Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice by Dr. John Nagl, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army and a former president of the Center for a New American Security, is a profound education in 21st Century warfare – its theory, its practice, and the often-tortured relationship between the two.

A live discussion with counter terrorism experts Douglas Ollivant and Brian Fishman. After weeks of bombing ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, the United States is fully engaged in another military campaign in the Middle East. But many have doubts that the United States can eliminate ISIS without boots on the ground. With territory nestled between Iraq and Syria, financing from illicit oil sales, and a savvy social media operation, ISIS is more than a state in name.

More than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, most studies of the conflict focus on the twin questions of whether the United States should have entered the country in 2003 and whether it should have exited in 2011, but few have examined the new Iraqi state and society on its own merits. This is especially disconcerting in light of the recent crisis with the Islamic State.

Although they are some of the world’s foremost terrorist groups, not much is widely known about Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), one of the largest terrorist organizations in South Asia that operates out of Pakistan and was responsible for the three day siege of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 165 people. But now, former New York Times contributor Arif Jamal has documented the history, ideology, and global operations of LET and other groups in South Asia, bringing little-known facts about the dangers they pose to global security to light.

Keith Mines, Director, Latin America Program, U.S. Institute of Peace, author of Why Nation Building Matters: Political Consolidation, Building Security Forces, and Economic Development in Failed and Fragile States

December 2, 2021 5:00-6:00 pm (AZ time)

Co-sponsored with ASU International Development

Paul Kahn, Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, Yale Law School, Director, Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights.

November 12, 2021 3:00-4:00 pm (AZ time)

Co-sponsored with the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

GLA Harris,Senior Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives, Professor, Thunderbird School of Global Management, author of Women of Color in Leadership: Taking Their Rightful Place

November 10, 2021 5:00-6:00 pm (AZ time)

Co-sponsored with the Thunderbird School of Global Management 

Caleb Gayle, CEO, National Conference on Citizenship, New Arizona Fellow, New America

Co-sponsored with the Center for the Future of Arizona and the State of Black Arizona