Calendar of Upcoming Events

Thursday, January 8, 2009

BookTalk

Pacific Currents: The Responses of US Allies and Security Partners in East Asia to China’s Rise

Evan Medeiros RAND Corporation

China’s economic, military, and diplomatic power has been on the rise, and many worry that it is nudging aside U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region. A new RAND Corporation study examines six U.S. allies and partners – Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand— and their responses to China’s rise, with an analysis of implications for U.S. interests in the region. Evan Medeiros, its lead author, is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. His publications have appeared in The China Quarterly, Current History, Issues and Studies, The Nonproliferation Review, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe, Defense News, Asia Times, and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

FPRI Study Group on America and the West

POWs in American Film

Paul J. Springer Assistant Professor of History, U.S. Military Academy

Paul Springer, an Assistant Professor of History at the U.S. Military Academy, is currently at work on a book on the history of U.S. Prisoner of War policy.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

BookTalk

Alliance Curse: How America Lost the Third World

Hilton L. Root George Mason University

In his new book Alliance Curse (Brookings, 2008), Hilton Root draws on the lessons of the Cold War and the East Asian development success to develop a critique of American foreign policy and foreign aid policy, with a view to crafting a new strategy for success in the developing world. Root is a professor at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and a senior fellow with the Mercatus Center. He has served as adviser to the U.S. Treasury and the Asian Development Bank and has taught at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania. Root’s books include Capital and Collusion: the Political Logic of Global Economic Development (Princeton, 2006), Governing for Prosperity, edited with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (Yale, 2000), and The Key to the Asian Miracle, with J.E. Campos (Brookings, 1996).

Monday, February 9, 2009

Public lecture in celebration of Lincoln’s Bicentennial

Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief

Mackubin T. Owens Senior Fellow, FPRI
Professor of Strategy and Force Planning, Naval War College

Mackubin T. Owens is Professor of Strategy and Force Planning at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a Colonel in 1994. Dr. Owens is a contributing editor to National Review Online. His articles on national security issues have appeared in publications including International Security, Orbis, Armed Forces Journal, Joint Force Quarterly, The Public Interest, The Weekly Standard, Defence Analysis, US Naval Institute Proceedings, Marine Corps Gazette, Comparative Strategy, National Review, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Jerusalem Post, St. Louis Lawyer, the Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is co-editor of the textbook, Strategy and Force Planning, now in its fourth edition.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Program on National Security Conference

Defense Showstoppers: National Security Challenges for the Obama Administration

A Conference Sponsored by Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Reserve Officers Association

The Obama Administration will face numerous challenges to U.S. national security. Among these, several stand out for their potential as “showstoppers,” where, if the challenge is not met, the U.S. may suffer a strategic loss of capability:

• What is the proper balance between counterinsurgency and traditional military formations in our planning?
• With respect to the procurement process, the defense industrial base, and the budget, are we short-changing the future?
• Can the U.S. meet its responsibilities with the current active-reserve structure? And if not, how?
• Seven years into the Long War, how can we improve coordination among Defense, State, the CIA, and others?

In this conference, our objective is to set forth clearly the actions needed to sustain America’s defense capability.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Public lecture

The US and Europe in 2009

Jeremy Black Professor of History, University of Exeter
Senior Fellow, FPRI

Jeremy Black is professor of history at Exeter University. His numerous books include Rethinking Military History (Routledge, 2004), America as a Military Power 1775-1882 (Praeger, 2002), The World in the Twentieth Century (Longman, 2002), Visions of the World: A History of Maps (Mitchell Beazley, 2003), War: An Illustrated World History (Sutton, 2003).

Monday, March 2, 2009

FPRI Study Group on America and the West

Hostages and U.S. Foreign Policy

Dominic Tierney Visiting Professor, Harvard University

Dominic Tierney is assistant professor of political science at Swarthmore College; in 2009, he is Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, JFK School of Government, Harvard University. He is the author of Failing to Win: Perceptions of Victory and Defeat in International Politics (Harvard, 2006), with Dominic Johnson, which won the International Studies Association award for the best book on international affairs published in 2006. He is also the author of FDR and the Spanish Civil War (Duke, 2007) and articles in the Journal of Cold War Studies, Survival, Review of International Studies, Security Studies, Journal of Contemporary History, and the New York Times.

Monday, March 16, 2009

BookTalk

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Niall Ferguson Professor of History, Harvard University

Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and the William Ziegler Professor at the Harvard Business School. He is author of several critically acclaimed books, including Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation, 1897-1927 (Cambridge University Press, 1995); The Pity of War: Explaining World War One (Basic Books, 1998); The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild (Penguin, 1998); The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000 (Basic, 2001); Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (Basic, 2003); Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire (Basic, 2004); and War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West (Basic, 2006). A contributing editor of the Financial Times, Ferguson was named in 2004 by Time Magazine of one of the world's hundred most influential people.

Sat.–Sun., March 28–29, 2009

History Institute for Teachers

Teaching the Nuclear Age

Hosted by the Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada

Sponsored by The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Wachman Center, the Atomic Testing Museum, and the American Academy of Diplomacy

Over 60 years ago, the nuclear age began with weapons that could destroy a city in a single strike. Although nuclear weapons have not been used since their first and only use in 1945, the prospect that nuclear weapons will find their way into the hands of terrorists or rogue regimes is arguably the greatest threat to the world today. This weekend-long program will enable teachers to understand— and teach— the nuclear age with historical perspective.

Sat.–Sun., May 2–3, 2009

History Institute for Teachers

What Students Need To Know About America’s Wars, Part II: 1920–Present

Sponsored by The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Wachman Center and the Cantigny First Division Foundation

FPRI’s Wachman Center, in association with the Cantigny First Division Foundation, is proud to be presenting over 2008-09 a two-part series on What Students Need To Know about America’s Wars. The first part, in July 2008, covered the colonial wars through World War I; the second part, scheduled for May 2–3, 2009, will cover World War II through the present.