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About the lecture: Most politically active Poles welcomed the outbreak of the Great War as a chance to regain independence for their nation. Polish politicians and their followers were deeply divided among themselves. There were several orientations among them vying for influence. "Russian" Poles were pro-Western and counted on the victory of the Entente and sovereignty at best, or autonomy at worst. "Austrian" Poles pursued an "Austro-Polish solution," hoping that Vienna would unite all Polish lands under the scepter of the Habsburgs. Yet, the Austro-Hungarians increasingly yielded to Prussian prerogatives. Berlin at most entertained an idea of a dwarf Polish puppet state in the central provinces of Poland. Notwithstanding, the Poles raised several armed forces by the sides of the Russian, Austrian, and, lastly, Prussian armies. Meanwhile, emigre Poles, in particular in the United States supported the pro-Entente orientation. They also fielded the largest Polish force in the field which fought first in France and then, from 1919, in Poland itself. As the empires collapsed, it was both the diplomatic effort of the Poles in the West and the valor of Polish arms at home that facilitated the resurrection and defense of the Commonwealth. Ultimately, although they enjoyed some material assistance from the United States, France, and Hungary, it was the valor of Polish arms alone that secured the reborn nation's freedom. About the speaker: Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz currently serves as a Professor of History at The Institute of World Politics, where he holds the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies. He also leads IWP’s Center for Intermarium Studies. At IWP, Dr. Chodakiewicz 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 was formerly an assistant professor of history of the Kosciuszko Chair in Polish Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He also served as a visiting professor of history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
About the lecture: It took Poland 123 years to regain its independence in 1918. Since 1772 each generation witnessed lost wars, uprisings, conspiracies, and defeats. Each new generation would continue the struggle afresh. And so it was again in 1905 and between 1914 and 1921. The Poles fought to restore the Old Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia. They benefitted from the collapse of the three empires: Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary; however, they also had to contend with folk nationalism of the non-historic nationalities, peasant nations of the Intermarium, who asserted their rights to self-determination. Warsaw was thus forced to fight several border wars, including against Germany. But it was the war against the Soviet Union that proved to be the most existential challenge not just to Poland, but to everyone else in the Intermarium. Unfortunately, the Bolshevik menace failed to unite the successor states and the Poles faced Lenin's legions virtually alone. About the speaker: Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz currently serves as a Professor of History at The Institute of World Politics, where he holds the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies. He also leads IWP’s Center for Intermarium Studies. At IWP, Dr. Chodakiewicz 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 was formerly an assistant professor of history of the Kosciuszko Chair in Polish Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He also served as a visiting professor of history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
About the lecture: The autocratic system's inefficiencies, Russia's economic backwardness, the opposition's maximalist dissatisfaction, ghoulish slaughter at the front, and food supply failures combined to trigger a revolution in the empire in February 1917. The tsar abdicated and his regime yielded to a dual power system: the center-left provisional government and the leftist revolutionary Soviet. The new arrangement led to the paralysis of the country and the collapse of law and order. Deserters and bandits, along with the peasants, wreaked havoc from below; revolutionary parties fostered anarchy from above. Eventually, after October 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power, deposing the liberals, chaos was further exacerbated by Lenin's government fostering Red Terror as state policy. In the ensuing Civil War, all possible political orientations raged against one another and against innocent bystanders. Everyone was caught in mayhem and violence, in particular helpless civilians, including traditional elites and Jews. About the speaker: Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz currently serves as a Professor of History at The Institute of World Politics, where he holds the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies. He also leads IWP’s Center for Intermarium Studies. At IWP, Dr. Chodakiewicz 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 was formerly an assistant professor of history of the Kosciuszko Chair in Polish Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He also served as a visiting professor of history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
About the lecture: Germany's final thrust to the east, coupled with revolutionary turmoil in Russia, which Berlin exacerbated greatly by its support of the Bolsheviks, brought victory to the Second Reich. The treaty of Brest Litovsk of March 1918 was an unmitigated triumph for the Germans. It not only allowed them to dominate most of the European part of the collapsing empire of the Tsars but also to establish a springboard to the future domination of the Caucasus and the Middle East. All that collapsed, however, because the United States entered the war and came to the rescue of the beleaguered and wavering Entente Powers. By August 1918 it became obvious that Germany had lost the war. Alas, instead of taking Berlin, the Powers agreed unwisely to an armistice in November 1918. Accordingly, hostilities terminated in the west, but they continued unabated in the east. About the speaker: Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz currently serves as a Professor of History at The Institute of World Politics, where he holds the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies. He also leads IWP’s Center for Intermarium Studies. At IWP, Dr. Chodakiewicz 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 was formerly an assistant professor of history of the Kosciuszko Chair in Polish Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He also served as a visiting professor of history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
This event is part of the Intermarium Lecture Series sponsored by The Institute of World Politics. About the lecture: “Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well. My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell.” So wrote Karl Marx in an 1837 poem. Those lines were, for Marx, at least partly biographical. Likewise disturbing were his openings lines in his Communist Manifesto: “A specter is haunting Europe, the specter of communism. All of the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter.” Karl Marx unleashed more than a mere economic program. The man was less an economist than a revolutionary. Marx had a favorite line from Mephistopheles, the devil character in Goethe’s Faust: “Everything that exists deserves to perish.” What Marx wanted was not a mere economic revolution; he wanted a revolution against human nature, to annihilate the entire order, to burn down the house, to undermine “all religion, all morality.” He called for the “forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.” What Marx advocated had a destructive dimension, a spiritual dimension, even a diabolical dimension. In his latest book, The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration, Dr. Paul Kengor explores this chilling side of Marx and the Marxist revolution that still rages today. Join us to hear Professor Kengor on this fascinating and disturbing subject. About the speaker: Paul Kengor, Ph.D., is a professor of political science at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania, and a New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books. He is senior director and chief academic fellow at the Institute for Faith & Freedom and former visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His articles have appeared in publications from the Washington Post and USA Today to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. He is a longtime columnist and senior editor for The American Spectator. Kengor is an internationally recognized authority on (among other topics) Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, communism, socialism, and conservatism.
This event is part of the China Lecture Series sponsored by The Institute of World Politics. About the lecture: In 2019 China began to apply noticeable military pressure on Taiwan, which has increased considerably in 2020. China now proclaims in its media almost weekly that it will invade and conquer democratic Taiwan. This mounting threat to Taiwan will be examined, in addition to why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must destroy this democracy in order to achieve hegemony first in Asia, and then the world. Yet, all is not lost, there is still time for the United States to help Taiwan deter a Chinese invasion and by doing so, prevent a dark age of CCP hegemony. About the speaker: Mr. Richard D. Fisher, Jr. is a Senior Fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center. In 2016 he joined the Advisory Board of the Global Taiwan Institute. He has previously worked with the Center for Security Policy, Jamestown Foundation China Brief, U.S. House of Representatives Republican Policy Committee, and The Heritage Foundation. He is the author of China’s Military Modernization, Building for Regional and Global Reach (Praeger, 2008, Stanford University Press, 2010, Taiwan Ministry of National Defense translation 2012) Since 1996 he has covered scores of international arms exhibits and his articles have been published in the Jane’s Intelligence Review, Jane’s Defence Weekly, Aviation Week and Space Technology, Armed Forces Journal, Far Eastern Economic Review, Asian Wall Street Journal, Defense News, The Epoch Times and the The Washington Times. He has studied at Georgetown University and received a B.A. (Honors) in 1981 from Eisenhower College.
About the lecture: This lecture will examine the misapplication of new systems in the run-up to conflict–eg French and Russian pre-WWII misunderstanding of best employment of tanks and implications for US force planning. About the speaker: Dr. Dov S. Zakheim is Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Senior Fellow at the CNA Corporation, a federally funded think tank. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton where he led the Firm’s support of U.S. Combatant Commanders worldwide. From 2001 to April 2004 he was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense, and from 2002-2004 he was also DOD’s coordinator of civilian programs in Afghanistan. From 1985 until 1987, Dr. Zakheim was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources, playing an active role in the Department’s system acquisition, strategic planning, programming and budget processes. He held other senior DOD posts from 1981-1985. Dr. Zakheim has served on numerous government, corporate, non-profit and charitable boards. He is Vice Chairman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Board of Trustees, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for The National Interest.
About the lecture: Mr. Glenn Gerstell will discuss the national security burdens that our private sector must bear due to the advent of new technology and widespread disinformation online. Please click here for Mr. Gerstell’s New Yorker article on this topic: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-national-security-case-for-fixing-social-media About the speaker: Glenn S. Gerstell served as the general counsel of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Security Service (CSS) from 2015 to 2020. He has written and spoken widely about the intersections of technology and national security and privacy. Prior to joining the NSA, Mr. Gerstell practiced law for almost 40 years at the international law firm of Milbank, LLP, where he focused on the global telecommunications industry and served as the managing partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Hong Kong offices. Mr. Gerstell served on the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which reports to the president and the secretary of homeland security on security threats to the nation’s infrastructure, as well as on the District of Columbia Homeland Security Commission. A graduate of New York University and Columbia University School of Law, Mr. Gerstell is an elected member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Earlier in his career, he was an adjunct law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and New York Law School. He is a recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service and the NSA Distinguished Civilian Service Medal.
This event is part of the China Lecture Series sponsored by The Institute of World Politics. About the book: The Indo-Pacific is fast becoming the world’s dominant region. As it grows in power and wealth, geopolitical competition has reemerged, threatening future stability not merely in Asia but around the globe. China is aggressive and uncooperative, and increasingly expects the world to bend to its wishes. The focus on Sino-US competition for global power has obscured “Asia’s other great game”: the rivalry between Japan and China. A modernizing India risks missing out on the energies and talents of millions of its women, potentially hampering the broader role it can play in the world. And in North Korea, the most frightening question raised by Kim Jong-un’s pursuit of the ultimate weapon is also the simplest: can he control his nukes? In Asia’s New Geopolitics: Essays on Reshaping the Indo-Pacific, Michael R. Auslin examines these and other key issues transforming the Indo-Pacific and the broader world. He also explores the history of American strategy in Asia from the 18th century through today. Taken together, Auslin’s essays convey the richness and diversity of the region: with more than three billion people, the Indo-Pacific contains over half of the global population, including the world’s two most populous nations: India and China. In a riveting final chapter, Auslin imagines a war between America and China in a bid for regional hegemony and what this conflict might look like. About the speaker: Michael Auslin, PhD, a historian and geopolitical analyst, is the inaugural Payson J. Treat Distinguished Research Fellow in Contemporary Asia at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and is also a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The best-selling author of four non-fiction books, he is a longtime contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his writing appears in The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Politico, and National Review, among other leading publications. Formerly an associate professor of history at Yale, he was a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and Fulbright Scholar, among other awards. He appears frequently in U.S. and foreign media, and is the Vice Chairman of the Wilton Park USA Foundation.
About the lecture: When we accept certain narratives on which national security policy rests, and those narratives are incorrect, we get ourselves into serious trouble. One is reminded about a debate in the British parliament between Winston Churchill and Mr. Chamberlain, with the latter arguing that rearming Britain to take on Germany would probably result in a diminution of free trade with Nazi Germany. To which Winston Churchill said, “shouldn’t that be the idea?” The United States in 1969-70 adopted detente and peaceful coexistence as descriptors of American security policy. At the end of World War II, we adopted the idea of containment of the USSR. We also adopted “Vietnam” to conjure up a quagmire to describe the feared end result of the use of American military force. Today, we have adopted “peaceful rise“ as the way to describe the growing military and economic strength of China; we have long held out the idea that a successful foreign policy in the Middle East had to go through the “peace process”; and successful response to 9-11 required the USA to win the “global war on terror or GWOT”. This lecture will examine how such narratives were developed and what political forces such narratives served. This lecture will also explore each of these narratives and what dead ends they led us to reach, or are still leading us, and compare them to President Reagan’s “peace through strength” strategy. We will also discuss the current administration’s policy with respect to China, the Middle East, and Russia/NATO. Reagan’s peace through strength is often described —wrongly—as no more than simple bullying—a narrative we will also address. Part of this discussion will include my own part in these foreign policy fights over the 1975-2020 period. About the speaker: Mr. Peter Huessy is President of his own defense consulting firm, GeoStrategic Analysis, founded in 1981, and since 2016, Director of Strategic Deterrent Studies at the Mitchell Institute on Aerospace Studies. He was the senior defense consultant at the National Defense University Foundation for 22 years. He was the National Security Fellow at the AFPC, and Senior Defense Consultant at the Air Force Association from 2011 Mr. Huessy has served as an expert defense and national security analyst for over 45 years, helping his clients cover congressional activities while monitoring budget and policy developments on terrorism, counter-terrorism, immigration, state-sponsored terrorism, missile defense, weapons of mass destruction, especially US-Israeli joint defense efforts, nuclear deterrence, arms control, proliferation, as well as tactical and strategic air, airlift, space, and nuclear matters and such state and non-state actors as North Korea, China, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda. This also includes monitoring activities of think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and other US government departments, as well as projecting future actions of Congress in this area. His specialty is developing and implementing public policy campaigns to secure support for important national security objectives.
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