May 11th, 2012

Eikenberry looks to future of American military, calls for more accountability

The former military commander and ambassador says Congress and the media must hold the military more accountable. He also cited the economy as the No. 1 threat to U.S. security during while delivering his second Payne Lecture. Read more »

March 7th, 2011

William J. Perry: Why we need a new deterrence strategy

Nations should move toward a strategy that does "not rely primarily on nuclear weapons or nuclear threats to maintain international peace and security," write CISAC's William J. Perry, George P. Shultz, Henry A. Kissinger, and Sam Nunn in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Read more »

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 »

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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May 25th, 2010

Scott Sagan debates US Nuclear Declaratory Policy

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted a live debate May 25 between CISAC Co-Director Scott Sagan and Keith Payne, CEO and president of the National Institute for Public Policy. CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C. Read more »

May 21st, 2010

The wise men and the bomb

David Hoffman, author of "The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy, reviews the film "Nuclear Tipping Point" for Foreign Policy. Read more »

March 8th, 2010

CISAC goes to the 2010 Oscars

March 7 was a big night for "friends of CISAC" at this year's Academy Awards. The work of two people with CISAC ties--Daniel Ellsberg and Kimberly Theidon--revealed how academia can connect with the Silver Screen in compelling and meaningful ways. Read more »