The Institute of World Politics

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This talk occurred on March 27, 2017 at The Institute of World Politics.

About the lecture:

In December 2015, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter declared the opening of all U.S. military combat jobs to women. The decision followed a long and controversial review of the implications of allowing women into combat units, during which the US Marine Corps and large numbers of military personnel objected to a change in policy. The inclusion of women in combat units is in the early stages of implementation; whether the new administration will seek to revise or overturn the policy remains to be seen. Dr. Anna Simons, a veteran of the debate, will discuss the history of the issue of women in combat units. She will explain why that history is relevant to the current situation, and offer her views on the best way forward.

About the speaker:

Anna Simons is a Professor of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School. Prior to teaching at NPS she was both an assistant and then an associate professor of anthropology at UCLA, as well as chair of the Masters in African Area Studies Program. She holds a PhD in social anthropology from Harvard University and an A.B. from Harvard College. She is the author of Networks of Dissolution: Somalia Undone and The Company They Keep: Life Inside the U.S. Army Special Forces. Most recently she is the co-author of The Sovereignty Solution: A Commonsense Approach to Global Security. He articles have appeared in The American Interest, The National Interest, Small Wars & Insurgencies, Annual Review of Anthropology, Parameters, and elsewhere. Simons has also written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. Before attending graduate school, she worked as a reporter and as a presidential speechwriter, and spent several years traveling and working abroad.

About the moderator:

Elaine Donnelly is founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness, an independent, nonpartisan public policy organization that reports on and analyzes military/social issues. She has served on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, and was the recipient of the American Conservative Union's Ronald Reagan Award. Donnelly has provided testimony to Congress and published articles on military personnel issues in the Washington Post, USA Today, the Boston Globe, National Review Online, the Washington Times, Congressional Quarterly Researcher, and the Naval Institute's Proceedings. She attended Schoolcraft College and the University of Detroit and resides in Livonia, Michigan.

Dr. Marcin Chmielowski is vice president of the Poland-based Freedom and Entrepreneurship Foundation (Fundacja Wolnosci i Przedsiebiorczosci). He holds a Ph.D. in political philosophy and an M.A. in political science, and he has a postgraduate diploma in central banking. He is the author of one book and many papers concentrated on the theory and practice of libertarianism. Experienced in managing third sector institutions, Dr. Chmielowski is a liberty-oriented columnist, commentator, and screenwriter.

Benjamin Fricke received his M.A. in Statecraft and International Affairs from The Institute of World Politics in 2013, and he was one of the first participants in IWP's Oxford study abroad program in 2012. Ben was awarded his B.A. in Political Science from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH with two years of study at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He has done several high profile internships, such as at the U.S. Consulate General in Leipzig, Germany, the U.S. Senate, the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the German diplomatic mission in New York. After graduation from IWP, Mr. Fricke returned to Europe in October 2013, where he spent a few months studying in France and started working for a private sector energy management and software company close to his hometown, Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Since 2016, Ben has been working for the German Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, where he after training in Berlin now works as a Scientific Associate at Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung's regional program South Caucasus.

About the lecture

In Slovenia, people are mostly unsatisfied with the political situation. Prime minister Dr. Cerar is having less and less support, whereas President Pahor is enjoying support. Also, most people disagree with sending Slovenian troops for NATO purposes to the Baltic states; however, this deployment is a necessity because Slovenia needs to pay its share for NATO protection, and because Russia is a threat to other Eastern, Central, and Southern European states.

About the speaker

Tibor Babic was born in Maribor, Slovenia, and after graduating high school, he went to Vienna, Austria to study political science. His goal is to work in international relations, which is why he chose to attend The Institute of World Politics for graduate school. His research areas at IWP concentrate on EU and US relations and world order.

This event is part of a series on the Intermarium sponsored by the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies. It took place on March 9th at 4:30 PM. Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz presented the lecture.

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