Harvey Sicherman, President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, argues that the U.S. needs to adopt longer-term strategies to address the War on Terror and the globalization of politics and the economy.
Video and audio options are available.
Author Robert Kaplan discusses his experiences while writing his book Imperial Grunts, focusing on his impressions on the identity of soldiers. He looks particularly at the representation of the working class in the field and the ways in which warfare and the military are changing today.
Video and audio options are available.
Deborah Avant, Director of the Institute for Global International Studies, discusses the move towards employing private security companies in global conflicts, examining the benefits and costs and risks this practice introduces.
Audio and video options are available.
Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution discusses possible global political and military scenarios that the U.S. may need to prepare for in the future, following the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Video and audio options are available.
Author Alan Dershowitz discusses the wisdom of prevention and preemptive foreign policy and military decisions and the differences between the two types of actions.
Audio and video options are available. The "Listen to streaming MP3 audio" link is not currently working.
Foreign Policy Research Institute President Harvey Sicherman delivers an impromptu briefing on the Middle East crisis. A former aide to three U.S. secretaries of state, Sicherman examines the Israel-Lebanon-Gaza war as Round Three in the struggle between the U.S. and Iran over the future direction of the Middle East, or, to put it another way, between the forces for democracy and the forces for theocracy.
According to the FPRI sites, "In the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush announced that henceforth those states that harbored or fostered terrorism would be held as accountable as the terrorists. The translation of the war on terrorism from groups to state meant either to change a government's behavior, or, failing that, to change the government itself. Military force might overthrow a regime such as the Taliban or Saddam's Iraq but what would be put in its place? And how could the United States and its allies assure the success of the new political order? In 2005, the Foreign Policy Research Institute initiated a pair of studies that would analyze the lessons learned thus far from what the military calls Phase IV, or stabilization and reconstruction following the end of major conflict. Andrew Garfield led a British and American research team that interviewed British officers and officials for their perspectives on the efforts of their U.S. Coalition partner in Iraq. Frank G. Hoffman surveyed U.S. Marine efforts in Iraq. In this presentation, Andrew Garfield and Frank G. Hoffman present the newly completed studies, designed to aid U.S. military and civilian planners to refine a set of best practices, including a set of principles that can become a consensus, as the U.S. confronts a long and difficult struggle."
Video and audio options are available.
Don Oberdorfer of Jon Hopkins University outlines the history of U.S. foreign relations with Korea, from World War II and its division into North and South Korea, through the Korean War, up to the present day and the President George W. Bush's inclusion of North Korea in his "Axis of Evil." Oberdorfer looks particularly at North Korean nuclear production and U.S. and global reactions (and possible future reactions) to this development.
Audio and video options are available.
Stephen Gale of the Foreign Policy Research Institute Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Homeland Security discusses what he believes students need to know to be able to understand and react to the homeland security issues the U.S. faces today and will face in the future. He explores the complexity of terrorism and understanding terrorism; and suggests approaching homeland security issues in war game terms, setting up scenarios and considering their ramifications.
Video and audio options are available.
Marc Sageman, forensic psychiatrist, discusses the importance of gathering actual solid evidence on terrorists, as human beings, and the difficulties present in collecting this information. He describes the information he gathered on a group of modern Salafi terrorists and the environment they came from.
Video and audio options are available.