The annual Tufts University Civil-Military Relations Conference (CMRC) proudly brings together members of Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) and leading “voices from the field” to discuss civil-military relations in a functional context. This event is hosted by Tufts ALLIES over Veteran’s Day weekend, typically the second weekend of December. In recent years, CMRC has welcomed ALLES chapters from the United States Military Academy at West Point, the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, the University of North Georgia, and Wellesley. We have also invited unofficial delegations from the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and interested parties from the greater Boston area.
CMRC is led by a team of Tufts ALLIES members, whose directors are selected by the Tufts ALLIES co-leaders of that year. The conference typically comprises several panels with experts on the conference’s topic, as well as break-out sessions for more personal conversation on those experts’ subjects of expertise. In addition to this typical conference fare, CMRC includes an extended civil-military simulation, written by members of the organization team and in which all conference members are invited to participate. Since 2016, CMRC and Tufts ALLIES have partnered with the Tufts Advocates for ROTC, bringing conference attendees to join in the Advocates’ Veteran’s Day ceremony on Tufts’ Memorial Steps and in Ballou Hall.