April 4th, 2011

The View From the Cockpit: A Radio Interview with Jason Armagost

Lieutenant Colonel Jason Armagost, CISAC Military Fellow, discusses his experiences, his role in the war in Iraq, and how literature helps him make sense of it all with The 7th Avenue Project on NPR affiliate KUSP-FM. (Listen online below)

• » The View From the Cockpit: Lieutenant Colonel Jason Armagost (listen online)

February 24th, 2011

Drell Lecture: The Moral Wounds of War

Nancy Sherman, author of the acclaimed book The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers, discussed the moral weight of warfare at CISAC's annual Drell Lecture on February 22. Audio & Video transcripts available
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January 27th, 2011

Ethics and War: How Writers Think About Conflict

In reflections on war there are feelings of incomprehension and anger. There is also valor and pride. But most of all, there is silence. Author Tim O’Brien has devoted his career to breaking the speech barrier. In 1979, he received critical acclaim with his first book, Going after Cacciato, which confronted the atrocities of the Vietnam War. In 2005, O’Brien’s eighth novel, The Things They Carried was named by the New York Times as one of the twenty best books of the last quarter-century. On Jan. 24, he was invited by the Stanford Humanities Center to discuss the relationship between writing and war at the annual Raymond Fred West Memorial Lecture. With frank honesty, he conversed with fellow veteran, the author Tobias Wolff, on his experiences in Vietnam. The event was the latest in the year-long Ethics and War series, cosponsored by the Center for International Security and Cooperation. Read more »

January 26th, 2011

Michael Sulmeyer: The Bob Gates management playbook

"Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates’ Jan. 6 announcement of major budget and program changes at the Pentagon was a watershed," writes Michael Sulmeyer, a predoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. "It canceled several multi-billion dollar weapons programs, redirected $100 billion from old programs to new ones, and laid the groundwork for reducing the active-duty size of America’s ground forces after a draw-down in Afghanistan. But in light of the rumors that Gates will step down sometime this year, his remarks soon after the announcement also helped to consolidate one particular aspect of his reformist legacy: managing our nation’s vast military weapons budget." Read more »

December 7th, 2010

The ethics of the draft

Who should fight? It is no idle question in an era in which thousands of U.S. troops are fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq to protect Americans back home. In fact, the answer has profound consequences for the way policymakers make decisions about how these wars are waged. On Dec. 2, scholars from Stanford, the University of Chicago, and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University examined this issue as part of the Ethics and War series, co-sponsored by the Center for International Security and Cooperation. Their conclusion: there is a wide and troubling divide between the 2.4 million Americans who volunteer to serve in the military and the many millions more who choose not to. Audio & Video transcripts available flyer available
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June 17th, 2010

Interactive website tracing 'terrorist family trees' to be launched

By the end of the year, scholars of security studies will be able to use a new website to learn how terrorist and militant organizations evolve over time and how they collaborate with—and compete against—one another. Read more »

June 14th, 2010

Tenth class of honors students exhorted to be doers as well as scholars

Thirteen members of the 2010 CISAC Honors Class in International Security Studies graduated on a balmy summer day June 11, joining 101 alumni of the popular program that marks its 10th anniversary this year. Read more »