Briefing on the Mideast Crisis

Description

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.

Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground

Description

Robert D. Kaplan, a Foreign Policy Research Institute Senior Fellow, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the U.S. Naval Academy, discusses his latest book Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground. He examines the actions of the American military worldwide, arguing that the U.S.'s preoccupation with the Middle East may lead to the rise of military power, meanwhile, in Asia.

Audio and video options are available.

Islam, Democracy, and the West

Description

Fawaz Gerges of Sarah Lawrence College and Barry Rubin of the Global Research in International Affairs Center explore the political turmoil currently taking place in the Middle East, including the rise to prominence of Islamists in politics. Gerges argues that the Islamist powers rise to fill a vacuum of legitimate political authority. Rubin emphasizes the importance of Arab nationalism in the region's internal and global politics and the staying power of some of the region's regimes.

Video and audio options are available.

The American Way of War, Part Two

Description

Professor Victor Davis Hanson discusses the United States' military heritage, focusing on its dual use of large armies and small overseas intervention corps and on the U.S. definition of war. He relates this discussion to the current debates over the war in Iraq. This lecture continues from the lecture "The American Way of War, Part One."