ASU partners with think tank for ‘Future of War’ project
Sep 4, 2014, 6:00 AM | Updated: 6:00 am
PHOENIX — While the Islamic terrorist group ISIS uses gruesome tactics to try and engage Americans into another war, Arizona State University and Washington, D.C.-based think tank New America Foundation are pairing up to engage Americans on the issues long before a conflict begins to brew.
“We’re working collaboratively,” said ASU political human rights and global studies professor Daniel Rothenberg. “There’s a team of folks based in D.C. and really significant journalists working on national security issues (and) a number of former U.S. military officials.”
He noted David Kilcullen among the experts. Kilcullen was the counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. David Petraeus during the Iraq conflict in 2007 and 2008.
But just where does ASU come in?
“We’re linking in faculty from as many different (ASU) programs as possible, because our engagement with the future of war is profoundly interdisciplinary,” he explained.
Rothenberg is co-directing the project with Peter Bergen, New America’s vice pesident. The two are comparing real world experience with scholarly research on anything related “from policies in political science and emerging technologies, such as drones, to increased surveillance capacities.”
The ultimate objective is to look at solutions on a scholarly level and share what they find with Congress, policy makers and the media to resolve conflicts before there is a war.
Rothenberg and Bergen recently collaborated on a book entitled “Drone Wars,” which goes on sale in November. The two are also teaching a class together at ASU.
