March 8, 2019
Colloquium Topic: The New Rules of War
Though our military remains undefeated, the United States has lost every war since World War II. But within a generation, our military’s fate will undoubtedly change if we continue to cling to the past. Today, more than eighty years after WWII, and thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the number of armed conflicts being waged around the world has doubled. If the United States refuses to accept that we are once again living in dangerous, unpredictable times, it is inevitable that our military—until now undefeated—will fail.
Hailed by Publishers Weekly as “an authoritative and skillful analysis of the state of war today” and with a foreword by General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.), THE NEW RULES OF WAR: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder is an urgent exploration of warfare—past, present, and future—that asks why we no longer win wars, and then explains the ten rules we must follow so we can.
Colloquium Speaker: Sean McFate
Dr. Sean McFate is an author, novelist and foreign policy expert. He is a professor of strategy at the National Defense University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Additionally, he is an Advisor to Oxford University’s Centre for Technology and Global Affairs. McFate’s career began as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s storied 82nd Airborne Division, and then he became a private military contractor. He has dealt with warlords in the jungle, raised small armies, rode with armed groups in the Sahara, conducted strategic reconnaissance for oil companies, transacted arms deals in Eastern Europe, and helped prevent an impending genocide in the Rwanda region. His newest book is The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder. McFate co-wrote the novels Shadow War and Deep Black (William Morrow) based on his military experiences. He has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, BBC, Economist and other outlets. McFate holds a BA from Brown University, MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He lives in Washington, DC. More at www.seanmcfate.com