The Institute of World Politics

IWP founder and president John Lenczowski gave remarks at The Institute of World Politics Commencement on May 20, 2017.

Video by Adam Savit, Center for Security Policy

Dr. Hadley Arkes gave the keynote address at The Institute of World Politics Commencement on May 20, 2017.

Dr. Arkes is the Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions Emeritus at Amherst College and the Founder and Director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding.

Video by Adam Savit, Center for Security Policy

Andrew Harris gave valedictory remarks at The Institute of World Politics' Commencement Ceremony on May 20, 2017 at the Fairmont Hotel.

Video by Adam Savit, Center for Security Policy

Captain Christopher D. Glass, Sr., USN-Retired, a Reverend, as well as IWP Senior Vice President for Professional Affiliations, gave the invocation at The Institute of World Politics' Commencement Ceremony on May 20, 2017.

Video by Adam Savit, Center for Security Policy

This lecture was delivered by Paul G. Kengor on May 25 at IWP.

About the book:

In this fascinating new book, acclaimed scholar and bestselling author Paul Kengor tells the untold story of the partnership between Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan and how together they changed the course of world history. Kengor shows that the bonds between the pope and the president ran deeper than anyone has suspected, and that these bonds drove the two men to confront what they knew to be the great evil of the twentieth century: Soviet communism.

About the author:

Paul Kengor, Ph.D., is professor of political science at Grove City College, a four-year, private Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania, and a New York Times bestselling author. He is executive director of the Center for Vision & Values, a Grove City College think-tank/policy center. He is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. Kengor is an internationally recognized authority on several subjects, particularly Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and communism. He is often quoted in major publications, and his articles have appeared in numerous publications from across the ideological spectrum. Kengor is a frequent contributor to MSNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, the BBC, PCN-TV, EWTN, and FoxNewsChannel, and is regular columnist for Townhall and the American Spectator. Kengor received his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and his Master's degree from American University's School of International Service. He holds an honorary doctorate from Franciscan University (Steubenville, Ohio).

Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and the founder of The Weichert Report. His book on national security space policy will be released shortly. Brandon holds a B.A. in Political Science from DePaul University and is an Associate Member of New College at Oxford University (GDBM!). Recently, Brandon obtained his M.A. in Statecraft and National Security Affairs with a Specialization in Defense Policy from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.

On top of being a contributor to the conservative publication, American Greatness, Brandon does speaking engagements, presents papers, and conducts media interviews. He has been featured on BBC World News World Update with Dan Damon, he has been interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor, he has appeared on The Dino Report with Dino Costa, and he has been featured on the Seth & Chris Show offering his expertise as a national security and foreign policy specialist.

This event occurred on May 15, 2017 at the Institute of World Politics.

This event is part of a series on the Intermarium sponsored by the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies.

About the lecture: The port city of Mariupol has been a flash-point since the early days of the 2014 Ukrainian Crisis and promises to remain so because of its strategic, symbolic, and economic significance to both sides of the conflict.

About the speaker: Geoffrey Seroka is a graduate student at The Institute of World Politics, studying International Affairs. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Government from Patrick Henry College in 2015.

This lecture occurred at IWP on May 8th 2017.

The contrast between the treatment meted out to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama confirms that two set of rules prevail when it comes to scholarly assessments of American presidents. Democratic presidents are excused when it comes to assertive national security policies, while Republican presidents are deemed "lawless." Obama is the most recent beneficiary of this double standard that distorts scholarly assessments of the nation's chief executives.

About the speaker:

Stephen F. Knott is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War College. He served as co-chair of the University of Virginia's Presidential Oral History Program, directed the Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, and also served on the staff of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Professor Knott received his PhD in Political Science from Boston College, and has taught at the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Virginia. He is the author of numerous books including Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics; Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency, an examination of the use of covert operations by early American presidents; and Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth, a book on Alexander Hamilton's controversial image in the American mind. He is a co-author of The Reagan Years and At Reagan's Side: Insiders' Recollections from Sacramento to the White House. His most recent co-authored volume is Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America.

About the lecture: While Andrew Jackson is often viewed as a citizen-soldier and a leader of volunteers, he actually held the regular army in high esteem and had little regard for the processes of civilian control over military institutions and operations, particularly operations aimed at national territorial expansion. Officers under his command quickly adopted his views on civil-military relations and expansion. Between 1815 and 1821, the U.S. Army officer corps was Jackson's sword, but after 1821, the army officer corps began to act as a force for restraint in American foreign relations. Dr. Watson will explain Jackson's usurpations of civilian authority as a general, the transformation of the officer corps' attitudes after 1821, and military subordination to civilian authority during Jackson's Presidency.

About the speaker: Samuel Watson is professor of history at the United States Military Academy, where he teaches the full range of U.S. and military history. His research focuses on the U.S. Army between the Revolution and the war with Mexico. He is co-editor of the electronic textbook, The West Point History of Warfare, which won the 2016 Society for Military History/George C. Marshall Foundation Prize for the Use of Digital Technology Teaching Military History, and co-editor of The West Point History of the Civil War, which won the 2014 Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award, and forthcoming The West Point History of the American Revolution. His books, Jackson's Sword: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1810-1821, and Peacekeepers and Conquerors: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1821-1846,published by the University Press of Kansas, won the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award in 2014.

About the lecture: Obscured by their political masters -- Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill -- as well as their better-known military subordinates, the organizers of the Anglo-American victory in World War II deserve better of history.

About the speaker: Philip Terzian has been literary editor of The Weekly Standard since 2005, and is the author of Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and the American Century. A native of the Washington, D.C. area, he has been a writer and editor at the New Republic, Reuters, the Providence Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, and was a foreign correspondent and syndicated columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service. He has been a contributor to Commentary, the Times Literary Supplement, the Wall Street Journal, the Spectator, the Daily Telegraph, and other publications, and was a Pulitzer finalist in commentary.