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**Please note that the views expressed by our guest lecturers do not necessarily reflect the views of The Institute of World Politics.**
IWP professor Dr. Henry P. Williams discusses "Turkey’s President Erdogan’s Balancing Leading to the 2023 Elections." About the lecture Dr. Henry P. Williams will discuss how Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is walking a tightrope leading up to the 2023 national elections, as well as the implications for the Western alliance and NATO. About the speaker Dr. Henry P. (Phil) Williams III is originally from Michigan. He received degrees and diplomas from Culver Military Academy, the University of Virginia, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, the University of Florence, Italy, and two Masters and a Doctorate in International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, a joint Tufts and Harvard Program. He has lived in four foreign countries and has studied and worked professionally in four foreign languages: French, Greek, Italian, and Turkish. Formerly a Wall Street and International Investment Banker, he currently operates a small consulting business and lectures on a variety of topics, including American History, Turkey, and the Middle East. He has been featured on National Public Radio related to several of his interests, has written news commentary pieces on Turkey and the Middle East, and has published scholarly articles on Ottoman and Turkish Law. He has recently spent two semesters (2016-17) in Istanbul teaching a course at Koç University titled “Turkey and America, East and West – Where the Twain Meet.” Dr. Williams is a past National Board member of the English-Speaking Union, a Past Virginia State President of the Sons of the American Revolution, and has served on the board of the American Friends of Turkey for over twenty-three years. He is the author of Turkey and America: East & West – Where the Twain Meet. At IWP, Dr. Williams teaches The Turks: Relations with the MENA, Europe and America, Then and Now, which IWP plans to offer in summer 2022. IWP Admissions: https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/ Support IWP: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E231090&id=3
Author Douglas MacKinnon discusses his book "THE 56: Liberty Lessons From Those Who Risked All to Sign The Declaration of Independence." This event took place on May 23, 2022 at The Institute of World Politics. About the book: "THE 56: Liberty Lessons From Those Who Risked All to Sign The Declaration of Independence" by Douglas MacKinnon honors the 56 signers of The Declaration of Independence and details why the genius and vision of these admittedly imperfect men are just as relevant today. This is a book that also serves as a plea not to cancel our shared American history. As the author stresses: “If our history is bad, let us condemn it and learn from it. If it is good, let us praise it and build upon it. But let us never twist, censor, or cancel our shared American history.” Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/56-Liberty-Lessons-Declaration-Independence/dp/1637584245 About the author: Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and bestselling author working with other former government officials to establish a Foundation to preserve the history and protect the reputations of our Founding Fathers. Make a gift to IWP: https://www.iwp.edu/donate/ IWP admissions: https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/
Dr. Norman Bailey, IWP Adjunct Professor of Economics and National Security, discusses The MENA Region in May 2022: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. About the Speaker: Dr. Norman Bailey is an Adjunct Professor of Economics and National Security at The Institute of World Politics and a Professor of Economic Statecraft at the Galilee International Management Institute. Dr. Bailey was a senior staff member of the National Security Council during the Reagan administration and of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence during the George W. Bush administration. Make a gift to IWP: https://www.iwp.edu/donate/ IWP admissions: https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/
Ethan S. Burger, IWP Cyber Intelligence Instructor and International Attorney, discusses "Ukrainian National Identity and Russian Intelligence Failure." About the Lecture: Upon independence in 1991, Ukraine was divided by linguistic and geographic fault lines. This situation existed throughout Ukrainian society and presumably its institutions. Over the subsequent 30 years, the extent of social cohesion changed. The schools began to teach about Ukrainian history and emphasize the Ukrainian language and literature. Throughout Ukrainian society, a civic culture evolved where the concept of “citizenship” supplanted ethnic or linguistic identity in importance. Whereas Russian President Putin maintained his post-Soviet persona, a majority of Ukrainians were educated in an independent Ukraine that was more influenced by Western than Russian values. President Putin believed that his armed forces could exploit fault lines that remained in Ukraine to achieve a decisive military victory in a short amount of time and with light casualties. Most specialists believed that the Russians intended to decapitate the leadership of the Ukrainian government and put a “friendly” government into power. Both Russia and the NATO countries undervalued Ukraine’s social cohesion political culture and hence its willingness and ability to resist Russian aggression militarily. Clearly, Russia’s military setbacks can be attributed to intelligence failures when assessing Ukrainian societal unity. Similarly, the NATO countries might have been more forthcoming with military assistance to Ukraine if it had confidence that Ukraine, if properly armed, could resist Russian aggression. About the Speaker: Ethan S. Burger, Esq. is an Instructor and Advisory Board Member for IWP’s Cyber Intelligence Initiative. He is a Washington D.C.- based international attorney and educator with a background in cybersecurity, transnational financial crime, and Russian legal matters. He has been a full-time faculty member at the American University (School of International Service — Transnational Crime Prevention Center) and the University of Wollongong (Australia) (Faculty of Law — Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention), as well as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington College of Law, and the University of Baltimore. He oversaw a program on transnational crime and corruption for US Department of Justice at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University and gave lectures in Kyiv, Lviv, and Odessa. Mr. Burger earned his J.D. at the Georgetown University Law Center, A.B. from Harvard University, and obtained a Certificate in Cybersecurity Strategy from Georgetown University. Make a gift to IWP: https://www.iwp.edu/donate/ IWP admissions: https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/
Dr. Lucja Cannon discusses "War in Ukraine: Geopolitical Implications for Europe and the United States." This lecture is part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Spring Symposium in honor of Lady Blanka Rosenstiel sponsored by the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies and the Center for Intermarium studies. About the lecture: Analysis of far reaching effects that the war in Ukraine is having on foreign policies of Western Europe, mainly Germany, and Eastern Europe, mainly Poland, and the increasing distance between the two. Repercussions for European integration and the position of the United States are also explored. About the speaker: Dr. Lucja Swiatkowski Cannon is a strategist, expert and author on Eastern Europe, Russia and US-East European relations. She has a BA, M.Phil. and Ph.D. in international relations and Russian/East European studies from Columbia University. Make a gift to IWP: https://www.iwp.edu/donate/ IWP admissions: https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/
In this video, Dr. Marcin Romanowski discusses "Current Discussions on the Rule of Law in Poland – In Light of Changes in the Judiciary after 1989." This lecture is part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Spring Symposium in honor of Lady Blanka Rosenstiel sponsored by the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies and the Center for Intermarium studies. About the lecture: Since 2015, the United Right (Zjednoczona Prawica) has won the presidential and parliamentary elections twice, gaining a majority that allows for self-rule. The reforms, in particular in the area of the judiciary, met with fierce resistance from liberal and post-communist opposition parties and judges from higher courts. The central institutions of the European Union (the Commission, the EU Parliament, and the CJEU) are also involved in the dispute, interfering – in the opinion of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal – with the constitutional competencies of the EU Member States in a way that goes beyond scope of the competences conferred upon the EU by its Members in the Treaties. However, the real source of the aggressive opposition to judicial reforms is the fact that the Polish judiciary has not been transformed since 1989 when communism has officially fallen in Poland. As a result of the so-called “Round Table,” agreements were made in 1989 between a part of the opposition and the communist party, leaving the judiciary unchanged, becoming a de facto guarantee of the status quo for post-communist interest groups. Since 2015, Poland has been struggling with many unresolved problems from the communist era. Settlements with the past were implemented after 1989 to a very small extent, which influenced and still affects the quality of political, social, and academic life, and media, making Poland a country of “late post-communism.” The judiciary, the reform of which is under dispute, is one of the most important areas of this “late post-communism.” The lecture will present the causes of contemporary disputes over the Polish rule of law. About the speaker: Dr. Romanowski is an assistant professor at the Department of Theory and Philosophy of Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration within the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. He has a doctoral degree in law from the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. The main areas of his research interest are the law of settlement with the past lawlessness in countries, the natural law and the non-positivist concepts of law, the theory of European and global law, and legal anthropology and its applications in the creation and application of the law. During his professional career, Dr. Romanowski was the Director of the Institute of Justice (2016-2019), an expert of the parliamentary investigative commission to investigate allegations of corruption cases disclosed in the media during work on the amendment of the Broadcasting Act (2003-2004) and a co-author of the report prepared by this commission and, in the years 2005-2007 and 2015-2019, advisor to the Minister of Justice. Since 2019, he has served as Poland’s Deputy Minister of Justice. Make a gift to IWP: https://www.iwp.edu/donate/ IWP admissions: https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/
This lecture is part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Spring Symposium in honor of Lady Blanka Rosenstiel sponsored by the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies and the Center for Intermarium studies. About the lecture: In early 1919, newly reborn Poland was virtually a landlocked country. Border conflicts caused by the geopolitical earthquake of World War I had brought international trade to a standstill. The only hope for economic relief and humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged nation was access to the Baltic sea through German-controlled Danzig. In the late winter of 1919, the small Mission to Danzig, led by the first chief of the American Relief Administration in Poland, Colonel William R. Grove, and the versatile Chief Delegate of the Polish Government, Mieczysław Jałowiecki, would play an indispensable role in opening Poland's economy to the world, before the decisive showdown with Bolshevik Russia in 1920. About the speaker: Nicholas Siekierski earned his PhD at the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. His dissertation, "Operations of the American Relief Administration in Poland, 1919-1922", tells the story America's critical role in the early history of the Second Polish Republic. Dr. Siekierski is also a translator, most recently of 485 Days at Majdanek, the memoir of concentration camp survivor Jerzy Kwiatkowski, published last year by the Hoover Institution. It was the subject of a presentation at last year's Kościuszko Chair Spring Symposium at IWP.
This lecture is part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Spring Symposium in honor of Lady Blanka Rosenstiel sponsored by the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies and the Center for Intermarium studies. About the lecture: In Ukraine, Russia has presently redeployed a trusty Soviet propaganda trope: “liberation from Nazism.” This narrative is, of course, mendacious. Yet, every lie contains a kernel of truth. Our objective here is to extract it and put it in its proper context. We shall consider “liberation” and “Nazism” separately. “Liberation from Nazism” is standard Soviet cliche originating in the Second World War. However, Moscow also lustily employed it during the crushing of the Polish Poznan uprising in June 1956, the Hungarian insurrection in November 1956, and the Czechoslovak upheaval in August 1968. In fact, throughout its history, the USSR justified its imperialist aggression invariably in terms of bringing “liberty” and annihilating evil. Usually, the target was “fascism/Nazism/Hitlerism” but there were derivatives such as “imperialism,” “oppression,” and so forth. Often the Soviets would refer to their actions as “rendering fraternal assistance.” All those propaganda threads are present today in the war in Ukraine. A more sophisticated iteration of “liberation from Nazism” focuses on the Western public, while its cruder form targets domestic, Russian audiences. About the speaker: Dr. Chodakiewicz holds the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies at The Institute of World Politics and leads IWP’s Center for Intermarium Studies. At IWP, he also serves as a Professor of History and teaches courses on Contemporary Politics and Diplomacy, Geography and Strategy, Mass Murder Prevention in Failed and Failing States, and Russian Politics and Foreign Policy. He is the author of Intermarium: The Land Between the Black and Baltic Seas and numerous other books and articles. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and has previously taught at the University of Virginia and Loyola Marymount University.
This lecture is part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Spring Symposium in honor of Lady Blanka Rosenstiel sponsored by the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies and the Center for Intermarium studies. About the lecture: The current crisis in Ukraine has understandably evoked not only worldwide sympathy for the appalling plight of the Ukrainian people but also admiration for the magnanimous Polish response to the consequent mass exodus of refugees. These developments, however, serve to obscure the complex historical reality of Polish-Ukrainian relations in the modern era. This presentation offers an objective and impartial assessment of a generally tense and often violent symbiosis. About the speaker: Peter Stachura held a Personal Chair in Modern European History at the University of Stirling (UK), where he was also Director of The Centre for Research in Polish History. He is now Director of the independent Research Centre for Modern Polish History and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London. Professor Stachura has published extensively in his primary research specialisms of Weimar Germany and the Second Polish Republic.
This lecture event is part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Spring Symposium in honor of Lady Blanka Rosenstiel sponsored by the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies and the Center for Intermarium studies. About the lecture: This talk will provide a broad overview of Germanic expansion into Eastern Europe which provides the historic background to Hitler’s Eastern Dream. About the speaker: Joseph Poprzeczny holds a Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Western Australia, where he also majored in Economics. He has been a part-time tutor (American and Soviet Politics), 1971-1972, at the University of Western Australia; full-time Teaching Fellow (British and Chinese Economic History), 1973-1975, Monash University, Melbourne; and part-time tutor (South-East Asian history course), 1982, Murdoch University, Perth. He has worked for various federal politicians as an electoral officer and researcher. This eventually led him to become a journalist with various State and national publications before he retired in 2015. In 2004 his book, Hitler’s Man in the East, Odilo Globocnik, was published in America. He is currently working on two other unconnected research projects.
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