Tag Archives: United States

The Right Way to Lose a War: America in the Age of Unwinnable Conflicts

The Right Way to Lose a War: America in the Age of Unwinnable Conflicts

Prof. Dominic Tierney

Thursday, December 5, 2013

4:30-5:30 p.m.

Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall

Swarthmore College

Directions

Army's Top Marksmen Mentor Afghan National Army Rifle Range Instructors

isafmedia via Flickr under Creative Commons license 2.0

Since 1945, most major American wars have ended in regret. The era of U.S. power has also been a time of military frustration, stalemate, and loss, in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. What should we do when a conflict becomes an unwinnable war? Can we cut our losses and leave without seeing everything we fought for crumble into ashes?

The stakes are incredibly high. How wars end, and the U.S. exit strategy from conflict, may decide the fate of thousands of American soldiers, impact America’s reputation and global image, cast a long shadow over the home front, and shape the future of the allied country.

tierney

Based on interviews with dozens of leading generals, ambassadors, and secretaries of state, this book project provides a guide to handling military failure and escaping from a quagmire. The talk will explain how the United States can avert military disaster, negotiate with opponents, withdraw its troops, train local forces, bind the wounds of veterans, reconcile with enemies, and remember military loss in ways that foster national learning and renewal.

Aviva and Noam Chomksy to speak on economic development and the environment

The Peace and Conflict Studies program at Swarthmore College is pleased to be a co-sponsor of this upcoming event. Please mark your calendars.

Whose Planet? Whose Economic Development?

Jobs vs. Environment in the United States and Latin America

November 12, 2013

Aviva Chomsky lecture: 4:30 p.m.

Noam Chomsky lecture: 7:00 p.m.

Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema

Swarthmore College

Directions

Aviva Chomsky is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean studies at Salem State University in Massachusetts. Her most recent books include A History of the Cuban Revolution, Linked Labor Histories: New England, Colombia, and the Making of a Global Working Class, and They Take Our Jobs! And Twenty Other Myths about Immigration. She has been active in Latin America solidarity and immigrants’ rights movements for several decades.

Noam Chomsky joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955, where he is institute professor and professor of linguistics emeritus. Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs, and United States foreign policy. Among his recent books are New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind; On Nature and Language; The Essential Chomsky; Hopes and Prospects; Gaza in Crisis; How the World Works; 9-11: Was There an Alternative?; Making the Future: Occupations, Interventions, Empire, and Resistance; The Science of Language; Peace with Justice: Noam Chomsky in Australia; and Power Systems.

Contact:

Phone: (610) 328-8000

Email: calendar@swarthmore.edu

First Monday Series: William Kashatus speaks August 5 on Abraham Lincoln, the Quakers, and the Civil War

Monday, August 5, 2013, 7:30-9:00 pm in the Barn at Pendle Hill. All are welcome to a free public lecture by William Kashatus,”A Trial of Principle and Faith: Abraham Lincoln, the Quakers, and the Civil War.” This program is part of Pendle Hill’s First Monday Series of free lectures, films, and events held the first Monday of every month, year round.

Sharing insights from his forthcoming book, historian William Kashatus explores Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with the Religious Society of Friends during his presidency. Lincoln and Quakers faced a similar dilemma during the Civil War – how to achieve the desired goal of emancipation without extending the bloodshed and hardships of war. Quakers pressed the president for emancipation, urged amnesty for conscientous objectors, and provided spiritual support and counsel to Lincoln throughout the war.

William C. Kashatus is an historian, educator, and author. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Earlham College, he earned an MA in history at Brown University and a PhD in history education at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently teaches history at Luzerne County Community College in northeastern Pennsylvania. He has also taught at Penn’s Graduate School of Education and in the History Department of West Chester University.

A prolific writer, Kashatus is the author of more than a dozen books. He is a regular contributor to the History News Service, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Pennsylvania Heritage. Kashatus has also written and published more than 200 essays in such periodicals as:American History Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Independent Schools Magazine,New York Times, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Philadelphia Daily News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Quaker History.

For more information, contact John Meyer or call 610-566-4507 ext. 129.

Travel directions to Pendle Hill.