January 15, 2016
Colloquium Topic: A Brains-Based Approach to Strategic Thinking
If you wonder why we have lost every war we have started; why we cannot resolve the fundamental challenges before us from repairing the nation's infrastructure to defeating the Islamic State and other religiously inspired terrorist groups; and why we elect presidents who are unready for office when entering it, among other grave issues facing the nation, you will want to attend this lecture. “A Brains Based Approach to Strategic Thinking” was featured in Dr. Ullman’s latest book “A Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the Peace” and drew on his earlier “America's Promise Restored: Preventing Culture, Crusade and Partisanship from Wrecking Our Nation.”
Colloquium Speaker: Harlan Ullman
Harlan Ullman divides his time between the worlds of business and policy. His company, The Killowen Group, advises leaders of business and government at the highest levels and he sits on or chairs several boards of public and private corporations. His analyses and assessments of national and international events and issues are highly sought. Currently, his main business activities involve investment banking interests; a high technology material that is revolutionizing the construction and building industries and infrastructure protection for the water, energy and transportation industries.
He actively advises the Departments of State and Defense and NATO at the highest levels and is recognized as one of the nation’s thought leaders in strategic and innovative thinking both in the public and private sectors arguing for a “brains based approach” to strategic thinking.
He has been deeply involved in the formulation of U.S strategy during the Cold War and beyond and was the creator of the original doctrine “shock and awe,” a far more different version than the sound bites used in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
A distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Dr. Ullman holds a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy administered by Tufts and Harvard University in International Politics and Finance.
A career naval officer, he has served at sea in command and ashore in senior assignments of responsibility including two happy years with the Royal Navy afloat. As a Swift boat skipper, he led over 150 combat patrols and operations in Vietnam for which he was decorated and was a professor at the National War College where he directed the course of study in military strategy for three years before returning to sea in command.
He has published many books dealing with national security and written hundreds of newspapers columns and shorter analyses for Washington’s major think tanks. His latest book is A Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the Peace.