[ONLINE] - Defining Endless Wars: The First Step Towards Ending Them

What is Endless War? According to many who work on foreign policy, it is little more than a politicized “myth” or “trope” that does little to contribute to analysis of America’s wars. In a new report, New America Senior Policy Analyst David Sterman makes the case that not only is endless war definable as a concept and has a long history when it comes to thinking about warfare. In the report, Sterman also presents a framework for analyzing the factors that have helped give America’s counterterrorism wars an endless character, including the decision to pursue unlimited objectives of defeating terrorist groups rather than more defined limited objectives.

To discuss this new report, and America’s long counterterrorism wars, New America welcomes Dr. Alexandra Stark, Senior Researcher with New America’s Political Reform program and previously a research fellow at the Middle East Initiative of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Dr. Jason Fritz, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins' Center for Advanced Governmental Studies whose research focuses on peacebuilding, fragile and conflict states, and the intersection of security and development, and who served in the U.S. Army in Iraq from 2002 through 2008.

Join the conversation online using #EndingEndlessWar and following @NewAmericaISP.

PARTICIPANTS

David Sterman, @DSterms
Senior Policy Analyst, New America

Dr. Jason Fritz, @JasonFritz1
Lecturer, John Hopkins Center for Advanced Governmental Studies

MODERATOR

Dr. Alexandra Stark, @AlexMStark
Senior Researcher, New America Political Reform program