Cornell

I am in Ithaca, New York preparing to teach a module on insurgency and counterinsurgency tomorrow as part of the Summer Workshop on Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS). I myself am a SWAMOS alumnus (Class of 2008), so when the great Richard Betts asked me to teach this year, I was humbled and honored to accept. The students this year seem to be a really interesting mix of graduate students, some with military experience, and I am sure the questions they ask will be excellent. So although I will not be blogging, I will be taking notes of the best questions I hear tomorrow to be discussed in blog posts when I return. I'm teaching a morning introduction to insurgency and counterinsurgency and will then lead a structured afternoon discussion of insurgency and counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. I have taught one-day seminars on counterinsurgency before, but those have been for military officers and others in government, so I have written new slides for a more academic audience. (And I assigned Chapter 5 of Kalyvas for advance reading, though I'm sure half of the students have already read the entire book.) I'm sticking around to listen in on another day of lectures and return Thursday night.