Author: Anna Ronell

Zoltan Feher

On October 23, the Center for Strategic Studies hosted two high-level visitors from Israel, former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Dan Meridor, for a conversation with the Center’s team of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and PhD fellows.

by Zoltan Feher

The 2nd Research & Policy Seminar of the Fletcher Center for Strategic Studies featured our first guest speaker, Peter Dombrowski, Professor of Strategy in the Strategic and Operational Research Department at the Naval War College. Dombrowski presented his latest working paper, “Transoceanic Control: Rethinking American Strategy,” which aims to provide a radically new way of thinking about maritime and naval strategy and, by extension, U.S. grand strategy.

Polina Beliakova

The August events in Charlottesville put the current U.S. government to the test of matching words to images. A deadly car-ramming perpetrated by a young white supremacist against the opponents of a torch-bearing rally, involving Nazi symbols and the chanting of anti-Semitic and racist slogans, killed one and wounded 35 people. President Donald J. Trump’s ambiguous rhetoric in response to these events made the recurring question of the definition of terrorism relevant again: Why do high government officials label some violent events acts of domestic terrorism while labeling other attacks that could have easily passed a duck-test (“does it look like a duck”) differently?

Caleb Weaver

What can security practitioners learn from Pope Francis?

Despite the global reach of his position, the Pope is generally not the first source consulted by foreign policy decision-makers. Pope Francis’ written works, however, offer vital lessons for those working to ensure human security and grapple with the causes and effects of conflict across the world.

The Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) held its Open House and its inaugural Research & Policy Seminar on September 18, 2017. More than 75 students, faculty and staff attended the event and learned about The Fletcher School’s most recently established research center. The first Research & Policy Seminar talk was delivered by CSS Director and Fletcher Professor Monica Duffy Toft on “A Positive Future for US Foreign Policy and Strategy.”

When the Center for Strategic Studies first arrived at the Fletcher School, we knew that one of the chief assets available to us would be Fletcher’s students. Their diverse backgrounds and recent experience in the trenches of security policymaking made them a rich source of insights into an always-shifting global security environment. To unlock those insights, we asked students to submit short answers to several “Pressing Questions” we thought would be of interest to the broader security community. We were impressed with the results, and when you read the winning submissions, we think you will be too.

Monica Duffy Toft
18 September 2017