The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) along with the Colgate University’s Center for Freedom and Western Civilization co-sponsored the Seventh Annual Carl B. Menges Colloquium April 3-5, 2014, at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, NY.  The colloquium was devoted to the theme “War and the West:  Strategic Challenges Past, Present, and Future.” Dr. Michael D. Swaine, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and one of the most prominent American analysts in Chinese security studies was the keynote speaker at the event which was the most well attended colloquium to date.

Photos from the Sixth Annual Carl B. Menges Colloquium.   Photos Copyright 2014 Tom Loughlin Jr, Utica, N.Y.

To view the text of all six session readings, please click here.

List of Participants

Keynote: 

Michael D. Swaine, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Conferees:

In addition to keynote speaker Dr. Michael D. Swaine, the colloquium features a number of distinguished panelists and participants including:

Alfred Kelly, Edgar B. Graves Professor of History, Hamilton College

David Frisk, Theodore J. Eismeier Fellow, Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

Lauren Hall, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rochester Institute of Technology

Paul Gottfried Professor of Humanities and Raffensperger Chair Emeritus, Elizabethtown College

Mackubin Owens, Professor, National Security Affairs, U. S. Naval War College

Edward Barrett, Director of Strategy and Research Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, U.S. Naval Academy

Matthew Zeller, Adjunct Fellow, American Security Project

Eric Hannis, Senior Fellow in Defense Studies, American Foreign Policy Council

Chris Hill (discussion leader), Resident Fellow, Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

Alex Crowther, Adjunct Research Professor, Strategic Studies Institute

Doug Macdonald, Associate Professor of Political Science, Colgate University

John Kelsay, Distinguished Research Professor, Florida State University

Miri Eisin, Security Studies, Haifa University

Joseph Capizzi, Associate Professor of Moral Theology, Catholic University

Reading List for Sessions 1-6:  

Session 1:  War Before Western Civilization

War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Lawrence H. Keeley, Oxford University Press, New York, 1996.

“What Our Primate Relatives Say About War.” Dominic Johnson, Bradley Thayer, The National Interest, January 29, 2013

“The Elements of Augustine’s Just War Theory.” John Langan, The Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol 12, No.1 (Spring 1984).

Violence and Social Orders. Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, Barry R. Weingast, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Session 2:  The West and the Near East – Past and Present

Just War and Jihad : Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions. John Kelsay and James Turner Johnson, eds. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

“Why Is There so Much Conflict in the Middle East?” Mirjam E. Sørli, Nils Petter Gleditsch and Håvard Strand, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Feb., 2005).

“Primitivization of War and Prospects for Peace.” Mehar Omar Khan, Small Wars Journal, September 14, 2012.

“Tehran’s Take: Understanding Iran’s U.S. Policy.” Mohsen M. Milani, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 88, No. 4 (July/August 2009).

“Just War and Extraterritoriality: The Popular Geopolitics of the United States’ War on Iraq as Reflected in Newspapers of the Arab World.” Ghazi-Walid Falah, Colin Flint and Virginie Mamadouh, Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Vol. 96, No. 1 (Mar., 2006)

Session 3:  The West and the Far East – Past and Present

“Just War: Chinese and Western Perspectives.” Edmund Ryden, S.J.,

“China’s Assertive Behavior—Part One: On “Core Interests.” Michael Swaine

China Leadership Monitor » 2011 no. 34 » foreign policy.

“Regime Insecurity and International Cooperation: Explaining China’s Compromises in Territorial Disputes.” M. Taylor Fravel, International Security, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Fall, 2005).

“A Salutation To Arms: Asia’s Military Buildup, Its Reasons, and Its Implications.” Felix Chang, Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Notes, September 2013.

“What We’ve Learned from China’s Air Defense Zone (so Far)” Robert Haddick, Commentary and Analysis, warontherocks.com, December 9, 2013.

 Session 4:  The West, Women and War

“Integrating Women into the Infantry,” Adam Nojack, Military Review, November-December 2002.

“Get Over It! We Are Not All Created Equal.” Katie Petronio, Marine Corps Gazette, July 2012.

“Let Women Fight.” Megan MacKenzie, Foreign Affairs, November-December 2012.

“Why Can’t Anything Be Done? Measuring Physical Readiness of Women for Military Occupations.” William Granger. Paper Presented at the 2011 International Biennial Conference of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.

 Session 5:  Technology, Ethics and War

“Enhanced Warfighters: Risk, Ethics and Policy.” Patrick Lin, Maxwell Mehlman, Kieth Abney. Report prepared for The Greenwall Foundation, January 2013.

“Compromised by Design? Securing the Defense Electronics Supply Chain.” John Villasensor. Brookings Center for Technology Innovation, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, November 2013.

“Nuclear Blindness: AN Overview of the Biological Weapons Programs of the Former Soviet Union and Iraq.” Christopher Davis, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 5, No. 4, July-August 1999.

“War and Technology.” Alex Roland, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Footnotes, Vol. 14, No. 2. February 2009.

“Stuxnet’s Secret Twin.” Ralph Langer, Foreign Policy, November 21, 2013.

Session 6:  War After Western Civilization

“The Evolution of Law of War.” Sheng Hongsheng, Chinese Journal of International Politics, Vol. 1, 2006.

“The Wars of the 21st6 Century.” Herfried Munkler, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 85, No. 849. March, 2003.

“Conflict in the 21st Century: The Rise of Hybrid Wars.” Frank Hoffman, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, VA, December 2007.