Johns Hopkins SAIS hosts book discussion with author Eliot Cohen on "The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force" on Feb. 2, 2017
MEDIA ADVISORY
The Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies presents a discussion with author and Johns Hopkins SAIS Director of Strategic Studies Eliot A. Cohen on his new book, The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force.
The discussion will feature Strategic Studies practitioner-in-residence Ambassador Eric Edelman and Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs Hal Brands.
With a new and unpredictable commander-in-chief in the White House, The Big Stick is advancing public discourse about American power and the array of threats and foreign policy challenges facing the nation. Cohen argues that hard power—military force—is essential to American foreign policy. Rather than diplomacy being an alternative to military means, the two must work together. He contends, moreover, that this combination of hard and soft power should be used in service of the global order the United States has helped create and sustain for over seventy years. The alternative is, in the long run, not merely a disorderly but a violent and chaotic world which would advantage no one, including the United States.
Moderator
Thomas Mahnken, President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Senior Research Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS
Time and Date
4:45 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Location
Johns Hopkins SAIS
Kenney Herter Auditorium
1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Register
The event is open to the public and media, with registration. Members of the working press can RSVP through the online registration form. Camera setup will only be permitted from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Media Contact
Nate Thompson
Johns Hopkins SAIS
202.587.3251 office
202.360.3039 mobile
[email protected]
About the Speaker
Eliot Cohen is the author of influential works on strategy, civil-military relations and military history. His 2002 book, Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime, is in widespread use around the world, particularly in staff colleges and advanced military curricula. In 2011 he published Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles Along the Great Warpath that made the American Way of War, a prize-winning study of how conflicts in this area have shaped American approaches to conflict to the present day. From 2007 to 2009 Cohen was the Counselor of the Department of State, an undersecretary-rank official serving as the Secretary’s and the Department’s principal adviser on foreign policy. He joined the Johns Hopkins SAIS faculty in 1990 and currently directs the Strategic Studies program and the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies.
About Johns Hopkins SAIS
A division of Johns Hopkins University, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a global institution that offers students an international perspective on today's critical issues. For more than 70 years, Johns Hopkins SAIS has produced great leaders, thinkers, and practitioners of international relations. Public leaders and private sector executives alike seek the counsel of the faculty, whose ideas and research inform and shape policy. Johns Hopkins SAIS offers a global perspective across three campus locations: Bologna, Italy; Nanjing, China; and Washington, D.C. The school’s interdisciplinary curriculum is strongly rooted in the study of international economics, international relations, and regional studies, preparing students to address multifaceted challenges in the world today.
For more information, visit sais-jhu.edu or @SAISHopkins
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