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Welcome to the "Empires" program of the National War College, located at Fort Lesley J. McNair, in Washington, DC, and part of National Defense University. This page is hosted by the National War College Alumni Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing the mission and goals of the College.
For those new to the NWC's History & Strategy Roundtable: The purpose of the "Empires" series is simply to take a sophisticated and explicitly historical look at the experience of past imperial powers, always with an eye towards the United States' current "imperial" issues. Normally our speakers do not address these current issues overtly in their prepared remarks—but they seem to emerge pretty naturally in the open exchange that follows. Events are free and open to the public, or at least to that part of the public willing and able to make it through Fort McNair's security arrangements. Announcements and invitations, however, are sent only to a select e-mailing list.
Previous topics in the series have included: "The Rise and
Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power,"
by Niall Ferguson (Stern Business
School, NYU, and Jesus College, Oxford University); "The Empire of
the Roman Republic" by University of Maryland historian
Arthur Eckstein; "The Holy Roman Empire of the German
Nation: Invalid or Incubator?" and "The Austro-Hungarian Empire:
Decline, Fall & Disaggregation, 1815-2000," by Purdue University
historian Charles Ingrao; "The
Ottoman Empire and Its Legacy in the Arab World," by Faruk
Birtek (Bogazici University, Istanbul); "U.S. Special
Operations Forces and the Problem of Imperial Policing," by journalist
Robert Kaplan; "American Empire"
by Boston University's Andrew Bacevich;
and "American Empire: Past and Future," by Yale historian John
Lewis Gaddis. [Not a complete list]
The event format is:
1700 — refreshments in the rotunda.
1730 — speaker delivers a short talk (preferably no more than 30-40
minutes)
— followed
by a free-form Q&A with audience members.
1900 — the formal session always ends promptly at this time, but
the speaker—travel schedule permitting—normally remains available
to talk with individual participants.
1930 — dinner for the speaker, the event coordinator, and interested
event participants (the latter must, unfortunately, pay their own way),
at a local DC restaurant.
AY2009 "EMPIRES" Evening Speaker Series
The AY2009 program has been delayed due to extensive building renovation and rehabilitation projects. At this point, it appears safe to say that the program will have to be re-started for AY2010.
AY2008 "EMPIRES" ARCHIVE
The
AY2008 "Empires" series focused exclusively on Rome.
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w/links to Slides |
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| Arthur Eckstein, University of Maryland | "Creating the Roman Juggernaut: How Rome Broke Out from the Pack of Classical City-States" | |
Eckstein Bio | |
| Jon E. (Ted) Lendon, University of Virginia | "Rome Turns to the Dark Side: The Destruction of Carthage and Corinth, 146 BC" | |
Lendon UVA homepage | |
| Arthur Eckstein, University of Maryland | "Imperial Expansion and the Collapse of the Republic" | |
Eckstein Bio | |
| Jon E. (Ted) Lendon, University of Virginia | "Counter-Insurgency in the Middle East: Rome and the Jewish Wars" | |
Lendon UVA homepage | |
| Jeanne Rutenburg, University of Maryland | "Religion and Empire: Constantine's Strategic Decision to Embrace Christianity" | |
Rutenburg Bio | |
| .This is an experimental website containing full-length videos of each of our AY2008 discussions. We're still playing with it, so expect technical problems. These videos are in QuickTime format (.mov). |
We also have some videos made for NWC's "Empires" elective,
which are in Windows Media Video format (.wmv). Some are also
available in Flash video format.
Dr. Arthur Eckstein (University of Maryland),
"The
Empire of the Roman Republic"
Dr. Charles W. Ingrao (Purdue University),
"Habsburg
Empires"
Directions to the National War College
Visiting NDU
Driving
Subway/VRE
MARC
DoT Shuttle Bus (USCG HQ is right next to Fort McNair)
Entrances and Parking at Fort McNair
Street Map of Downtown Washington Showing Fort McNair