The Institute of World Politics

Thomas C. Reed, Former Secretary of the Air Force, gave a lecture on "A History of Nuclear Proliferation: Iran Today" at The Institute of World Politics on February 9, 2016.

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Thomas C. Reed was the Secretary of the Air Force during the Ford and Carter administrations. In the mid-Seventies, Reed became the youngest-ever director of the National Reconnaissance Office. In the Eighties, Reed served as Special Assistant to President Reagan for National Security Policy. Reed has a technical background in nuclear weapons design.

After earning a graduate degree from the University of Southern California, Reed moved to a position at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he designed two thermonuclear devices, both of which were fired over the Pacific in 1962.

Upon leaving Livermore, Reed started and ran a successful high-tech company making superconductors, now principally used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners. In 1966 he became the Northern California chair of Ronald Reagan's first gubernatorial race. Reed served as chief of personnel in the Governor's first administration, and in 1970 he assumed full responsibility for Governor Reagan's re-election as his statewide co-chair and campaign director. In 1973, Reed was recruited to manage certain intelligence projects at the Pentagon in connection with the Yom Kippur War. A decade of involvement in national security matters followed, culminating with a position on President Reagan's National Security Council staff.

His first book, At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War-- with an introduction by former President George H. W. Bush-- was published in 2004. His second work, The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation, was co-authored by Danny Stillman, a former chief of technical intelligence at Los Alamos. Reed's third non-fiction work,The Reagan Enigma, was released in 2014.

Thomas C. Reed, Former Secretary of the Air Force, gave a lecture on "A History of Nuclear Proliferation: Iran Today" at The Institute of World Politics on February 9, 2016.

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Thomas C. Reed was the Secretary of the Air Force during the Ford and Carter administrations. In the mid-Seventies, Reed became the youngest-ever director of the National Reconnaissance Office. In the Eighties, Reed served as Special Assistant to President Reagan for National Security Policy. Reed has a technical background in nuclear weapons design.

After earning a graduate degree from the University of Southern California, Reed moved to a position at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he designed two thermonuclear devices, both of which were fired over the Pacific in 1962.

Upon leaving Livermore, Reed started and ran a successful high-tech company making superconductors, now principally used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners. In 1966 he became the Northern California chair of Ronald Reagan's first gubernatorial race. Reed served as chief of personnel in the Governor's first administration, and in 1970 he assumed full responsibility for Governor Reagan's re-election as his statewide co-chair and campaign director. In 1973, Reed was recruited to manage certain intelligence projects at the Pentagon in connection with the Yom Kippur War. A decade of involvement in national security matters followed, culminating with a position on President Reagan's National Security Council staff.

His first book, At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War-- with an introduction by former President George H. W. Bush-- was published in 2004. His second work, The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation, was co-authored by Danny Stillman, a former chief of technical intelligence at Los Alamos. Reed's third non-fiction work,The Reagan Enigma, was released in 2014.

Ambassador and Chancellor of IWP James Woolsey gives a speech on energy security and threats in the 21st century as part of the annual Brian Kelley Memorial Lecture series.

Ambassador R. James Woolsey has served as the Director of Central Intelligence, as chief negotiator to the CFE (Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) talks with the rank of ambassador, and as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Jim has been one of the most prominent analysts of national security issues, as well as energy policy. He has been a proponent of US energy independence and the protection of major infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as our electric grid upon which everything in our civilization depends.

In addition to his five presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations, Amb. Woolsey has also served as a board member on a number of publicly and privately held companies, generally in fields related to technology and security. In 2009, he was the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and in 2010-11, he was a Senior Fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Ambassador and Chancellor of IWP James Woolsey gives a speech on energy security and threats in the 21st century as part of the annual Brian Kelley Memorial Lecture series.

Ambassador R. James Woolsey has served as the Director of Central Intelligence, as chief negotiator to the CFE (Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) talks with the rank of ambassador, and as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Jim has been one of the most prominent analysts of national security issues, as well as energy policy. He has been a proponent of US energy independence and the protection of major infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as our electric grid upon which everything in our civilization depends.

In addition to his five presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations, Amb. Woolsey has also served as a board member on a number of publicly and privately held companies, generally in fields related to technology and security. In 2009, he was the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and in 2010-11, he was a Senior Fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Ambassador and Chancellor of IWP James Woolsey gives a speech on energy security and threats in the 21st century as part of the annual Brian Kelley Memorial Lecture series.

Ambassador R. James Woolsey has served as the Director of Central Intelligence, as chief negotiator to the CFE (Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) talks with the rank of ambassador, and as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Jim has been one of the most prominent analysts of national security issues, as well as energy policy. He has been a proponent of US energy independence and the protection of major infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as our electric grid upon which everything in our civilization depends.

In addition to his five presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations, Amb. Woolsey has also served as a board member on a number of publicly and privately held companies, generally in fields related to technology and security. In 2009, he was the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and in 2010-11, he was a Senior Fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Dakota Wood, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, visited the Institute of World Politics to talk about the 2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength, an annual analysis of the military's readiness and defense capabilities.

Dakota L. Wood, who served America for two decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, is the Senior Research Fellow for Defense Programs at The Heritage Foundation. In his service as a Marine, Dakota participated in the planning and execution of operations around the world to include Operation Enduring Freedom following the attacks of 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom to depose Saddam Hussein. Mr. Wood culminated his career conducting studies on military, technology, economic and political matters for senior officials at the highest levels of the Marine Corps and the Defense Department. Following retirement in 2005, Mr. Wood helped to organize and operationalize the National Biosurveillance Integration System, a Department of Homeland Security effort. He has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and as the Strategist for the U.S. Marine Corps' Special Operations Command.

Dakota Wood, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, visited the Institute of World Politics to talk about the 2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength, an annual analysis of the military's readiness and defense capabilities.

Dakota L. Wood, who served America for two decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, is the Senior Research Fellow for Defense Programs at The Heritage Foundation. In his service as a Marine, Dakota participated in the planning and execution of operations around the world to include Operation Enduring Freedom following the attacks of 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom to depose Saddam Hussein. Mr. Wood culminated his career conducting studies on military, technology, economic and political matters for senior officials at the highest levels of the Marine Corps and the Defense Department. Following retirement in 2005, Mr. Wood helped to organize and operationalize the National Biosurveillance Integration System, a Department of Homeland Security effort. He has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and as the Strategist for the U.S. Marine Corps' Special Operations Command.

Dakota Wood, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, visited the Institute of World Politics to talk about the 2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength, an annual analysis of the military's readiness and defense capabilities.

Dakota L. Wood, who served America for two decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, is the Senior Research Fellow for Defense Programs at The Heritage Foundation. In his service as a Marine, Dakota participated in the planning and execution of operations around the world to include Operation Enduring Freedom following the attacks of 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom to depose Saddam Hussein. Mr. Wood culminated his career conducting studies on military, technology, economic and political matters for senior officials at the highest levels of the Marine Corps and the Defense Department. Following retirement in 2005, Mr. Wood helped to organize and operationalize the National Biosurveillance Integration System, a Department of Homeland Security effort. He has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and as the Strategist for the U.S. Marine Corps' Special Operations Command.

Michael A. Walsh, former associate editor of TIME magazine, gave a lecture about his book, "The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West " at The Institute of World Politics.

About the book: In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world's premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, burgeoning trans-national elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war's refugees, but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of "critical theory." At once overly intellectualized and emotionally juvenile, Critical Theory - like Pandora's Box - released a horde of demons into the American psyche. When everything could be questioned, nothing could be real, and the muscular, confident empiricism that had just won the war gave way, in less than a generation, to a central-European nihilism celebrated on college campuses across the United States. Seizing the high ground of academe and the arts, the New Nihilists set about dissolving the bedrock of the country, from patriotism to marriage to the family to military service; they have sown (as Cardinal Bergoglio - now Pope Francis - once wrote of the Devil) "destruction, division, hatred, and calumny" - and all disguised as the search for truth. In The Devil's Pleasure Palace we will look at the ways Critical Theory took root in America and, once established and gestated, has affected nearly every aspect of American life and society - and what can be done to stop it.

About the author: Michael Walsh, a former associate editor of TIME magazine, is the author of six novels and six works of nonfiction, as well as a columnist for the New York Post and a contributor to National Review and PJ Media. He was a winner of the 2004 American Book Awards for his novel, And All the Saints.

Michael A. Walsh, former associate editor of TIME magazine, gave a lecture about his book, "The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West " at The Institute of World Politics.

About the book: In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world's premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, burgeoning trans-national elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war's refugees, but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of "critical theory." At once overly intellectualized and emotionally juvenile, Critical Theory - like Pandora's Box - released a horde of demons into the American psyche. When everything could be questioned, nothing could be real, and the muscular, confident empiricism that had just won the war gave way, in less than a generation, to a central-European nihilism celebrated on college campuses across the United States. Seizing the high ground of academe and the arts, the New Nihilists set about dissolving the bedrock of the country, from patriotism to marriage to the family to military service; they have sown (as Cardinal Bergoglio - now Pope Francis - once wrote of the Devil) "destruction, division, hatred, and calumny" - and all disguised as the search for truth. In The Devil's Pleasure Palace we will look at the ways Critical Theory took root in America and, once established and gestated, has affected nearly every aspect of American life and society - and what can be done to stop it.

About the author: Michael Walsh, a former associate editor of TIME magazine, is the author of six novels and six works of nonfiction, as well as a columnist for the New York Post and a contributor to National Review and PJ Media. He was a winner of the 2004 American Book Awards for his novel, And All the Saints.