In U.S. Foreign Policy, Is It Time to Kill All the Lawyers?
December 04, 2021
Second, it may be the case that social science has made itself irrelevant to U.S. foreign policy. For example, in his recent book, Michael Desch argues that “the privileging of complex methods and universal models over engaging substantive issues… reduced the policy relevance of the work of many academic defense intellectuals.”
American Defense Policy After Twenty Years of War
November 05, 2021
America has always been a place where the abrasion of continuous debate eventually produces creative solutions. Let’s agree on those solutions, and make the next twenty years a time of clear purpose and affirmative global leadership.
Jim Webb served as a Marine in Vietnam, as Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States Senator. He is the Distinguished Fellow at Notre Dame’s International Security Center.
National Catholic Register
Resettling Afghans Who Aided US Efforts a Matter of Justice, Some Claim
September 01, 2021
“I believe we have an obligation to give sanctuary to Afghans who worked closely with the U.S. government and military, including other NATO forces,” said Michael Desch, the director of the Notre Dame International Security Center, citing the Church’s Tradition on just war but also recent teaching on welcoming immigrants and refugees.
US may use drone strikes to destroy billions of dollars worth of military hardware left in Afghanistan
August 30, 2021
Professor Michael Desch, from the International Security Center at the University of Notre Dame, told i that the US had sent around $90bn (£65.40bn) of hardware into Afghanistan in the last 20 years, but much of that would have been on expendables “like boots, bullets, and beans.”
Afghanistan: A Requiem for an Avoidable Disaster
August 29, 2021
Most Americans can clearly agree that what they have been seeing time and again, domestically and overseas, is not good government, despite honorable intentions among many dedicated people.
Jim Webb served as a Marine in Vietnam, as Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States Senator. He is the Distinguished Fellow at Notre Dame’s International Security Center.
What Comes Next? A Lesson from Saigon
August 20, 2021
Rather than marking the eclipse of American power, withdrawal from Vietnam coincided with its spectacular increase.
Michael C. Desch is the Packey J. Dee Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Notre Dame International Security Center.
The Real Source of America’s Rising Rage
August 02, 2021
A mountain of evidence suggests that the American predilection for conspiracy theories is neither new nor growing. Joseph Uscinski and Joseph Parent, preeminent scholars of conspiracy theories, confirmed this with some original research based on letters to the editors of the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune between 1890 and 2010. Their conclusion: Belief in conspiracy theories has been stable since about 1960.
USA Today
Fact check: Claims that VP Kamala Harris refused to salute the military are missing context
March 27, 2021
Michael Desch, a professor of political science and the director of the Notre Dame International Security Center, told USA TODAY that until President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, "it was not common for the president, or other Cabinet officials, but especially the president, to return hand salutes."
Could China's Belt and Road Lead to Its Undoing?
March 14, 2021
Connectivity is politically neutral; it only accelerates and amplifies underlying trends. The same roads Rome built to conquer the world allowed the world to sack Rome.
Joseph M. Parent is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame,and Co-Director of the Hans J. Morgenthau Program on Grand Strategy. He is the author of Uniting States: Voluntary Union in World Politics, and coauthor of Twilight of the Titans: Great Power Decline and Retrenchment.
What We Are Reading Today: Promoting Peace with Information by Dan Lindley
February 28, 2021
The more adversaries understand each other’s intentions and capabilities, the thinking goes, the less likely they are to be led to war by miscalculations and unwarranted fears. But how is transparency provided, how does it actually work, and how effective is it in preserving or restoring peace? In Promoting Peace with Information, Dan Lindley provides the first scholarly answer to these important questions, says a review on the Princeton University Press website.
The Wall Street Journal
An American Belt and Road Initiative?
February 17, 2021
China is funding massive projects all over the world, and gaining influence. The U.S. can do the same.
Jim Webb is the Distinguished Fellow at Notre Dame’s International Security Center. He served as Navy secretary (1987-88) and a Democratic U.S. senator from Virginia (2007-13).