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SHAFR Opinion

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

by Michael Hunt

Crossposted from Michael Hunt’s Washington and the World blog.
There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter.
Henry Kissinger is a good example of the wrong-headed. This policy heavyweight, [...]

Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Harry Truman administration: 1945-1953, Military affaris, Policymaking--American, Vietnam: 1945-1961, Vietnam: 1961-1975 | No Comments »

LGBT Equality and The Limits of Human Rights

by Laura Belmonte

Last October, a bill was introduced in the Ugandan parliament that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.  The bill also calls for the extradition of Ugandans who engage in homosexual sex in other countries and for criminal penalties for individuals, media, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and [...]

Posted in Africa, Human Rights, International Organizations, Internationl law and treaties, Post-Cold War: 1991-2001, Uganda, World Health Organization | No Comments »

Thinking about Remembering

by Molly Wood

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and even though I have not lived there for many years, I still visit regularly. I often think that my decision to become a historian stems in part from the stories of my family history told to me by grandparents and other relatives. I learned from my grandmother, for [...]

Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Iraq War: 2003-present, United States, Vietnam: 1961-1975, World War I: 1914-1918, World War II: 1939-1945 | No Comments »

Germany to Greece: Drop Dead

by William Glenn Gray

Germans have chosen to work; Greeks have chosen leisure. For this reason, Germans are furious with Greece for accumulating an unsustainable debt burden and thereby undermining the solidity of the European currency. But the self-righteous anger in Berlin may itself call into question the political basis of the Euro.

Posted in European Union, Foreign aid, Gerald Ford administration: 1974-1977, Germany, Greece, International Economic Relations, International Organizations, International Trade and Economics, Western Europe | No Comments »

Diplomats Among Warriors

by John Prados

In Afghanistan at the moment (February 2010), U.S. Marines, allied troops, and Afghan government soldiers are embarked on an offensive at a town called Marja in Helmand province. American commander-in-chief General Stanley A. McChrystal here makes the first expression of the strategy that underlies the appeal for reinforcements that led to the Obama administration “surge” [...]

Posted in Afghanistan, Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Early Cold War: 1945-1961, Historiography, Military affaris, Terrorism, Theory and Ideas | No Comments »

Is Wartime a Time to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

by Mary Dudziak

As the Obama Administration moves (slowly) toward repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, one argument in opposition is that the nation is at war, and significant changes in the military should not take place during wartime. One response to that point is that all hands are needed during heightened military deployments, and it harms American [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Bill Clinton administartion: 1993-2001, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, Military affaris, Terrorism | No Comments »

Beware Presidents’ Use of History

by John Prados

We are told that history plays as tragedy and repeats as farce. But perhaps that is changing. In the summer of 2007 President George W. Bush invoked the Vietnam analogy to justify an equally or more tragic war in Iraq. And in the West Point speech announcing his new strategy for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama [...]

Posted in Afghanistan, Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Terrorism, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vietnam: 1945-1961, Vietnam: 1961-1975 | No Comments »

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News

SHAFR 2011 Annual Meeting Call for Papers

August 16, 2010

The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) invites proposals for panels and individual papers at its annual conference to be held June 23-25, 2011 at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia. The conference theme is Waging War, Making Peace, Crossing Borders. In order to receive full consideration, proposals should be submitted no later than December 1, 2010. Please see the conference website for more information.

SHAFR Announces Events at the January 2011 AHA Meeting

August 10, 2010

SHAFR will host several functions at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Boston in January 2011. Members and friends are encouraged to attend all events.

  • SHAFR Reception (cash bar)
    Friday, January 7, 2011: 5:30 PM-7:30 PM
    Marriott Boston Copley Place, Exeter Room
  • SHAFR Luncheon ($25)
    Saturday, January 8, 2011: 12:00 PM-2:00 PM
    Turner Fisheries, 10 Huntington Avenue
    Lloyd Gardner, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, will deliver the keynote address entitled “`Dien Bien Phu in the Hindu Kush’ — or Something Else? Rhetoric in the Late American Empire.”
    SHAFR will also distribute the Myrna F. Bernath Fellowship, the Stuart L. Bernath Dissertation Research Grant, the W. Stull Holt Dissertation Fellowship, the Lawrence Gelfand-Armin Rappaport Dissertation Fellowship, the Michael J. Hogan Foreign Language Fellowship, the Samuel Flagg Bemis Dissertation Research Grants, and the William Appleman Williams Junior Faculty Research Grants.
    Tickets for the lunch cost $25. NEW THIS YEAR: tickets must be ordered via the AHA—be sure to purchase your ticket when you register for the conference.
  • SHAFR co-sponsored panel: “U.S. Global Power and Transnational Perceptions of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, from the 1967 War to the Camp David Accord”
    Friday, January 7, 9:30-11:30 am
    Hynes Convention Center Room 305

SHAFR Member Robert K. Brigham Nominated for AHA Council-Teaching Division

July 5, 2010

SHAFR member Robert K. Brigham has been nominated for the AHA Council-Teaching Division.  Ballots will go out in August.