerous publications on Latin America and American foreign policy. She has directed several Council on Foreign Relations reports on Latin America. Dr. Sweig’s Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground (Harvard University Press, 2002) received the American Historical Association’s Herbert Feis Award for best book of the year by an independent scholar.

Dr. Sweig serves on the International Advisory Board of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI), on the editorial board of Foreign Affairs Latinoame??rica, and from 1999-2008, served as a consultant on Latin American affairs for The Aspen Institute’s Congressional Program. She frequently provides commentary for the major television, radio, and print media, speaking in both English and Spanish. She holds a BA from the University of California and an MA and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

The third in a series of talks on The Cuban Revolution: 50 Years Later.

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“Iranian Documentary Film Screening”

November 02, 2009 at
Paresky Performance Space

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Iranian filmmaker, will screen two of her most recent films. Discussion with Bani-Etemad to follow. Monday, Nov.2 at 6:30 pm in Paresky auditorium. Angels of the House of Sun is a documentary about a women’s shelter in one of Teheran’s poorest neighborhoods (2009). We are Half of Iran’s Population takes place shortly before the June Presidential election and provides an extraordinarily intimate glimpse into the current situation in Iran (2009).

“China Rising”

October 14, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
MainStage, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance

A national correspondent for The Atlantic, James Fallows is one of America’s most respected journalists. He has won the National Book Award, the American Book Award and the National Magazine Award. Based in China since 2006, he is chronicling that country’s explosive growth and its staggering ramifications for America and the world. Fallows is the author of several books, including Breaking the News, about the crisis facing contemporary news media, and Blind into Baghdad, about the lead-up to the War in Iraq, which is now required reading in many military programs. His most recent book is Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China. Admission free but tickets are required. Contact the ’62 Center box office, Tues.-Sat. 1-5 p.m., 597-2425.

“Imagining Cuba: Metaphor and Narratives of Power”

October 01, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 6

Lecture by Louis Perez, J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History and Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas, part of the Global Education Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Perez will address the multiple representations of Cuba in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, and how the different representations of the island corresponded to the evolving needs of U.S. national interests. The second in a series of talks on The Cuban Revolution: 50 Years Later

“Race and Revolution in Castro’s Cuba”

September 24, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Paresky Performance Space

An ethnologist and political scientist with two doctorates from the prestigious University of Paris-7, France, Dr. Carlos Moore is an expert on the impact of race and ethnicity on domestic politics and inter-state affairs, and a leader in the ongoing global discussion on the topic of race, particularly race in Latin America. His 2008 book Pichón: Race and Revolution in Castro’s Cuba, A Memoir recounts his life of devastating poverty, racism, and his fight for justice; the book traces his imprisonment and eventual exile for speaking out against Fidel Castro and his return to Cuba 30 years later. His other books include A Africa que Incomoda; Racismo e Sociedade; Castro, the Blacks, and Africa; Fela: This Bitch of a Life; and Cette Putain de Vie. Moore is currently at work on Race: The Last Frontier of Hatred, which summarizes his three decades of research, conducted around the world, on the impact of race on society. The first in a series of talks on The Cuban Revolution: 50 Years Later.

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“Williams/H-Diplo Conference on New Scholarship in American Foreign Relations”

April 18, 2009 at 9 am – 5 pm
Griffin Hall, Room 3

9:00-10:30 p.m. Roundtable #1 – World Out of Balance Authors: Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth, Dartmouth College Chair: James McAllister, Williams College Panelists: Stacie Goddard, Wellesley College Jeff Legro, University of Virginia Randall Schweller, The Ohio State University

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Roundtable #2 – Inventing Vietnam: The United States and State Building, 1954-1968 Author: James M. Carter, Drew University Chair: Jessica Chapman, Williams College Panelists: Scott Laderman, University of Minnesota Fredrik Logevall, Cornell University Edward Miller, Dartmouth College Jessica Elkind, San Francisco State University

1:45-3:15 p.m. Roundtable #3 – Occupational Hazards: Success & Failure in Military Occupation Author: David Edelstein, Georgetown University Chair: Paul Macdonald, Williams College Panelists: David Ekbladh, Tufts University Peter Liberman, City University of New York Greg Mitrovich, Columbia University Gideon Rose, Managing Editor, Foreign Affairs

3:30-5:00 p.m. Roundtable #4 – Nexus: Strategic Communications and American Security in World War I Author: Jonathan Reed Winkler, Wright State University Chair: Mark Stoler, Williams College Panelists: John Milton Cooper, University of Wisconsin Ross Kennedy, Illinois State University Alex Roland, Duke University Phyllis Soybel, College of Lake County, IL

“Vietnam and Iraq”

April 16, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 6

Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University and Fredrik Logevall, Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Field of History at Cornell University.

Professor Lynch received his B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. He teaches courses on Middle Eastern politics and international relations. He is the author of State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan’s Identity (1999) and Voices of the New Arab Public (2006). He blogs at http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/

Fredrik Logevall joined the Cornell Department of History in 2004. He previously taught at UC Santa Barbara, where he co-founded the Center for Cold War Studies. A specialist on U.S. foreign relations, Professor Logevall teaches a range of courses covering the history of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy, as well as the international history of the Cold War and the Vietnam Wars. His current research projects include an interpretive history of “America’s Cold War” (co-authored with Campbell Craig and forthcoming from Belknap Press/Harvard UP) and a book-length study of the struggle for Indochina after 1940. In 2006-07 he was Leverhulme Professor of History at the University of Nottingham and Mellon Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge.

“Why Vietnam Matters”

April 14, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 6

Rufus Phillips became a member of the Saigon Military Mission in 1954 and the following year served as the sole adviser to two Vietnamese army pacification operations, earning the CIA’s Intelligence Medal of Merit for his work. He later worked as a CIA civilian case officer in Vietnam and Laos, then joined the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Saigon Mission to lead its counterinsurgency efforts. In 1964 he became a consultant for USAID and the State Department and served as an adviser to Vice President Hubert Humphrey. He is the author of Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned (2008), in which Phillips describes in first-hand detail such figures as John F. Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor, Robert McNamara, Henry Cabot Lodge, Hubert Humphrey, and Ngo Dinh Diem.

“Iraq: The Lost Generation”

April 11, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Paresky Performance Space

In the past five years more than four million Iraqis – 20 per cent of the entire population – have been driven from their homes as a result of the war and sectarian bloodshed. Two million have become exiles, living desperate lives across the border in Syria and Jordan. This edition of Dispatches investigates the biggest and most catastrophic refugee crisis in the Middle East since the Palestinian diaspora of 1948.

Award-winning journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy travels to Syria and Jordan to investigate the plight of Iraqi refugees. These are the very people on whom the new, democratic Iraq was to be built – the professional middle classes – nearly half of whom now live as desperate refugees, driven out by the violence and civil breakdown.

Film will be preceded by a panel on Iraqi refugees and followed by a reception in the Henze Lounge.

“Update from Iraq”

April 10, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 3

Nir Rosen is a journalist who has written extensively on American policy toward Afghanistan and Iraq. He spent more than two years in Iraq reporting on the American occupation, the relationship between Americans and Iraqis, the development of postwar Iraqi religious and political movements, interethnic and sectarian relations, and the Iraqi civil war. His reporting and research also focused on the origins and development of Islamist resistance, insurgency, and terrorist organizations. Mr. Rosen covered the elections in Afghanistan and the differences between the American presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has also reported from Somalia, where he investigated Islamist movements; Jordan, where he investigated the origins and future of the Zarqawi movement; and Pakistan, where he investigated the madrassas and pro-Taliban movements. Mr. Rosen’s book on postwar Iraq, In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq, was published by Free Press in 2006. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The New Republic, Boston Review, Time, Mother Jones, and World Policy Journal.

For integrated programming on Iraq through the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, April 13-20, see http://62center.williams.edu/62center/event.cfm?eid=210

“Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt: Anglo American Leadership in WWII”

March 07, 2009 at
Griffin Hall, Room 3

Students from The Age of Roosevelt (History 358 and Leadership 258) will participate in open seminars. Members of the college community, as well as the public, are welcome to observe. Students who wish to participate actively in the seminars should contact Prof. Mark Stoler at [email protected]. This event is sponsored by the Williams College Program in Leadership Studies, The Churchill Centre, and The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Seminar sessions run as follows:

9:15-10:45 AM: Churchill and Roosevelt Before Pearl Harbor Professor John Maurer, United States Naval War College

11:00-12:30 PM: Roosevelt and Churchill at War Professor Mark Stoler, Williams College

1:30-3:00 PM: Thinking About and Planning for the Postwar World Professor Warren Kimball, Rutgers University

“U.S. Strategy in Iraq: Past, Present, and Future”

October 06, 2008 at
Griffin Hall, Room 3

Stephen Biddle is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Award-winning author of Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle, Biddle is a former Associate Professor and Elihu Root Chair of Military Studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. His areas of expertise include U.S. national security policy, military strategy, the conduct of war, technology in modern warfare, and recent operations in the war on terror.

“The Past and Future of the People’s Republic: Will Capitalism Bring Democracy to China?”

September 29, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 3

Panel discussion with Sherman Cochran, Hu Shih Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University and a leading authority on modern China with major contributions to the scholarship on Chinese economic, business, and social history; Sam Crane, Fred Greene Third Century Professor of Political Science, specializing in the politics of East Asia and international political economy; Michael Hunt, Stanley Kaplan Visiting Professor of American Foreign Policy, specializing in U.S. involvement in China and Vietnam. Sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and International Studies.

“Iran: Continuity & Change”

April 30, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 7

Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His areas of specialization are Iran, the Persian Gulf, and U.S. foreign policy. He is also a contributing editor of the National Interest.

Dr. Takeyh was previously professor of national security studies at the National War College; professor and director of studies at the Near East and South Asia Center, National Defense University; fellow in international security studies at Yale University; fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Takeyh is currently working on a book entitled The Guardians of the Revolution: Iran’s Approach to the World (under contract by Oxford University Press). He is the author of a number of previous books including Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic (Times Books, 2006) and The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The U.S., Britain and Nasser’s Egypt, 1953–1957 (MacMillan Press, 2000). Dr. Takeyh has published widely, including articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, Survival, World Policy Journal, Washington Quarterly, Orbis, Middle East Journal, Political Science Quarterly, and Middle East Policy. His commentary has also been featured in many newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, and International Herald Tribune.

Dr. Takeyh has testified frequently at various congressional committees and has appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Charlie Rose Show, NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, FOX, and C-SPAN.

Dr. Takeyh earned a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University.

“In From the Cold: Richard Betts and the Renaissance of Intelligence Studies”

April 12, 2008 at 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Griffin Hall, Room 3

The September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq have raised a number of questions about U.S. intelligence.
• Why did the intelligence community fail to prevent 9/11?
• How do policymakers use intelligence to make decisions about war and peace?
• Should Americans be willing to sacrifice their civil liberties in the name of national security?

Richard Betts explores these questions and others in his critically-acclaimed recent book, “Enemies of Intelligence.”

Betts is the Arnold Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies in the Department of Political Science, the director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies, and the director of the International Security Policy Program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Betts has taught at Harvard University and was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution until 1990. A former staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the National Security Council, and the Walter Mondale presidential campaign, Betts has been a consultant to the National Intelligence Council and Central Intelligence Agency.

On Saturday, April 12, the Leadership Studies Program at Williams College will bring together leading intelligence scholars to discuss Betts’s work and offer insights about the future of U.S. intelligence. The conference will feature a range of academic experts along with representatives from the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The public is invited and the event is free.

Saturday, April 12 – Griffin Hall, room 3

9:00-10:30 – Intelligence and Foreign Policy Chair: Joshua Rovner, Williams College; James Wirtz, Naval Postgraduate School; Paul Pillar, Georgetown University; Thomas Mahnken, Department of Defense; Glenn Hastedt, James Madison University

10:45-12:15 – Surprise Attack and Intelligence Reform Chair: Richard Gid Powers, College of Staten Island; Richard Russell, National Defense University; Arthur Hulnick, Boston University; Stephen Marrin, Mercyhurst College; Erik Dahl, Harvard University

2:15-3:45 –Secrecy and Democracy Chair: Stephanie Kaplan, MIT; James Bruce, RAND; David Kaiser, Naval War College; Ted Gup, Case Western Reserve University

The conference is sponsored by both the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the Leadership Studies Program at Williams.

“World War II Reconsidered”

March 08, 2008 at 9 am – 5 pm
Griffin Hall, Room 3

Saturday, March 8 – Griffin Hall, Room 3 9-10:30 AM: Roundtable #1–“Japanese Strategy in the Pacific” Chair: Waldo Heinrichs, Temple University Panelists: James Wood, Williams College; Richard Frank, Independent Scholar; Edward Drea, U.S. Army Center for Military History, retired; Mark Parillo, Kansas State University

10:45-12:15 PM: Roundtable # 2—”Allied Airpower Strategies” Chair: Malcolm Muir, Virginia Military Institute Panelists: Conrad Crane, US Army Military History Institute; Tami Davis Biddle, Army War College; Reina Pennington, Norwich University1:45-3:15 PM: Roundtable #3—”Allied Strategic and Diplomatic Relations” Chair: Arnold Offner, Lafayette College Panelists: Frank Costigliola, University of Connecticut; Randall Woods, University of Arkansas; Theodore Wilson, University of Kansas; J. Garry Clifford, University of Connecticut

3:30-5:00 PM: Roundtable #4—”What Remains to be Done?” Chair: Mark Stoler, Williams College Panelists: Gerhard Weinberg, University of North Carolina; Allan Millett, University of New Orleans; Raymond Callahan, University of Delaware

Additional Conference Participants: Andrew Buchanan, University of Vermont; Marc Gallicchio, Villanova University; Gian Gentile, US Military Academy; Meredith Hindley, American University; Timothy Jackson, Naval War College; Paul Miles, Princeton University; Galen Perras, University of Ottowa; Kurt Piehler, University of Tennessee; Michael Pavelec, Naval War College; Steven Ross, Naval War College; Nick Sarantakes, Naval War College; Douglas Smith, Naval War College; Roger Spiller, US Military Academy; Robert VanMeter, Skidmore College; Steven Waddell, US Military Academy; David Woolner, Marist College and FDR Library

This conference is sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the Program in Leadership Studies.

“The Day of Battle: History, Memory, and Writing About War”

March 07, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall

Rick Atkinson the best-selling author of The Long Gray Line, a narrative account about West Point’s class of 1966; Crusade, a narrative history of the Persian Gulf War; and An Army at Dawn, the first volume in the Liberation Trilogy, a narrative history of the American Army in North Africa, Italy, and Western Europe during the Second World War. His book about the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, In the Company of Soldiers, was published in March 2004. The second volume of the Liberation Trilogy, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, was published in Oct. 2007. The New York Times called it “a triumph of narrative history, elegantly written…and rooted in the sight and sounds of battle.”

Atkinson’s awards include the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting; the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service, awarded to The Post for a series of investigative articles directed and edited by Atkinson on shootings by the District of Columbia police department; the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for history; and the 1989 George Polk Award for national reporting. Atkinson is on extended book leave from The Washington Post, where his most recent assignments were covering the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and writing about roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007.

“Understanding the Middle East: The United States and the Role of Tribalism”

November 15, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Griffin Hall, Room 7

Dr Yoav Alon is a senior lecturer in modern history of the Middle East at Tel Aviv University. He wrote his doctoral thesis in Oxford University on the creation of the modern Jordanian state under the British mandate and the integration of the tribal population into the modern structures of the new state. He teaches, researches, lectures and publishes on topics such as Jordanian history and politics, the British Empire in the Middle East, the Palestine mandate and tribal societies in the modern Middle East. His book The Making of Jordan: Tribes, Colonialism and the Modern State has been published in London by IB Tauris earlier this year.

“The Battle for Baghdad”

October 02, 2007 at
‘CTD MainStage

John Burns is currently London Bureau Chief for the New York Times. He is the longest-serving foreign correspondent in The New York Times’ history, having worked for more than 30 years on assignment in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Among his many awards, Burns has won two Pulitzer prizes: in 1993 for his coverage of the siege and destruction of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, and again in 1997 for his coverage of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.This event is free but tickets are required. Contact the ’62 Center box office to reserve tickets: 413-597-2425. Box office hours are Tues.-Fri. 1-5 p.m. Sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the Leadership Studies Program.

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Mark Stoler, Stanley Kaplan Visiting Professor of American Foreign Policy 2007-2008

August 02, 2007

Mark A. Stoler is Professor of History at the University of Vermont. He earned his B.A. at the City College of New York and his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of The Politics of the Second Front: American Military Planning and Diplomacy in Coalition Warfare, 1941-1943 (1977), George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century (1989) and Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II (2000), which won the 2002 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History. He is co-author of Explorations in American History: A Skills Approach (1987), Major Problems in the History of World War II (2002), and Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Foreign Policies, 1933-1945 (2005). His most recent monograph is Allies in War: Britain and America against the Axis Powers, 1940-1945.

Since 1970, Stoler has taught at the University of Vermont, where he has been honored for his scholarship with the University Scholar Award (1993), as well as his teaching, with the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award (1984), the Dean’s Lecture Award (1992), and the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award (2006). In addition, he held the Harold K. Johnson Visiting Chair at the U.S. Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA in 2004-5. He has also served as a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval War College, and at the University of Haifa in Israel under the Fulbright Program. Stoler has served on the SHAFR Council (2000-2002), the nominating committee (1991-1994), the annual conference planning committee (1989-1990), the Bernath Book Prize committee (1988-1991), and the membership committee (1974-1984). Other service includes a term on the Board of Editors for Diplomatic History (1986-1989) as well as the Army’s Historical Advisory Committee (1996-2000). Stoler currently serves on the Board of Directors for the World War II Studies Association and the Board of Trustees of the Society for Military History.

You can e-mail him at: [email protected]

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“The New Vietnam War Revisionism: Implications and Lessons”

Saturday, March 3, 2007 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Griffin 3, Williams College

9:00-10:45 am Assessing Triumph Forsaken Chair: William Stueck – University of Georgia KC Johnson – Brooklyn College/CUNY Grad Center David Kaiser – Williams/ Naval War College Mark Lawrence – Yale/UT Austin Keith Taylor – Cornell University

11:00 am – 12:45 pm Ngo Dinh Diem and South Vietnam Reconsidered?? Chair: Seth Jacobs – Boston College Philip Catton – Stephen F. Austin University Jessica Chapman – UC Santa Barbara Matthew Masur – St. Anselm College Edward Miller – Dartmouth College

2:00 – 2:30 pm Is Iraq Another Vietnam A lecture by Robert Brigham – Vassar College

2:30 – 4:00 pm Roundtable Discussion on Vietnam and Iraq?? Chair: Ronald Frankum – Millersville University J. Gary Clifford – Univ. of Connecticut Richard Immerman – Temple University Doug MacDonald – Colgate University Stephen Morris – Johns Hopkins University

Sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the History Department.

Highlights

Ken Osgood, Stanley Kaplan Visiting Professor of American Foreign Policy

Interrogating Terrorists

The Court, the Constitution, and the Confirmation Wars

First They Killed my Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

James McAllister: Named to State Department Advisory Committee