2016 Tufts ALLIES Civil-Military Relations Conference
The annual Tufts University Civil-Military Relations Conference (CMRC) proudly brings together members of ALLIES (Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services) and leading “voices from the field” to discuss civil-military relations in a functional context. The third annual CMRC focused on “Changing Wars in a Changing World: Adapting to the Challenges of Modern Warfare.” The conference consisted of a panel, dinner, and keynote on Friday, November 11, 2016, followed by a second panel, breakout sessions and a diplomatic crisis scenario on Saturday, November 12, 2016.
Through this multi-day event, students examined two parallel trends: the growth of new forms of military combat, and recent changes in the military’s role in promoting global health. The first panel, “Defining War in the Twenty-First Century,” examined new conceptions of defining and fighting wars in the modern world. The second panel, “New Front Lines: America’s Military in the Fight Against Disease,” explored the role of the armed forces in advancing global health and fostering global stability.
Keynote Speaker:
T. Anthony Jones, Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Northeastern University, specializes in issues of long-term global change and how nations and populations respond to change
Panel Descriptions
“Defining War in the Twenty-First Century”
Panelists:
James Walsh, Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina
Catherine Lotrionte, Director of the Institute for Law, Science, and Global Security at Georgetown University
James Hasik, Nonresident Senior Fellow for Defense at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security
Proliferation of information technology has produced a host of new domains for the use of force. Whether through cyber attacks, drone strikes, or social media, groups in conflict utilize different components of hybrid warfare in pursuit of their aims, creating new challenges for policymakers. In the interconnected, global world that is the twenty-first century, ideological supremacy and cultural influence can, in some ways, demonstrate greater superiority over one’s opponents than territorial gains.
Questions for Panelists
- How have the ways wars are fought changed over the past twenty years, and how might they change in the years to come?
- To what extent is the U.S. military enabling these trends, and how are the armed forces reacting to them with regard to both training and strategy?
- To what extent are U.S. pre-existing moral, legal, and political norms adaptable or impermeable to such changes?
- How does the use of force differ among state sanctioned and non-state actors?
- How do these trends affect civil-military relations in the United States?
“New Front Lines: America’s Military in the Fight Against Disease”
Panelists:
Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of State Captain
Ezra Barzilay, U.S. Public Health Service, Technical Lead for the National Public Health Institute Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Commander Franca Jones, Chief of the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System
Many low- and middle-income countries traditionally lack the resources and infrastructure necessary to maintain functional public health and disease control systems. This issue can easily be exacerbated due to political and social turmoil, creating a debilitating impact on the state of global health. A globalized world has caused health concerns to permeate borders, triggering a series of pandemics that are no longer country-specific. Many diseases, like HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Polio, and Zika, are of international concern that merit and often require military intervention.
Questions for Panelists
- To what extent is there a correlation between improving global health and increasing global stability?
- To what extent does the U.S. military have a role in protecting global health?
- What challenges are associated with promoting global health?
- How does increased military involvement in the public health sector impact the relationship and cooperation between the armed forces and non-governmental actors?
Diplomatic Crisis Negotiation Simulation:
The Diplomatic Crisis Simulation tests individuals’ abilities to negotiate with other actors and react to unexpected challenges on the international stage. Students assume the roles as the senior diplomats of various fictional countries overseen by an advisor from the Fletcher School. In attempting to maintain peace while advancing their national interests, participants grapple with difficult moral and political choices that test their understandings of how the world does and ought to work.
The archived 2016 CMRC can be found on Eventbrite here, and on Facebook here!
Full Schedule can be found here.