Speaker series to discuss military strategy, security and social systems

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —The College of Liberals Arts’ FORCES Initiative: Strategy, Security and Social Systems announces the inaugural event of its FORCES Initiative Guest Speakers Series to occur during the Spring 2020 semester.

The series seeks to educate and build capacity within Purdue’s student body on national and international strategy and security. The event is free and open to the public.

The series will consist of four presentations on Tuesdays throughout the semester. The series times and details are:

* Feb. 4 — 2-4 p.m. Honors College and Residences North, Honors Hall (Room 1066). Richard Samuels, Air War College faculty member, will present on “American Strategy and National Security Decision Making.” Samuels is a retired colonel from the U.S. Air Force after 30 years of active duty service. He holds a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies.

* March 3 — 2-4 p.m. Lawson Computer Science Building, Room 1142. Col. Gail E.S. Yoshitani, professor and head of the Department of History at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, will discuss “From Space Fiction to Space Shuttles: Reagan, Star Wars and Social Systems.” Yoshitani is a permanent faculty member at West Point and a part of the Army’s Military Police Corps. She received her doctorate in military history from Duke University.

* March 31 —2-4 p.m. Honors College and Residences North, Honors Hall (Room 1066). Pierre Sprey, co-creator of the F-16 combat fleet, will present on “The Weapons You Pick Can Wreck the Strategy You Want.” He has analyzed numerous other air and ground weapons and helped launch the Congressional Military Reform Caucus, which led to the passage of several military reform bills. Sprey earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Yale University and a Master of Engineering from Cornell University.

* April 21 —2-4 p.m. Lawson Computer Science Building, Room 1142. Sean Barnett, senior engineer at Rand Corp., will discuss “Implications of National Security for Energy Policy.” At Rand Corp., he works on U.S. Army operations, force structure assessments and wargaming. Barnett received a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue, a doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.

The FORCES Initiative: Strategy, Security and Social Systems was created in collaboration with Discovery Park and the Institute for Global Defense Innovation. The initiative supports the use of social scientific research in strategy and security activities to shape long-range and global military, political and organizational decision making for a just, stable and secure world.

More details on the speaker series can be found here.

Writer: Madison Sanneman, msannema@purdue.edu

Source: Robert Kirchubel, rkirchub@purdue.edu