Debate on the Role of American Military Power

Johns Hopkins University and The University of Texas at Austin

Monday, September 19, 2016  |  12:15-1:30 PM  |  Bass Lecture Hall

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Eliot Cohen is Robert E. Osgood Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He directs the strategic studies program at SAIS and the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, which he founded. A 1977 graduate of Harvard College he received his Ph.D. there in political science in 1982.  From 1982 to 1985 he was Assistant Professor of Government at Harvard, and Assistant Dean of Harvard College.   In 1985 he became a member of the Strategy Department of the United States Naval War College.  In February 1990 he joined the Policy Planning Staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and in July of that year he was appointed professor of strategic studies at SAIS.

From April 2007 through January 2009 he served as Counselor of the Department of State.  A principal officer of the Department, he had special responsibility for advising the Secretary on matters pertaining to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia, as well as general strategic issues.  He was the lead Department of State liaison with the Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan.   He represented the Department of State in interagency coordination with senior National Security Council staff, Department of Defense, and intelligence community officials on a number of issues, including the Syrian/North Korean reactor crisis of 2007, and the Somali piracy problem in 2008.

Eliot Cohen is the author of the upcoming book The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force (2017).  His other books are Commandos and Politicians (1978), Citizens and Soldiers (1985), the prize-winning Supreme Command:  Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (2002), and Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles along the Great Warpath that made the Way of War (2011).  He is, as well, co-author of Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War (1990), Revolution in Warfare? Air Power in the Persian Gulf (1995), and Knives, Tanks, and Missiles:  Israel’s Security Revolution (1998), and co-editor of Strategy in the Contemporary World (2002) and War over Kosovo (2001). 

Eugene Gholz is an Associate Professor who works primarily at the intersection of national security and economic policy. From 2010-2012, he served in the Pentagon as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, where he led initiatives to better understand the complex defense supply chain and to apply that understanding in the budget process. He also focused on policy regarding reimbursement of industry’s Independent Research and Development (IR&D) expenditures. Before working in the Pentagon, he directed the LBJ School’s master’s program in global policy studies from 2007–10.

Dr. Gholz works on innovation, defense management, and U.S. foreign policy. He is the coauthor of two books: Buying Military Transformation: Technological Innovation and the Defense Industry, and U.S. Defense Politics: The Origins of Security Policy. His recent scholarship focuses on energy security. He previously taught at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. He is also a research affiliate of MIT’s Security Studies Program, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and associate editor of the journal Security Studies. His PhD is from MIT.