Return of Great Powers Conflicts:
Will the next war be at home?
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
NSF Hybrid Event
In-Person at
Tamarack Casino
13101 S. Virginia St, Reno, NV
(Park and enter using Banquet Hall door on the north side of the building)
Breakfast served 8:00-9:00am, Forum 9:00-10:15am
Virtual on Zoom
Forum 9:00-10:15am PST
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DmIR2V2qTDiceiYQK1F2qQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Prof Bert Tussing
US Army War College, Director of Homeland Defense and Security Issues
INVITED DISCUSSANTS:
Prof Barbara Walker
UNR, Professor of Russian History
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For most of our upcoming programs we will be meeting at Tamarack Casino in South Reno. When you turn into the parking lot turn right and follow the signs for the “Banquet Room.” Park anywhere on the northside of the building and enter via the walkway into the reception hall for the banquet room. We will see you there!!! You can always email Kimberly at: [email protected] or me at: [email protected] if you have questions or need more information about the location.
And now for the details about our upcoming breakfast forum on Tuesday October 15th…
“The next time we got to war…war will be coming to us?” (Prof Bert Tussing,“Toward a Strategy for National Security Emergencies”)
For most of the last two centuries, and certainly the last seven decades, the United States has had the good fortune to rely on a national security posture rooted in deterrence and military engagement overseas. In the post 9/11 era the US military has been primarily focused on wars and counterinsurgency actions against non-state actors in numerous theaters around the world. Concurrently, the rise in catastrophic natural disasters driven by global warming has demanded significant and growing resources and personnel time from both our active duty and reserve military units.
Looking forward, the ”over there” approach to fighting wars may be less effective with the return of great powers with autocratic leaders on the global stage. Russia’s attack on Ukraine, China’s military advancements, North Korea’s ongoing nuclear threats, and Iran’s sponsorship of terrorist groups across the Middle East, all point to an increased risk of US military confrontation with state as well as non-state actors. Compounding this is the rapid increase and use of novel conventional and cyber weapons along with unabashed nuclear saber rattling by state actor adversaries, increasing the risk of escalation and potential attacks on the US homeland.
Both the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense have critical roles in protecting the homeland from attacks at home and aboard. And both Departments have critical assets and resources needed to respond to catastrophic natural disasters such as devasting hurricanes and explosive western wildfires. How will we respond to both at the same time if the next war comes to us?
“The confluence of emerging and reemerging nation state threats, alongside foreseeable natural catastrophic incidents/complex catastrophes of national scale, compels the United States to develop a Strategy for National Security Emergencies. The US should re-imagine Homeland Security in view of the reemergence of nation state threats, and the potential of direct attacks against critical functions and domestic national interests.” (Prof Bert Tussing, “Toward a Strategy for National Security Emergencies”)
To help us understand how we need to think differently and more holistically about homeland defense and security to counter the rise of state actor adversaries, NSF is honored to have Prof Bert Tussing, Director of Homeland Defense and Security Issues at the US Army College, as our guide. Prof Tussing will share insight on the shifting threat environment and imperatives for developing and implementing a new strategy for national security emergencies. Prof Barbara Walker will join the discussion to provide context about how the Ukraine war has challenged our thinking about Russia’s role in the world and what that means for the US in the future.
Together our panelists will guide us through a rapidly changing threat environment and ways to be better prepared to counter these threats. Please join us for a very important and timely program and be ready to share your thoughts and questions with our speakers.
Professor Bert Tussing is the Director of the Homeland Defense and Security Issues Group at the U.S. Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership and Development. He joined the Center in October 1999 following nearly 25 years in the United States Marine Corps. He has served on three Defense Science Boards, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Beyond Goldwater-Nichols Study, and on the Senior Advisory Group for DoD’s “Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support.” He is a senior fellow on George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute and Long Island University’s Homeland Security Management Institute; a member of the Board of Experts for the University of California-Irvines’ Center for Unconventional Security Affairs; a member of the Pennsylvania State University’s Homeland Defense and Security Council; and on the Homeland Security Board of Advisors for Kansas State University and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. In 2009, he served on Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, assisting in the development of the Department’s first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, and has recently been asked to serve as an advisor to the second iteration of that review. He is a Distinguished Graduate of both the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the Naval War College, and holds Masters Degrees in National Security Strategy and Military Strategic Studies.
Barbara Walker, PhD, has published on a broad range of historical topics in the area of Russian and Soviet intellectual life and its economic foundations, social organization and culture. More recently, she has branched out to explore the nature of expertise, specifically “information expertise,” in her current book project, A War of Experts: Soviet and American knowledge networks in Cold War competition and collaboration. Her book will present the intertwined stories of a variety of lively and committed “information experts” in the Cold War United States and Soviet Union, including early electronic computer designers, U.S.-Soviet research exchange scholars, journalists and Soviet dissidents. Information professionals in the area of intelligence make their appearance too. The book focuses on the efforts of these ambitious, often passionate “experts” to multiply their numbers and to expand the influence of their expertise in this period. To accomplish these goals, they built on networks and traditions reaching back into the 19th century, in which lay the origins of the professionalization of expertise in many areas. Walker’s research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Thomas Watson Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the International Research Exchange (IREX), American Councils, the Hoover Institution at Stanford, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the University of Nevada, Reno, Core Humanities Program and others.
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