Military Power: Does it Work?
The City University of New York

Does military intervention work? What is the role of non-military and multi-national groups in regime change and peace-keeping efforts?

Three distinguished participants discuss their perspectives on peace keeping and regime change. Featuring Alex de Waal, program director of the Social Science Research Council, General Barry McCaffrey, four-star general of the United States Army (retired), and Thomas Ricks, The Washington Post's Special Military Correspondent.

Thomas Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science at The Graduate Center moderates. 


Alex de Waal - Alex de Waal is a writer and activist on African issues, a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University, the Director of the Social Science Research Council program on AIDS and social transformation and the director of Justice Africa in London. A graduate of Oxford University with a D.Phil. in social anthropology, he has dedicated his career to studying the effects of famine, war, genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and has been instrumental in mobilizing responses to these problems. In 2005, he joined the African Union Mediation Team for the Darfur conflict and is still closely involved in the search for a lasting solution. His books include Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan, AIDS and Power: Why there is no Political Crisis - Yet, and, most recently, Darfur: A New History of a Long War.
General Barry McCaffrey - Barry McCaffrey served in the United States Military for 32 years and retired as a four star general. At the time of his retirement, he was the most decorated serving general in the military. During his thirteen years overseas, McCaffrey served four combat tours of duty. From 1992 to 1994, he served as Lt. General on the Joint Chiefs of Staff Pentagon staff and was also the Special Assistant to General Colin Powell. He also served as Major General on the Army Pentagon staff and commanded 26,000 soldiers during Desert Storm. He was awarded twice with both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star for valor. Following his distinguished military career, General McCaffrey was appointed, by a unanimous Senate vote, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Clinton administration. He has traveled extensively throughout the world as an official representative of the United States and is a frequent presence in the media, having appeared in over 6,000 television stories and over 15,000 newspaper articles. He is currently president of his own consulting firm based in Arlington, Virginia that provides strategic, analytic, and advocacy consulting services to businesses, governments, and international organizations. He also serves as a national security analyst for NBC News.
Thomas E. Ricks - Thomas E. Ricks is a Washington Post Pentagon and military correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-winner. Ricks lectures widely to the military and is a member of Harvard University's Senior Advisory Council on the Project on U.S. Civil-Military Relations. Ricks is the author of the bestselling books Making the Corps, A Soldier's Duty, and Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq.
Thomas G. Weiss - Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science at The CUNY Graduate Center and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, where he is co-director of the UN Intellectual History Project. He is President (2008-9) of the International Studies Association, chair (2007-9) of the Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS), and was awarded the Grand Prix Humanitaire de France 2006. As Research Professor at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies (1990-98), he also held university administrative posts (Associate Dean of the Faculty, Director of the Global Security Program, Associate Director), was the Executive Director of ACUNS, and co-directed the Humanitarianism and War Project. Earlier, he was the Executive Director of the International Peace Academy (1985-9); a Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva (1975-85); and held professional posts in the Office of the UN Commissioner for Namibia, the University Program at the Institute for World Order, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, and International Labor Organization. He has been a consultant for foundations and numerous inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations and was editor of Global Governance (2000-5) and research director of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2000-2).