Center for Peace and Security Studies

James Gimian and Barry Boyce discuss Sun Tzu’s "Art of War," which has provided leaders with skillful strategies for working with complex challenging situations, conflict, and war for the past 2,500 years.  Gimian and Boyce have consulted and taught on how to apply the strategies in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in a wide variety of settings over the past 25 years.  They are authors of The Rules of Victory: How to Transform Chaos and Conflict—Strategies from the Art of War (2008) and produced a critically acclaimed and best-selling translation of The Art of War: The Denma Translation, currently used in the Naval and Air Force War Colleges.

Dr. David Kilcullen, Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security And Partner at the Crumpton Group

The current conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq present many challenges to counterinsurgency experts. Dr. David Kilcullen discussed theses challenges and policy options for them. In his discussion he shaped global terrorism and localized guerrilla warfare within the larger framework of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and makes them both understandable and interesting.

Author of “The Accidental Guerilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One” Dr. Kilcullen brought to the discussion his unique experience as senior counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus and as chief counterterrorism strategist at the U.S. State Department, working in the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, including several operational activities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Agencies.

Professor Montgomery C. Meigs talks about possible strategies in Afghanistan.

Professor Meigs comments on US strategy in Afghanistan.

View the video streaming on the MSNBC website.

Edited by Jennifer E. Sims and Burton Gerber, top practitioners and scholars in the field explain the importance of counterintelligence today and explore the causes of—and practical solutions for—U.S. counterintelligence weaknesses in this one indispensible volume.

Audio part 1: Presentation

Audio Part 2: Q&A

SSP Director of Admissions Tiffany Swanson welcomes attendees to the SSP's Visiting Day on April 8, 2009. 

SSP Director Dr. Daniel Byman provides a brief overview of key SSP program features.

SSP Associate Director Ellen McHugh discusses SSP academic requirements and procedures.

Four SSP alumni share their experiences with the program and how the SSP has helped them achieve their professional goals.

SSP Career and Alumni Services Coordinator Gina Junio discusses SSP professional development opportunities, while Lisa Keathley, Director of the School of Foreign Service Graduate Career Development Center provides an overview of additional services available through her organziation.

The 'war on terror' has morphed from an imprecise, but comprehensible, concept into little more than a cudgel to be wielded in American domestic political debates by both the left and the right. The term is without reference to logic or facts in order to gain political advantage. The result is a dizzying set of changing assessments that encourage skepticism and cynicism instead of consistency and clarity. Bernard Finel joins CPASS to discuss ten criteria developed by the American Security Project to measure progress in the struggle against violent jihadism.

Accurately assessing the political, economic and military rise of China is a critical task. China is developing comprehensive national power and seeks a balanced portfolio of coercive, economic, and intellectual power. Yet U.S. policymakers often overestimate China's military might when the country is actually growing most rapidly in the economic and intellectual domains. Dr. David Lampton will address how China’s capacities are changing along each dimension and to consider what the implications of these developments may be for future American policy.

Dr. David Lampton is Dean of Faculty, George and Sadie Hyman Professor and Director of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He also is Senior International Advisor on China for Akin Gump. Previously, he was president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations in New York City, founding director of the Nixon Center’s Chinese Studies Program, and director of the American Enterprise Institute’s China Policy Program.

More than six years after the September 11 attacks, America is losing a crucial front in the ongoing war on terror—not to al Qaeda but to its own failure to construct a set of laws that will protect the American people and govern the American side of a conflict unlike any it has faced in the past. In his recent book, Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror, Mr. Benjamin Wittes offers a vigorous analysis of how America came to its current impasse in the debate over liberty, human rights and counterterrorism and draws a road map for how the country and the next president might move forward. He will join CPASS to discuss his recommendations for putting the conflict with Al Qaeda on a solid legal footing for the long term.

The security challenges in Israel, Iraq and Pakistan pose some of the greatest threats to regional and global security today. Visiting each country provides policy analysts and professors unique perspectives of the complexities of the issues facing national leaders. Dr. Bruce Hoffman recently had the opportunity to visit all three countries. He will discuss with the CPASS audience his meetings with senior U.S. diplomats and military officers and their Israeli, Iraqi, and Pakistani counterparts, and the overall research findings of his trip.

Dr. Hoffman has been studying terrorism and insurgency for more than thirty years. Author of the seminal work Inside Terrorism, Professor Hoffman is a professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Previously, he has served as Director of RAND’s Washington, DC Office and as Scholar-in-Residence for Counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Russia-Georgia war of August 2008 has had important implications for regional security, EU-Russian relations, and strategic interactions between Russia and the United States. Georgetown professors Charles King and Charles Kupchan will address a range of issues from the interpretation of the war itself to the broader impact on Euro-Atlantic institutions and interests. While the 'rise of Russia' has been an important theme in recent policy debates, the Russia-Georgia war raises deeper questions about the future of U.S. engagement in Eurasia, differences within the NATO alliance, and Russia's emerging strategy across the post-Soviet space.

Noted members of the intelligence community, including the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, discuss the role of former CIA Director Richard Helms. The first panel of the symposium, Personal Perspectives and Recollections, features a key note address by Henry Kissinger and is moderated by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft.

Noted members of the intelligence community, including the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, discuss the role of former CIA Director Richard Helms. This is the second panel of the symposium, Historical Perspectives, and features a keynote address by General Michael Hayden.

The Security Studies Program hosted an open house for newly admitted students on April 3, 2008. It featured a welcome and introduction by Tiffany Swanson, the Director of Admissions, and Daniel Byman, Director of the Security Studies Program. Professor Montgomery Meigs discussed security challenges in the 21st century.  Members of SSP and the School of Foreign Service (SFS) Graduate Career Education center discussed resources for Career placement.

Mr. Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow for Political Transitions in the Middle East and South Asia; Saban Center for Middle East Policy, the Brookings Institution; Adjunct Professor, Security Studies Program, analyzes the growth and changes within al-Qaeda since September the 11th, 2001.

Dr. Michael D. Swaine, Senior Associate of the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses China's security strategy.

Richard Bush, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution

Speakers: Daniel L. Byman, Director, Center for Peace and Security Studies, Georgetown University; Colin H. Kahl, Assistant Professor, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University; Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Adjunct Professor, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University
Moderated by Paul R. Pillar, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University

The Center for Peace and Security Studies and the Center for Asymmetric Warfare hosted a roundtable discussion on "Meeting the Challenges of an Emerging China." Introduced by Dean Robert L. Gallucci, panelists included: Georgetown's Robert Sutter, and the Brookings Institution's Jeffrey Bader. The second panel included Ronald O'Rourke of the Congressional Research Serivce and Christopher Thomey of the Naval Postgraduate School. The final panel featured Kurt Campbell of the Center for a New American Security and Commander James Fanell of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

First Panel Discussion: "Drivers of China's Security Strategy"
Moderator: Robert L. Gallucci, Dean, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Listen to Introduction

Second Panel Discussion: China's Military Effectiveness
Moderator: Dr. Carol Evans, Center for Asymmetric Warfare
Listen to Dr. Evans

Third Panel Discussion: The U.S. Policy Response
Moderator: Daniel L. Byman, Center for Peace and Security Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.
Listen to Dr. Byman

Kurt Campbell, Center for a New American Security
Listen to Dr. Campbell

Closing Remarks: Dr. David Banks, Center for Asymmetric Warfare
Listen to Dr. Banks

 Dr. Mohammed Hafez, Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, and author of Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom.

Dr. Daryl Press, Associate Professor in the Government Department at Dartmouth College
Dr. Keir Lieber, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame

Karim Sadjadpour, Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Dr. Ivan Oelrich, Vice President for Strategic Security Programs at the Federation of American Scientists; Adjunct Professor in the Security Studies Program

Dr. Bruce Hoffman, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University
Co-sponsored with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Dr. Daniel Byman, Director, Center for Peace and Security Studies and the Security Studies Program, Georgetown University. Dr. Byman spoke to the CPASS community after a month of hostilities between Israel and Hizballah.

Dr. Jeffrey Cooper, Vice President for Technology, Science Applications International Corporation

Dr. Francis J. Harvey, Secretary of the Army.