The Institute of World Politics

The next administration will face tough choices in aligning strategy, programs, and resources. Strategy has stretched to counter an aggressive Russia, an assertive China, and a ruthless Islamic State while resources have been constrained by the Budget Control Act and competition from domestic programs. Alternative Defense Strategies in a Cost-Capped Environment examines options for strategy and forces in a cost constrained environment. The study identifies five alternative strategies and, using CSIS's Force Cost Calculator, builds a cost-capped force structure, modernization program, and readiness profile for each strategy. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy against plausible conflict scenarios. The study explores potential ways to mitigate the fiscal pressure forcing these strategic trade-offs. It concludes by making recommendations for the FY 2017 defense budget and the next Quadrennial Defense Review.

Lt. Col Alexandre Vautravers is a senior advisor on strategic issues at the Department of Security and Economy (DSE), Geneva, and an Associate Fellow at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva. Aside from teaching and academic management, he has led several research projects in the areas of technology environment, migration, security and financial issues. He has collaborated with various companies and multinationals in the areas of strategy, marketing and project management. He is also active in several research centers in Switzerland and abroad.

Outside of his military duties, he has been the editor in chief of the Revue militaire suisse (RMS) since 2006, when the journal celebrated its 150th anniversary of uninterrupted publication.

He is a frequent contributor to many scientific journals and consulted by the Swiss and international media on security and defense policy, political and international economic issues.

Strengthening US-India Defense Ties: Trade, Trust & Technology

with

Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-1)

Chairman, Readiness Subcommittee, House Armed Services Committee

Christy Boardman Grubbs

Chief of Staff - Congressman J. Randy Forbes

James Di Pane

Master's candidate, The Institute of World Politics

Former CIA operations officer Sam Faddis will discuss getting ahead of the terrorist attack cycle in the era of "lone wolves" and "self-radicalization." The talk will emphasize how we can go from stalemate to victory and end the siege of America and the West.

Charles S. (Sam) Faddis is a retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations officer, a published author, and national security commentator.

Sam took the first CIA team into Iraq nine months in advance of the 2003 invasion of that country. After serving abroad in the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe, he served as the head of the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center (CTC)'s Weapons of Mass Destruction unit charged with pursuing terrorist weapons of mass destruction programs worldwide. He has run large organizations, worked across the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense and been involved in national security matters at the highest levels of our government. He has also spent more than his share of time running sources and covert action campaigns in the field.

Prior to joining CIA, Sam was a U.S. Army Armor and JAG officer, and then served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington. Sam graduated from The Johns Hopkins University (1980) and the University of Maryland Law School (1983).

This book lecture for "Conceived in Liberty: The American Worldview in Theory and Practice" was given by author Dr. John J. Tierney, Jr., Walter Kohler Professor of International Relations at The Institute of World Politics, on September 23, 2016.

About the book:

Conceived in Liberty is a cultural, sociological and geopolitical review of the uniquely American notion that the country and its people are "exceptional." While all nations have their own patriotic commitments, no other people have outwardly declared their power as vigorously as have Americans, especially since World War II.

John J. Tierney, Jr. advances the idea that liberty is the singular source of the power of the American worldview and all other elements of this society -- equality, patience, charity, justice, etc. -- are derived from liberty. He argues that this worldview comes from this one source and is responsible for the many movements that may engage the public's interest, such as women's rights, civil rights, and voting rights. Such movements are all positive, but they could not exist in a society devoid of liberty.

Conceived in Liberty also traces other main components of the American worldview: geographic expanse, immigration, energy of the populace, diversity, public policies, and the elements that contribute to exceptionalism. Tierney is not blind to some of the deficiencies of the United States, but he posits that the liberty it manifests is truly the political globe's last, best hope.

About the author:

John J. Tierney, Jr. is professor at The Institute of World Politics, Washington, D.C. He has spent eighteen years in government, including the US Congress and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. He is the author of Chasing Ghosts: Unconventional Warfare in American History.

This book lecture by Arthur T. Downey on his recent work "The Cold War: Law, Lawyers, Spies and Crises" took place at The Institute of World Politics on September 19, 2016.

About the author:

Arthur T. Downey (Washington, D.C.) has lectured at the Smithsonian, taught at Georgetown University Law Center, and is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia. He lived through the Cold War as a student, lawyer, diplomat, and government official. He is the author of Civil War Lawyers (ABA: 2010). Mr. Downey also served on the National Security Council from 1969-1972, as the director of the Bureau of East-West Trade at the Commerce Department, and as a lawyer for the State Department. He is the author of Civil War Lawyers, and The Creole Affair: The Slave Rebellion that led the US and Britain to the Brink of War.

About the lecture:

The development of the rule of law and constitutional government-rule by representative lawmaking rather than executive decree or judicial edict-can be said to be the most significant and influential accomplishment of the long history of human liberty. The greatest political revolution in the United States since the establishment of the Constitution has been the shift of power away from the lawmaking institutions of republican government to an oligarchy of unelected experts. The future of the rule of law -- and self-government -- depends on the recovery of the Constitution.

This lecture took place on September 16, 2016, and it was the annual Constitution Day Lecture at The Institute of World Politics.

About the speaker:

Matthew Spalding is Associate Vice President and Dean of Educational Programs for Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C. As such he oversees the operations of the Kirby Center and the various academic and educational programs of Hillsdale in the nation's capital.

He is the best-selling author of We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future, which details America's core principles, shows how they have come under assault by modern progressive-liberalism and lays out a strategy to recover them. Spalding also is executive editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, a line-by-line analysis of each clause of the U.S. Constitution. His other books include A Sacred Union of Citizens: Washington's Farewell Address and the American Character; Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition; and The Founders' Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding.

Prior to joining Hillsdale, Dr. Spalding was Vice President of American Studies at The Heritage Foundation and founding director of its B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics. He continues at Heritage as the Henry Salvatori Visiting Fellow, and is also a Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. He received his B.A. from Claremont McKenna College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. In addition to teaching at Hillsdale, he has taught at George Mason University, the Catholic University of America and Claremont McKenna College.

About the lecture:

Polish parliamentary elections were held in of October 2015. Since that time, the political situation in the country has changed significantly. The Polish voting constituency gave unprecedented support to the conservative "Law and Justice" party, allowing it to govern unchallenged. In the course of the months that followed, imprecise and oversimplified assertions about the situation in Poland were disseminated by the media, and in several cases, such misinformation appeared in documents issued by international institutions. The Ordo Iuris' report "State of Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Poland - Recent Developments" provides reliable data allowing for a better-informed public debate. The Report provides the first fact-based, comprehensive and substantive legal analysis of the reforms introduced by the new government.

This event was sponsored by IWP's Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies, and took place at The Institute of World Politics on September 16, 2016.

About the speakers:

Joanna Banasiuk, Ph.D. received her doctoral degree in law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Białystok, where she works as an assistant professor. Her dissertation was awarded by the World Intellectual Property Organization. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, where she is responsible for international affairs. She is also the author of numerous academic papers.

Tymoteusz Zych, Ph.D. received his Master's degree and doctoral degree in law at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. He holds a diploma of the Artes Liberales Academy (Inter- Faculty Individual Studies in the Humanities), where he studied sociology and political science, both in University of Warsaw and Jagiellonian University in Cracow. His dissertation received an award in a competition for best monographs organized by the Foundation for Polish Science. He currently serves as a Member of the Board and Coordinator of the Legislative Analysis Team at the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture. He is the author of numerous papers for public authorities and academic papers. He currently holds the position of assistant professor at the Law Faculty of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

Ms. Milena Rodban, a geopolitical risk consultant, and Ms. Michelle Watson, Vice President of Corporate Relations at IWP, spoke on how the discipline of geopolitical risk analysis and the industry built around it can be more fully applied to the emerging needs of global organizations in the 21st century. The panel's remarks were guided by John Chipman's recent article in the Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2016/09/why-your-company-needs-a-foreign-policy

This panel took place at The Institute of World Politics on September 14, 2016.

About the panelists:

Milena Rodban is a geopolitical risk consultant and simulation designer. She advises private firms, media organizations, non-profits, and universities, to help them successfully navigate complex business and security environments. In addition to providing insight in navigating political and geopolitical risks, Milena designs and facilitates interactive simulations designed to allow clients to diagnose problems, analyze major decisions, and integrate new training protocols. Originally from Baku, Azerbaijan, Ms. Rodban has been involved with projects spanning more than 75 countries. She frequently moderates events and publishes articles in her capacity as a Global Fellow with the Project for the Study of the 21st Century, and is currently finishing a book about the geopolitical risk industry. Ms. Rodban received her Masters degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Michelle Combs Watson is the Vice President of Corporate Relations at the Institute of World Politics (IWP) in Washington D.C. She is a co-founder of IWP's Corporate Statecraft and the Cyber Statecraft programs and co-teaches the Corporate Statecraft and Cyber Statecraft courses as a Professor of Practice. Her academic research as a scholar-practitioner focuses on "Cyber Intelligence" and the complex but necessary relationship between the public-private sectors and the impact of those relationships on U.S. national security.

Michael C. Maibach, Managing Director and Trustee at the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding, gave this lecture on "Virtues of Commerce and a Commercial Republic" at The Institute of World Politics on September 12, 2016.

Mr. Maibach is a seasoned professional in global business diplomacy, with successful careers at the European-American Business Council, Siebel Systems, Intel, and Caterpillar. Mr. Maibach formerly served as Vice President of Global Government Affairs for Intel Corporation and is a Fellow of the International Academy of Management. He is a member of IWP's Class of 2013.