FPRI Events

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, hear a gripping account by John Maurer of the decisions that led to war and grapple with the changing strategic environment between the summer of 1940 and December 1941. Maurer holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He is the author or editor of books examining the outbreak of the First World War, military interventions in the developing world, naval arms control between the two world wars, and a study about Winston Churchill’s views on British foreign policy and grand strategy. At the Naval War College, he teaches a popular elective course on Churchill and grand strategy. He has received both the U.S. Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award and Superior Civilian Service Award.

Just back from a trip to Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he attended the “Suli Forum,” a significant annual meeting of regional and international stakeholders, as well as academic and policy experts, FPRI’s Sam Helfont was able to take the pulse of participants in conflicts and tensions in progress – between the Kurds and ISIS, the Kurds and the government of Iraq, and among the different factions of the Kurds themselves. The Kurds are perhaps the world’s largest ethnic group without its own nation-state. What does the future hold for the Kurds? For ISIS? And what can the United States do to move the region forward?

Samuel Helfont is a Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania's interdisciplinary International Relations Program. In May 2015, he completed a PhD in Princeton University's Near Eastern Studies Department, where he used Iraqi state and Baa'th Party records to write a dissertation on religion and politics in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He has published articles in Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, The American Interest, and Orbis. He is author of the FPRI e-book The Sunni Divide: Understanding Politics and Terrorism in the Arab Middle East.

In a special briefing for the World Affairs Council of Reading, FPRI's Ron Granieri delivered remarks on the state of Europe, the possibility of Brexit, and the response to the Migrant Crisis.

Why, if Russia is in decline, does Putin seem to be trumping the West? How do the latest events in Ukraine, Syria/Iraq, and Paris change the state of affairs between the US and Russia? What is Putin thinking? To answer these questions, we are pleased to feature Stephen Kotkin, a critically acclaimed historian of the Soviet Union and Russia, whose latest book, Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928, is much more than a biography, as it places Stalin in a larger geopolitical context. And it is through that same lens of geopolitics that we have asked Kotkin to assess Vladimir Putin. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Washington Post, and the Financial Times. He serves as a consultant on emerging markets and global trends for the World Pension Forum. He received his Ph.D. in history from UC/Berkeley.

A decade or more of sub-$60 oil prices will create both economic winners and losers in the Middle East and North Africa. However, accompanying political shocks have the potential of further destabilizing the entire region, including countries that are expected to gain from lower oil prices. Should the USA continue to engage in this increasingly troubled region and, if so, how? Or should the USA walk away? A retired Marine Corps Reserve colonel, Professor Gunter is the author of The Political Economy of Iraq: Restoring Balance in a Post-Conflict Society (2013), re-published in 2015 in Arabic. He was the Senior Civilian Economics Advisor for Multi-National Corps in Iraq.

Kermit Roosevelt III is the author of the legal thriller, Allegiance (Regan Arts, 2015), a historical novel published about the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. This novel includes analysis of the classic case Korematsu v. the United States, in which the Supreme Court upheld Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order for internment, and explores the tensions between liberty and security, and between the courts and the powers of the presidency in wartime. Roosevelt’s novel lead us to discuss those same themes in the context of today’s war on terror.

Kermit Roosevelt III is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches constitutional law. He is great grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and distant cousin of FDR. Allegiance is his second novel, following the publication of In the Shadow of Law. He is also author of The Myth of Judicial Activism.

February 24, 2016
Main Line Breakfast Briefing
Vanessa Neumann, Senior Fellow, FPRI

Once the longest-running democracy in South America and a very important ally of the United States, Venezuela transformed under the rule of Hugo Chavez and subsequently his successor Nicholas Maduro. However, with the National Assembly Elections last December, the Venezuelan public produced an undeniable landslide for the opposition and a firm rejection of Chavismo. With the world’s largest proven oil reserves, what happens next in this country has important implications for the entire world. Will the opposition seek revenge on the Chavistas or use their powerful mandate to rebuild Venezuela’s gutted institutions? Will Maduro respond by setting up parallel institutions of government stocked with Chavistas, or go quietly into the night? To answer these questions and more, we are pleased to feature Vanessa Neumann, our “go-to” person on Venezuela.

Dr. Neumann is an Associate of the University Seminar on Latin America at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where she received her Ph.D. in political philosophy. Having worked as a journalist on three continents, she has written for The (London) Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Weekly Standard.

Drawing on his new book The al-Qaeda Franchise, Barak Mendelsohn explored al-Qaeda's branching-out strategy, whereby it introduced seven franchises spread over the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Although the introduction of these new branches helped al-Qaeda create a frightening image far beyond its actual capabilities, ultimately this strategy neither increased the al-Qaeda threat, nor enhanced the organization's political objectives. Was al-Qaeda's branching out strategy a sign of strength or a response to its decline in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks? Why has al-Qaeda formed branches in some arenas but not others? How has the rise of ISIS from an al-Qaeda branch changed the path of jihad, and what does the competition between the two movements mean for the future?

Geopolitics with Granieri
February 2, 2016

Sam Helfont, an FPRI Robert A. Fox Fellow, has written a series of essays that explore the differences betweenIslam and Islamism, between Sunni and Shi’a Islam, and between the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and the theology of Wahhabism. Together these essays go far to correct widespread misperceptions about Islam. In this session, Ron Granieri explored with Sam Helfont what Americans think they know about Islam and what they should know.

Over the past decade and a half, al-Qaeda has adopted a branching-out strategy, introducing seven franchises spread over the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Although the introduction of these new branches helped al-Qaeda create a frightening image far beyond its actual capabilities, ultimately this strategy neither increased the al-Qaeda threat, nor enhanced the organization's political objectives. In fact, this strategy may have undermined one of al-Qaeda's primary achievements: the creation of a transnational entity based on religious, not national, affiliation. Was al-Qaeda's branching out strategy a sign of strength or a response to its decline in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks? Why has al-Qaeda formed branches in some arenas but not others? How has the rise of ISIS from an al-Qaeda branch to the dominant actor in the jihadi camp affected the parent organization’s ambitions?