The Merrill Center conducts frequent informal seminars and discussions with a view to bringing together academic and policy perspectives on national security issues of pressing interest. Upcoming Events Unrestricted Warfare Symposium, co-hosted with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, March 10, 2008. This year's theme is "Integrating Strategy, Analysis, and Technology in Support of the U.S. War on Terrorism Campaign."
Recent Events The Merrill Center co-hosted its second in a series of Unrestricted Warfare Symposia with the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory on March 20-21, 2007. "Combating the Unrestricted Warfare Threat: Integrating Strategy, Analysis, and Technology." The 2007 Teachers' Workshop was held at the Basin Harbor Club, Vermont, on June 4-8, 2007. Topics included teaching an introductory course in strategic studies; syllabus construction; case teaching; use of film in the classroom; gaming and simulations; and staff rides.
Event Descriptions "U.S. Military Operations in Iraq: Planning, Combat, and Occupation"
The Merrill Center recently co-hosted a conference with the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College on “U.S. Military Operations in Iraq: Planning, Combat, and Occupation." The daylong symposium took place in the Kenney Auditorium at SAIS on Wednesday, November 2, 2005. An agenda can be downloaded here, and listen to audio clippings from some of the panel sessions here. Summary of Session I, Defeating the Iraqi Regime
Summary of Session II, Reconstructing Iraq
Summary of Session III, Countering the Insurgency
Summary of Session IV, Lessons, Controversies, and Questions Unrestricted Warfare Symposia The first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules; nothing is forbidden. The United States is encountering a national security threat different from the conventional warfare for which we have become preeminent in the world. To help policymakers understand this threat, the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) have co-hosted Symposia on Unrestricted Warfare. The first symposium was held March 14-15, 2006 and entitled " The 2006 Teachers' Workshop The Center held a teachers' workshop on June 19-23, 2006, at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. This workshop brought together approximately half a dozen senior and two dozen junior faculty for a four-day pedagogical colloquium. The workshop was designed to help prepare faculty new to the national security or strategic studies field. Topics included teaching an introductory course in strategic studies; syllabus construction; case teaching; use of film in the classroom; gaming and simulations; and staff rides. Presenters included: Eliot Cohen and Thomas Keaney (SAIS); Richard Herrmann (Ohio State University); Tom Griffith, SAAS); and Stephen Rosen (Harvard University). Information on the 2007 Teachers' Workshop will be posted shortly. The Alvin H. Bernstein Annual Lecture Alvin Bernstein, a distinguished ancient historian and some-time teacher at SAIS who served in positions of high responsibility in the Department of Defense, was an exceptional educator in the civilian academic world (Yale and Cornell) and in the United States government (the US Naval War College, National Defense University, and the George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies). In keeping with his example and his interests, this lecture has as its organizing theme the intersection of history and national security policy. The Second Annual Alvin H. Bernstein Lecture was given by Josiah Bunting, III, on Tuesday, November 29, 2005. The lecture title was "Marshall, Stimson, Roosevelt: Strategic Decisions, 1940-1945.” You may download Mr. Bunting's paper here. Mr. Bunting is currently president of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and formerly superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute. His notable and distinguished career includes education honors at Virginia Military Institute, a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, exemplary military service in Vietnam, teaching positions at West Point and Naval War College, the headmastership at The Lawrenceville School, and presidencies at Hampden-Sydney and Briarcliff Colleges. Mr. Bunting's publications include Ulysses S. Grant, The Lionheads, An Education for Our Time and All Loves Excelling. He also has a forthcoming biography on the life of George C. Marshall, to be published by Knopf in 2006. Third Annual Alvin H. Bernstein Lecture was delivered by Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus on November 16, 2006. Petraeus, then commanding general of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, spoke on “Soldiering and the Schoolhouse.” At the time based at Fort Leavenworth, Petraeus reflected on his prior experiences in Iraq to discuss the importance of graduate school opportunities and education for Army officers. The Fourth Annual Alvin H. Bernstein Lecture featured Dr. Richard H. Kohn, Professor of History and Peace, War, and Defense University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, speaking on "The Challenge of Military Professionalism in the 21st Century," on November 6, 2007. You may download Dr. Kohn's paper here. Workshop on Irregular Warfare, June 6-10, 2005 The Merrill Center convened a conference at the Basin Harbor Club, Vermont, between June 6-10, 2005, to discuss “Irregular Warfare.” That term was meant to connote the wide array of military contingencies faced by the United States and other countries as part of the Global War on Terror and variously known as counterinsurgency operations, small wars, civil or internal wars, or other like terms. The conference participants came from a number of countries and backgrounds, including those from academia, decision-makers and analysts in the policy world, and practitioners with experience in a wide variety of these operations. The agenda addressed six general topics. For each topic, three participants initiated the discussion with short introductory remarks (five minutes or less), allowing the balance of the time for discussion among all the participants. All the discussions were off the record as being attributed to a specific individual, but the summaries of each session, listed below, present the essentials of these discussions. Colloquium on Terrorism Trials The School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, and the RAND Corporation's Center for Global Risk and Security hosted a one-day Colloquium on Terrorism Trials, seen from the perspectives of both the executive and judicial branches, and involving comparisons with the United Kingdom and Australia. The event was held in the Kenney Auditorium on January 10, 2008. You may download a summary of its proceedings here. The Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
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