Guide to the Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Records SC1058

Daniel Hartwig & Jenny Johnson
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
August 2011
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford 94305-6064
specialcollections@stanford.edu


Language of Material: Undetermined
Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, records
creator: Stanford University. Center for International Security and Cooperation
Identifier/Call Number: SC1058
Physical Description: 13.75 Linear Feet and 33382.4megabytes
Date (inclusive): 1970-2013
Physical Location: Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36-48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html.

Scope and Contents

The History Project records include organizational files, files about Fellows, and biographical files about visiting speakers. Audiovisual material is comprised of recordings of CISAC workshops and conferences recorded on audiocassettes and VHS videocassettes. Restricled Files include donor information, salary information, recommendations, endorsements, reviews, etc.

Biographical/Historical note

The Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), is an interdisciplinary university-based research and training center addressing some of the world's most difficult security problems with policy-relevant solutions. The Center is committed to scholarly research and to giving independent advice to governments and international organizations.
The Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) traces its origins to the Vietnam War and the mass teach-ins that took place on campus during that turbulent era. At one of the gatherings, political scientist John Lewis, a noted China scholar, met physicist Wolfgang (Pief) Panofsky, then director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), and Stanford law Professor John Barton. The three men, Lewis recalled, found that the students had little knowledge about war and how security policies are developed. In response, the scholars decided to create a teaching environment in which students from different disciplines could examine international security matters and understand how government policy is formed.
In 1970, their class, "Arms Control and Disarmament," focused on nuclear weapons and efforts to control them through treaties and negotiations. Today, the descendant of that class is still team-taught by CISAC faculty every winter quarter under the name, "International Security in a Changing World." Over time, this course has influenced thousands of Stanford undergraduates.
In 1973, the Ford Foundation awarded Stanford a grant to develop a course on arms control and an accompanying textbook. International Arms Control: Issues and Agreements (subsequently published in two editions; the second, edited by Coit Blacker and Gloria Duffy, became the standard textbook on the subject.) A year later, the foundation gave the fledgling program a five-year grant for training, research and outreach activities. In 1978, along with three other university-based centers, Stanford's "Arms Control Program" received Ford Foundation endowment funds that Stanford subsequently matched. When the match was finalized in 1983, Stanford's Center for International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) was established. John Lewis and SLAC physicist Sidney Drell were the Center's first two co-directors, a structure maintained ever since.
From early in its history, CISAC emphasized a three-part mission, which continues today:
To produce policy-relevant research on international security problems; To teach and train the next generation of security specialists; To influence policymaking in international security.
From inception, the Center focused on the study of U.S.-Soviet-China relations, arms control and nonproliferation, and the technical aspects of international security issues. In 1983, Carnegie Corporation of New York gave CISAC a grant to bring mid-career scientists to the Center to work on international security issues. Ever since, CISAC has brought scientists, social scientists and policy experts to the Center as fellows.
After Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, CISAC was able to foster deeper ties with the Soviet academic and policy-making communities. In 1990, when Gorbachev visited Stanford and gave a lecture on cooperation and reconciliation between the two longtime adversaries, he singled out the efforts of Stanford and CISAC researchers in bridging Cold War hostilities.
The end of the Cold War reduced many security dangers but increased others. As new challenges emerged, CISAC's research agenda adapted accordingly. New areas of study included the safeguarding of nuclear weapons and the study of internal and regional wars, peacekeeping operations, and peace settlements.
In 1998, CISAC moved to larger quarters in Encina Hall and changed its name--in reflection of its broadened mandate--to the Center for International Security and Cooperation. The Center continued to mentor visiting fellows and expanded its teaching activities by establishing an undergraduate honors program in international security studies in 2000.
After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the center's research agenda broadened again to include questions of terrorism and counterterrorism. Work at the Center continues to reflect the ongoing and emerging security challenges worldwide. For example, senior scholar-practitioners such as CISAC'S William Perry and George Shultz at Hoover, the center's first co-directors Sid Drell and John Lewis, former visiting scholar James Goodby, and faculty members David Holloway and Scott Sagan--are working with a vision to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide, with a focus on practical steps that can be taken now.
From its roots in the teach-ins of the Vietnam War, CISAC's mission continues to focus on making useful and relevant contributions to peace and security. By promoting cross-disciplinary research that tackles complex challenges in innovative ways, by training the next generation of security experts and by using knowledge to influence policymakers, CISAC works for a safer, more secure world.

Access to Collection

Restricted files closed until January 1, 2086. Otherwise the collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 48 hours in advance of intended use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.

Publication Rights

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the University Archivist, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of University Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

Preferred Citation

[identification of item], Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Records (SC1058). Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Arrangement note

The materials are arranged in five series: 1. Administrative Records; 2. Audiovisual Material; 3. History Project Records; 4. Restricted Files; 5. Photographs.

Provenance

The materials were transferred from the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), 2011.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

International relations -- Congresses.
International law -- Congresses.
International relations -- Study and teaching.
International relations.
Security, International.
Stanford University. Center for International Security and Cooperation

 

Administrative records

box 4, folder 1-2

External review 2008 Dec 4-5

box 4, folder 3

Strategic planning retreat 2008 Oct 22

 

Audiovisual material

box 2

Welcome and Introduction: Dr. O. E. Jones and Dr. R. L. Rinne, Day One, Tape 1. 2.1

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

Panel I: BG. Richardson, J. Morse, Prof. York, Prof. Bowne, Day One, Tape 4. 2.2

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

Panel I: BG. Richardson, J. Morse, Prof. York, Prof. Bowne, Day One, Tape 5. 2.3

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

The Interplay among TNF Policy Studies and Exercises. Mr. Phillip A Karber. Day One, Tape 6A. 2.4

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

The Interplay among TNF Policy Studies and Exercises. Mr. Phillip A Karber. Day One, Tape 6B. 2.5

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

TNF and the Berlin Crises. Ms. Kori Schake, Day Two, Tape 1. 2.6

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

The Sword and Shield Strategy of the Early 1960s: Gen. Johannes Steinhoff (Ret.), Day Two, Tape 2. 2.7

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

Panel II: Prof. C. M. Kelleher, Grig. Gen. R.C. Richardson, Gov. Steinhoff, Amb. S. Weiss, Day Two, Tape 3. 2.8

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

Panel II: Questions and Answers, Day Two, Tape 4. 2.9

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

Panel: Dr. R Pfaltzgraff (Interviewer), Dr. L. Davis, Gen. D. Starry, Gen. W. Smith, Dr. J. Thompson, Dr. R. Wagner, Day Three, Tape 2A. 2.10

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

The Evolution of Soviet TNF Thinking, Maj. Gen. E. B. Atkeson (Ret.), Day Three, Tape 3. 2.11

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

Studies, Analysis, and Exercise Influence on TNF Requirements, Mr. R. Stivers, Day Three, Tape 4

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

US Nuclear Weapons in Europe: A German Perspective 2.13 1996 Aug 26

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

US Nuclear Weapons in Central Europe: Prospects and Priorities, Prof. David S. Yost 2.14 1996 Aug 20

Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (vhs)
box 2

Nuclear Risk Communication Workshop, Tape 1 2.15

Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s)
box 2

Nuclear Risk Communication Workshop, Tape 3 2.16 2002 May 20

Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s)
box 2

Nuclear Risk Communication Workshop, Tape 5 2.17

Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s)
 

The Face of Battle 2011

The Face of Battle: 2011

 

History Project records

box 1, folder 1

Mailings to Members

box 1, folder 2

Drell, Sidney- Resignation

box 1, folder 3

Drell, Sidney - papers, presentations

box 1, folder 4

Goodby, James - articles and papers (1 of 2)

box 1, folder 5

Goodby, James - articles and papers (2 of 2)

box 1, folder 6

Goodby, James - Payne Lectureship

box 1, folder 7

Shultz, George

box 1, folder 22

Shultz, George, Hoover/US

box 1, folder 8

Perlman, David

box 1, folder 9

Bio - M. Granger Morgan, Carnegie Mellon/US

box 1, folder 10

Bio - Ken Sheely, DOE/US

box 1, folder 11

Bio - V. S. Arunachalam, Carnegie Mellon/US

box 1, folder 12

Bio - Steven Aoki, DOS/US

box 1, folder 13

Bill Desmond - DOE/US

box 1, folder 14

Matthew Bunn, Harvard US

box 1, folder 15

Fissile Materials Workshop - Workshop Substance 1997 Jul

box 1, folder 16

Vladimir Sukhoruckin

box 1, folder 17

Bio - Lothar Kock, Germany/EU

box 1, folder 18

Kun Jai Lee, ROK

box 1, folder 19

Bio - Gennady Pshakin, Russia

box 1, folder 20

Laura Holgate - DOD/US

box 1, folder 21

Bio - John Immele, DOE/US

box 1, folder 23

Yuri Volodin, Russia

box 1, folder 24

Fissile Materials Workshop

box 1, folder 25

Bio - Zafar Iqbal Cheema - Pakistan

box 1, folder 26

Roger Howsley - UK

box 1, folder 27

Bio - Hiroyoshi Kurihara, Japan

box 1, folder 28

Anselmo Paschoa, Brazil

box 1, folder 29

Bruno Pellaud, Austria/IAEA

box 1, folder 30

S. Rajagopal, INDIA

box 1, folder 31

Bio - Gotthard Stein, GERMANY

box 1, folder 32

Bio - Zhang Xingqian

box 1, folder 33

Managing Military Uranium and Plutonium in the United States and the Former Soviet Union, by Matthew Bunn and John P. HOldren

box 1, folder 34

Managing Military Uranium and Plutonium in the United States and the Former Soviet Union, by Matthew Bunn and John P. Holdren

box 1, folder 35

Adlai Stevenson III (1 of 3)

box 1, folder 36

Adlai Stevenson III (2 of 3)

box 1, folder 37

Adlai Stevenson III (3 of 3)

box 1, folder 38

Hon. Motoo Shiina

box 1, folder 39

Henry Rowen

 

Restricted files

Scope and Contents

Files include donor information, salary information, recommendations, endorsements, reviews, etc. Restricted until January 1, 2086.

Access to Collection

Restricted 75 years from date of creation.
box 3, folder 1

Abrams, Herbert

box 3, folder 2

Duffey, Gloria

box 3, folder 3

George, Alexander

box 3, folder 4

Goodby, James appointments, 85 and 89 1985, 1989

box 3, folder 5

Goodby, James 1994

box 3, folder 6

Goodby, James evaluation: Snr. Res. Scholar 1994

box 3, folder 7-9

Goodby, James 1996-1997

box 3, folder 10

Panofsky, Wolfgang

box 3, folder 11

Oskenberg, Michel

box 3, folder 12-13

Rice, Condoleezza

box 3, folder 14

Titarenko, Mikhail

 

Photographs 1990-2013

Photographs: 1990-2013

 

Photograph albums

box 5, folder 1

CISAC Events 1997 Oct

box 5, folder 2

CISAC Events 1996-1997

box 5, folder 3

CISAC Events 1990s

box 5, folder 4

CISAC Events

box 6, folder 1

CISAC Events 2000-2001

box 6, folder 2

Portraits 2000

box 6, folder 3

CISAC Events 2000 Mar

box 6, folder 4

CISAC Events (1 of 2) 1998-1999

box 6, folder 5

CISAC Events (2 of 2 ) 1998-1999

box 7, folder 1

CISAC Events 2000

box 7, folder 2

CISAC Events 2000

box 7, folder 3

CISAC Events, Part II (1 of 2) 2000-2001

box 7, folder 4

CISAC Events, Part II (2 of 2) 2000-2001

box 8, folder 1

CISAC 2003-2004

box 8, folder 2

CISAC 2003-2004

box 8, folder 3

CISAC Events 2003-2004

box 8, folder 4

CISAC Events 2003

box 8, folder 5

CISAC Events 2000-2001

box 9, folder 1

CISAC Photos 2007-2008

box 9, folder 2

CISAC Events 2006-2007

box 9, folder 3

CISAC 2006-2007

box 9, folder 4

CISAC Photos 2005-2006

box 9, folder 5

CISAC 2004-2005

box 10, folder 1

Photos 2010-2013

box 10, folder 2

Photos

box 10, folder 3

Sally Ride

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Ride, Sally.
box 10, folder 4

New Century Seminar 2001

box 10, folder 5

CISAC 2008-2009

 

Born-digital images 2009-2012

 

CISAC ambassadors 2012 Feb 1

Physical Description: 376 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

CISAC honors ceremony

 

2011 Jun 14

Physical Description: 92 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

2012 Jun 16

Physical Description: 101 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

CISAC people

 

2009 Dec 2

 

Carlin, Robert 2009 Dec 2

 

Crenshaw, Martha 2009 Dec 2

 

Diffie, Whitfield 2009 Dec 2

 

Flynn, Stephen E. 2009 Dec 2

 

Richardson, Jeffery H. 2009 Dec 2

 

2011 Sep

 

2012 Dep 24

 

2013 Sep 30

 

Cyber security 2012 Jan 13

Physical Description: 112 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

Drell Lecture

Scope and Contents

The Drell Lecture is an annual public event sponsored by CISAC. By tradition, the Drell lecturer addresses a current and critical national or international security issue that has important scientific or technical dimensions. The Drell Lecture is named for Sidney Drell, CISAC's founding science co-director. Albert and Cicely Wheelon generously endowed the lectureship.
 

Sherman, Nancy. The Moral Wounds of War: The War Within 2011 Sep 22

Physical Description: 73 computer file(s) (jpg)

Scope and Contents

The author of the acclaimed The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers provides a unique analysis of the moral weight of warfare through the lenses of philosophy and psychology.
 

Thirteen Days -- and Fifty Years Later: What Have We Learned from the Cuban Missile Crisis? 2012 Sep 22

Physical Description: 90 computer file(s) (jpg)

Scope and Contents

Fifty years ago, the Soviet Union and the United States stood on the brink of nuclear war. For thirteen days in October 1962, people around the world held their breath and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis. This distinguished panel will discuss and debate the crisis from the perspectives of Moscow and Washington, and consider what history has taught us since those thirteen days in 1962.
SPEAKERS David Holloway - CISAC, History, and Political Science, Stanford Scott D. Sagan - CISAC and Political Science, Stanford Strobe Talbott - President, Brookings Institution Joe Cirincione (moderator) - President, Ploughshares Fund
 

Ethics of the Draft 2010 Dec 2

Physical Description: 92 computer file(s) (jpg)

Scope and Contents

SPEAKERS David Kennedy - History, Emeritus at Stanford Eliot Cohen - Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins Jean Bethke Elshtain - Social and Political Ethics at University of Chicago Divinity School Scott D. Sagan (moderator) - (Moderator) Political Science at Stanford
Should citizens be required to serve their country by fighting for it? Do we think differently about the decision to go to war when only a small number of citizens will fight it? Do volunteer armies and draft armies fight differently in combat?
This panel discussion focuses on the draft versus the volunteer army in the U.S. Our distinguished panelists examine "who should fight" in a democracy, focusing on the ethical dimension of a state's system of military service.
Who should fight? It is no idle question in an era in which thousands of U.S. troops are fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq to protect Americans back home. In fact, the answer has profound consequences for the way policymakers make decisions about how these wars are waged. On Dec. 2, scholars from Stanford, the University of Chicago, and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University examined this issue as part of the Stanford Ethics & War Series, co-sponsored by the Center for International Security and Cooperation. Their conclusion: there is a wide and troubling divide between the 2.4 million Americans who volunteer to serve in the military and the many millions more who choose not to.
The statistics are revealing: During World War II, some 16 million men, and several thousand women, served in the military, representing 12 percent of the U.S. population. They came from all walks of life, and those who stayed home made sacrifices of their own for the greater war effort. But while the U.S. population has more than doubled since then, the military is now just 4 percent of the size it was in the 1940s. At the same time, today's wars require virtually no sacrifice at home, and those who enlist come from an extremely narrow demographic segment of the U.S. population. According to Stanford historian David Kennedy, who spoke at the event, in 2007, only 2.6 percent of enlisted personnel had exposure to college, compared to 32 percent of men age 18 to 24 in the general population. The military is disproportionately composed of racial, ethnic, and other demographic minorities, he noted. The political elites making the decisions about warfare seldom have children serving. Among the 535 elected members of Congress in 2008 only 10 had children in the military.
The implications of this are vast. A lack of personal familiarity for many Americans with the military breeds to some puzzling behavior, says Eliot Cohen, the Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Congressmen say they can't imagine U.S. troops committing the kinds of atrocities recorded at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; left-leaning anti-war advocates at Moveon.org refer to General David Petraeus, the highly regarded commander of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as General Betray Us. More than that, a large gap between those who make the decisions about war and those who fight it raises serious questions about accountability. The Vietnam-era draft inspired thousands of Americans to push back against Washington's decisions to expand the war. Conversely, the existence of the all volunteer army, in effect since 1973, may have one been one reason for the relatively smaller level of protest in the run up to, and the execution of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Indeed, at a 2006 Oval Office meeting with President George W. Bush, Kennedy said the president told him that if the draft had been in place he "would have been impeached by now."
The gap also raises concerns about civic unity. Earth-shaking events such as World War II and Sept. 11 brought citizens together, says Jean Bethke Elshtain, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. But sustaining that unity is extremely difficult, and becomes even more so when one segment of the population is willing to give its life to protect Americans while the vast majority go on with their lives without making any sacrifice of their own. To Elshtain, this raises a basic issue of fairness and social justice. There is a general lack of equity, she says, when "some families bear a radically disproportionate burden of service and sacrifice." As their peers "study or work or frolic, they die" in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Redressing this imbalance is an extraordinary challenge. Surely a draft would help. But it raises ethical questions of its own. There is also no political will to reinstate it. Nor, says Cohen, is it necessary or even desirable from a military perspective. A better set of solutions, he suggests, would start with expanding the depth and scope of relations between civilians and military personnel. He recommends siting military bases around the country so that civilians in New England, say, where there is virtually no military presence, can have greater exposure to an institution about which many of them know very little. Elite universities such as Stanford and Harvard, which have long prohibited on-campus ROTC activities, should start revisiting and revising their policies so that over time the military will have a wider diversity of background. Doing so might enrich the campus experience, and it could also lead to a stronger military in which the highly educated graduates of America's elite educational institutions would take a greater role influencing America's elite military institutions. For now, Kennedy observes, we have effectively "hired some of the least advantaged of our fellow countrymen to do some of our most dangerous business." And we continue down this path at our peril.
 

Lewis, John 80th birthday 2010 Nov 4

Physical Description: 399 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

Orientation 2009 Oct 5

Physical Description: 167 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

Orientation 2010 Sep 27

Physical Description: 108 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

Political Science 212S simulation 2012 May 21

Physical Description: 107 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

POLISCI 22SC: The Face of Battle (Little Bighorn) 2012

Physical Description: 987 computer file(s) (jpg)

Scope and Contents

INSTRUCTORS Scott D. Sagan - Stanford University Joseph Felter - Stanford University
Our understanding of warfare often derives from the lofty perspective of political leaders and generals: what were their objectives and what strategies were developed to meet them? This top-down perspective slights the experience of the actual combatants and non-combatants caught in the crossfire. This course focuses on the complexity of the process by which strategy is translated into tactical decisions by the officers and foot soldiers on the field of battle. We will focus on three battles in American history: Gettysburg (July 1863), the Battle of Little Bighorn (June 1876), and the Korengal Valley campaign in Afghanistan (2006-2010). In addition to reading major works on these battles and the conflicts in which they occurred, we will travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana. The course¿s battlefield tours are based on the ¿staff rides¿ developed by the Prussian Army in the mid-1800s and employed by the U.S. Army since the early 1900s. While at Stanford, students will conduct extensive research on individual participants at Gettysburg and Little Bighorn. Then, as we walk through the battlefield sites, students will brief the group on their subjects' experience of battle and on why they made the decisions they did during the conflict. Why did Lt. General Longstreet oppose the Confederate attack on the Union Army at Gettysburg? What was the experience of a military surgeon on a Civil War battlefield? Why did Custer divide his 7th Cavalry troops as they approached the Little Bighorn River? What was the role of Lakota Sioux women after a battle? Travel will be provided and paid by Sophomore College (except incidentals) and is made possible by the support of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Grubbs, David.
 

Sagan, Scott celebration 2011 Oct 24

Physical Description: 282 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

Book Launch for Philip Taubman's ''The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb" 2012 Jan 25

Physical Description: 95 computer file(s) (jpg)

Scope and Contents

SPEAKERS Philip Taubman - Author, The Partnership and Consulting Professor, CISAC Sidney Drell - Professor (Emeritus), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory William Perry - Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor, Management Science and Engineering, and Co-director of the Preventive Defense Project George Shultz - Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution
In The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb, Philip Taubman, a former editor and reporter at the New York Times, explores the lives of Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn, William Perry, and Sidney Drell, and their attempt to reduce the nuclear threat. Taubman, a CISAC consulting professor, is also the author of Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage.
 

U.N. refugee project 2012 Jun 2

Physical Description: 124 computer file(s) (jpg)
 

WAR: Ethical Challenges on the Horizon 2012 May 16

Physical Description: 92 computer file(s) (jpg)

Scope and Contents

WAR: Ethical Challenges on the Horizon Stanford Ethics and War Series
SPEAKERS Charles Dunlap (panelist) - Maj. General, USAF (Ret.), Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, Duke Scott D. Sagan (panelist) - Center for International Security and Cooperation, and Political Science, Stanford Debra Satz (panelist) - Philosophy, and Center for Ethics in Society, Stanford Scotty McLennan (moderator) - Dean for Religious Life, Stanford
The president, surrounded by his Cabinet members and senior national security and foreign policy advisors, appears grim as he declares: “This is certainly the greatest crisis I’ve ever faced as a president.”
He has ordered the deployment of U.S. forces into Syrian territory to protect civilians and establish safe zones. His Cabinet must now determine whether to order a pre-emptive strike against Syrian troops on word from the CIA that the Bashar al-Assad regime appears ready to use chemical and biological weapons stored in underground bunkers east of Damascus.
After a military briefing by the commander of CENTCOM, the president cautions those assembled at the classified briefing: “Remember, history will judge us, in part, by how thoroughly we discuss all the options today.”
With imagined top-secret memorandums from the CIA and the White House – as well as the real-deal Obama Nuclear Posture Review – some 20 Stanford undergraduate and law students dressed in suits and armed with laptops and position papers spend three hours debating the merits of an attack on Syrian forces.
Scott Sagan, a political science professor and senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), plays Obama in the class co-taught by Allen Weiner, director of the Center on International Conflict and Negotiation at the Law School.
The Ethics and Law of War class presents law and political science students with some of the political, legal and moral consequences of war. For their final simulation, they must stay in character, grill one another as policymakers and world leaders might do behind closed doors – and then defend their final decisions.
“Instead of simply learning abstract just-war theory or international law doctrine, the simulations encourage students to apply what they've learned to real problems,” says Weiner, once a legal adviser at the State Department. “This provides for much deeper awareness of the subject matter and richer appreciation of the nuances and complexities.
Scott Sagan as President Obama
Ethics & War
The class grew out of Stanford’s hugely successful, two-year War & Ethics lecture series, which concluded last month. Philosophers, writers, journalists, historians, social scientists, human rights activists and policy makers came together several times a month to grapple with the complex ethical equations of war. Co-sponsored by a dozen centers and departments across campus, the series drew big names and big crowds.
Vietnam War veterans and award winning authors Tobias Wolff – a Stanford English professor – and Tim O’Brien told a sold-out audience that writing about war was both therapeutic and heartbreaking. O’Brien was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for “The Things They Carried,” a harrowing string of stories about a platoon of American soldiers in Vietnam.
How do you write about war? “You do it sentence by sentence, line by line, character by character, even syllable by syllable,’ O’Brien told a mesmerized audience. “You dive into that wreck and try to salvage something.”
Journalist Sebastian Junger spoke at the screening of “Restrepo,” his documentary about the Afghanistan War. Stanford students and faculty performed in George Packer’s play, “Betrayed,” which illuminated the U.S. abandonment of young Iraqi interpreters who risked their lives for Washington during the Iraq War. For the final event, Debra Satz, a philosophy professor and director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, Sagan, and Charles Dunlap, a retired Air Force general who now leads the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University, debated the future ethical challenges of war.
Sagan, an expert in nuclear policy and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction who worked at the Pentagon and was a consultant to the Secretary of Defense, said the lecture series enriched his students by forcing them to pay attention and question the moral and legal underpinnings of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I was stretched, intellectually, by this series,” he said. “It encouraged me to read and discuss both fiction and philosophy that raises the same ethical issues – from a very different perspective – that we analyze in political science.”
Back to class
Weiner, as stand-in for Vice President Joe Biden, tells those assembled they must consider that within 24 hours, 6,000 American troops will be in danger. The CIA has a “high degree of confidence” that Assad has ordered the removal of the chemical weapons from the underground bunkers and transport trucks have been spotted at the sights.
“As we head into an election cycle, the difficulties of the decision that we make today will be placed under even greater scrutiny,” Weiner says.
That decision will be to make one of these hard choices:
The U.S. military withdraws its troops and avoids a military confrontation, but risks further civilian deaths and the condemnation of Arab Spring allies; Obama orders conventional airstrikes against Syrian troops, which could lead to thousands of inadvertent civilian casualties; Washington takes extraordinary measures and uses nuclear weapons to destroy the underground storage bunkers for its weapons of mass destruction. This last option likely would eliminate any chance of Syrian troops using chemical weapons, but it would open a Pandora’s box for the Nobel Peace Prize president who has pledged to work toward a nuclear-free world.
U.S. Army Col. Viet Luong as CENTCOM Commander Gen. James Mattis The students know Americans are weary of war after the WMD fiasco in Iraq and a decade-long war in Afghanistan, both of which have claimed countless lives and a trillion-plus in taxpayer dollars. Their decision – as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, among others – is weighted by the concern that Americans likely won’t re-elect a president who drags them into another costly warm, and by the fear that a successful president cannot let American troops be exposed to deadly chemical attacks.
The mock military briefing by Gen. James Mattis – played by visiting CISAC military fellow, U.S. Army Col. Viet Luong, himself a commander in Afghanistan – lays out the risks and probabilities of casualties under each scenario.
A student asks Luong which military option he would recommend.
The general prevaricates: “I’m a military guy; I tend to lean toward success and then I also consider civilian casualties. But I’m also very concerned about putting my soldiers at risk.”
Clinton, voiced by international policy student Micaela Hellman-Tincher, says she’s concerned about mission creep. “Consider the international implications of us entering into conflict,” she says.
The fake Samantha Power of the National Security Council, played by Ashley Rhoades, urges diplomatic measures and a stand-down from military conflict. “I’m not advocating in any way for inaction,” she says. “There are several diplomatic solutions. We ask that you give us 24 hours to be able to work on these diplomatic options and multilateral diplomacy.”
Such as what? Such as calling on Moscow to mediate or seeking a U.N. envoy.
The legal team from the law school lays out their arguments for why a preventive strike would be illegal under certain conventions; while a pre-emptive strike based on imminent and unavoidable threats of attack might be permissible.
Then Stanford law student Alex Weber – playing Avril Haines, legal advisor to the National Security Council – addresses the elephant in the room: the nuclear option.
“If you use a nuclear weapon, regardless of whether the Syrians use chemical weapons against our troops, you are, as Colin Powell said in the 1991 Gulf War, opening a Pandora’s Box, particularly because Syria has no nuclear weapon,” Weber says. “You are the nuclear nonproliferation president. There is a psychological button that you push that will prompt the media to take the ethical debate to new levels.”
In the end, consensus appears to be growing around an immediate preventive strike against the storage bunkers using conventional forces. The Cabinet knows this could lead to deaths on both sides, but allowing the Syrians to use chemical weapons could lead to even more.
“You can’t cut and run, Mr. President,” insists student Torry Castellano, playing White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew.
Obama says he will take their advice under advisement and all rise as he leaves the war room.