“U.S. National Security:  Threats and Challenges”

Sanibel Harbour Resort
Fort Myers, Florida
February 16-17, 2010

The Preamble of the Constitution of the United States lists six purposes for creating the government to which the document as a whole gives form and substance.  Two bear directly on national security: to “provide for the common defense” and to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

The conditions under which these purposes must be met are quite different today than in the first half of our nation’s history.  Above all, modern science and technology have negated the isolation that our surrounding oceans once afforded.  They have also—as Churchill noted early in the last century, and as became manifest on September 11, 2001—rendered it relatively easy and inexpensive for minor powers or even relatively disorganized groups to kill large numbers of people.

This Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar will consider short- and long-term threats to American national security in light of modern circumstances.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16

5:00 p.m.  Reception

7:00 p.m.  Dinner

8:00 p.m.  “The Foreign Policy of the Obama Administration”
                Charles Krauthammer
                Washington Post

9:00 p.m.  Program concludes

 
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17

9:30 a.m.  “The U.S. and the Middle East Today”
                Michael Ledeen
                Foundation for Defense of Democracies
 
10:30 a.m.  “Hillsdale and the Defense of Liberty”
                  Larry P. Arnn
                  Hillsdale College

12:00 p.m.  Lunch

1:00 p.m.  “The Rise of China”
                Gary Schmitt
                American Enterprise Institute   

2:00 p.m.  “A Proper Policy Toward Russia”
                Richard Pipes
                Harvard University

3:00 p.m.  Program concludes

All Speakers Confirmed