Michael Desch is Packey J. Dee Professor of Political Science and founding Director of the International Security Center at the University of Notre Dame. He has worked on the staff of a U.S. Senator, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the Department of State, and in the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service. His most recent book is Cult of the Irrelevant: The Waning Influence of Social Science on National Security…

Reading Material - To be provided Caitlin Talmadge is an Associate Professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she serves on the core faculty of the Security Studies Program. She is also Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on civil-military relations, military effectiveness, defense policy, deterrence and escalation, and Persian Gulf security issues. Her most recent book is ​ The Dictator's Army: Battlefield Effectiveness in Authoritarian Regimes (Cornell University Press, 2015). She is currently writing a book on nuclear escalation in conventional wars. Previously, she was a professor at The George Washington University, where she was also a member of the Institute for Security & Conflict Studies.…