Dole Institute

Philip II "Augustus" of France
2019-10-03 00:00 (America/Chicago)
The early reign of Philip II of France was an exhibition of poor generalship, but by the early 1200s, Philip had seized most of the counties and duchies under the control of England’s King John. These victories would construct the territorial basis for modern France. Philip’s crowning victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214 was dubbed “the most important battle you’ve never heard of” by the BBC, and the result would forever change the face of Europe. An expert in medieval warfare, John Hosler will lead an examination of Philip and some of his most consequential victories.

Marine, Public Servant, Kansan
2019-10-17 00:00
The groundwork for Ernest “Ernie” Garcia’s life was laid by his ancestors through a decade of field labor, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and two world wars. Through hard work, education and some basketball, Ernie would rise to become a public servant, Marine Corps officer and the sergeant-at-arms for the U.S. Senate. Author Dennis Raphael Garcia and Ernie Garcia visit the institute to discuss his remarkable life story, his family’s American dream and the immigrant experience. This program includes a book sale and signing with the author.

The League of Wives: Heath Hardage Lee
2019-10-22 00:00
Historian and author Heath Hardage Lee specializes in telling little-known stories of dynamic women throughout history. Her latest work, “The League of Wives,” explores a group of fearless military wives that bucked convention during the Vietnam War to advocate on behalf of their POW/MIA husbands and bring them home. The book has since been optioned for film by Reese Witherspoon’s production company, while its eponymous exhibit debuted at the Dole Institute in spring 2017 and has since traveled nearly 5,000 miles to institutions across the U.S. Lee visits the institute to discuss her book, the research process and what’s next for “The League of Wives.” This program includes a book sale and signing with the author.

Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley
2019-10-24 00:00
In his book “Taliban Safari,” retired Lt. Col. Paul Darling offers an engrossing and true day-in-the-life narrative of a combat soldier in Afghanistan in 2009. From the mundane to the high-octane, Darling’s reflections will place the realities of combat into a broader perspective. Darling is both the father and son of combat soldiers, and his writing has appeared in outlets like Defense News and the Armed Forces Journal. This program includes a book sale and signing with the author.

2019 | Rep. Sharice Davids
2019-10-27 00:00
The institute is pleased to welcome U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids for the 2019 Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership Lecture. Rep. Davids serves Kansas’ third legislative district and was sworn into the 116th Congress in January 2019. A graduate of Johnson County Community College, the University of Missouri at Kansas City and Cornell Law School, she serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure and Small Business Committees. She is one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress, joining Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico. Rep. Davids’ career has focused on economic and community development and included time as a White House Fellow.

The Evolution of TV News
2019-11-13 00:00
A 2018 Pew Research Center survey reminds us that television continues to outpace online, radio and print outlets as the preferred news source for American adults. Once dominated by three networks, the rise of cable news has dramatically altered the landscape of TV journalism and political coverage. Join consultants and lecturers Michael Cascio and Ed Hersh for a discussion of how television news has evolved, challenges facing today’s outlets and what role TV journalists play in our political arena.

General Sir John Monash
2019-11-14 00:00
John Monash was a reserve colonel in the Australian army before World War I, but once the conflict began, he would become a full-time army officer. Promoted to brigadier general, major general and eventually lieutenant general, he commanded the Australian Corps on the Western Front. Monash was one of the first true advocates of combined arms warfare and had a deserved reputation for taking care of his men, going as far as to have hot meals delivered to the front lines in the midst of battle. David Mills examines Monash here, described by British historian A.J.P. Taylor as “the only general of creative originality produced by the First World War.”

Battle for the Marble Palace: The Forging of the Modern Supreme Court
2019-11-19 00:00
Author Michael Bobelian returns to the Dole Institute to explore a forgotten battle of 1968. Against a backdrop of the Vietnam War, riots during the Democratic National Convention and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, Abe Fortas was nominated to be chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The ultimately failed nomination would launch an all-out cultural war between the two major political parties — one that would determine the course of major cases for years to come. This program includes a book sale and signing with the author.

Brigadier General Frank "Pinkie" Dorn
2019-12-05 00:00
From 1942 to 1945, Frank “Pinkie” Dorn, a Chinese linguist and country expert, served in the China-Burma-India theater. Geoff Babb shares the story of Dorn, a colorful and talented officer, writer, mapmaker and artist who had previously served in China as a language student and army attaché. These duties would prepare him for his long service in this critical theater of World War II in the Indo-Pacific, including his time leading the team that trained, advised and equipped 39 Chinese divisions to go on the offensive against Japan in China and Burma.

Dr. Temple Grandin
2019-12-11 00:00
The Dole Institute of Politics will honor advocate for autistic persons and Professor of Animal Science Temple Grandin with the 2019 Dole Leadership Prize.
“Temple Grandin is a trailblazer,” Dole Institute Director Bill Lacy said. “She not only overcame widespread ignorance about autism and helped lessen the stigma around it, she used the challenges she faced to bring an entirely new perspective to how domestic animals are cared for and treated.”
Grandin will receive the 2019 Dole Leadership Prize at the Dole institute of Politics on Wednesday, December 11 at 7:00 pm following a question and answer session.
Diagnosed with autism at the age of two, Grandin did not speak until she was four. Despite her childhood doctor’s belief that she was brain-damaged, a common misunderstanding in the 1940s, she went on to earn a degree in psychology from Franklin Pierce College in 1970, a master’s degree in animal science from Arizona State University, and her doctorate in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. Today she teaches courses on livestock behavior at Colorado State University and consults with the livestock industry on facility design, livestock handling, and animal welfare. She is also a tireless advocate for autistic persons. Grandin fights for “neurodiversity,” opposing the idea of a “cure” for autism.

The War of the Fifth Coalition, 1809
2020-01-09 00:00
Convention says that Napoleon’s downfall came as a result of his misadventures in Spain, starting in 1808, and his disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. While both undoubtedly contributed to his ultimate defeat, the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 was Napoleon’s turning point. It saw his first undisputed battlefield defeat at Aspern-Essling and marked the demonstrable degeneration of both his armies and his own abilities. It ended with the humiliation of his most inveterate enemy, Austria, and the extension of French power into Eastern Europe, which angered Russia. It also witnessed a personal turning point for Napoleon, as he set aside his first wife in favor of a dynastic marriage to a Habsburg princess, Marie-Louise. However, because of his victory in the war and the drama of events in Spain and Russia, these changes are often elided or outright forgotten in the thread of Napoleon’s story. This talk will argue that 1809, more than any other Napoleonic campaign or conflict, was the turning point in his reign.
Dr. Jonathan Abel is an Assistant Professor of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College Department of Military History. He received his PhD from the Military History Center at the University of North Texas in 2014, studying late eighteenth-century and Napoleonic France. He is the author of Guibert: Father of Napoleon’s Grande Armée, along with other publications.

The Tet Offensive, 1968: The Turning Point of the Vietnam War
2020-02-05 00:00
With guest speaker Gates Brown.
The Tet Offensive of 1968 was a dramatic turning point for both the U.S. and the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War. Each had their assumptions shattered in the offensive. The North Vietnamese hoped to prove the validity of their revolutionary ideology. The success of the counterattack of the U.S.-led coalition destroyed the Communists forces but also laid bare the divisive politics of the war in the United States. Although it was a tactical and operational victory for the U.S.-led coalition, it did not translate into an improved strategic position. For the North Vietnamese, it exposed the ineffectiveness of their strategy of a people’s revolution. After the Tet Offensive, the U.S. fought for another five years in South Vietnam while the North Vietnamese continued fighting for another seven years. The offensive was decisive because it forced both sides to confront their false assumptions and each had to attempt to reconcile themselves to a new post-Tet strategic reality.
This program is free and open to the public. No ticket is required.

2020 | Presidential Speeches and Rhetoric
2020-02-06 00:00 - 2020-02-25 00:00
This year’s Presidential Lecture Series, created and developed by award-winning presidential rhetoric scholar Dr. Robert Rowland, focuses on presidential speeches and rhetoric, from the greatest speeches, to the process of speechwriting, to changes in presidential rhetoric in the age of social media. Join us for this compelling journey through the words that defined presidencies.
Robert Rowland’s major teaching and research interests are in rhetorical criticism, argumentation, and the public sphere. Dr. Rowland and his debate colleague were the 1976 National Debate Champions for KU. He is a former director of forensics at KU and at Baylor University. Dr. Rowland received the Louise Byrd Award for Graduate Teaching in May 2000. He also is a recipient of the William T. Kemper Teaching Fellowship and the Bernard Fink Award for outstanding teaching, and is a two-time HOPE Award finalist. He also has received an Outstanding Service Award from the Kansas Bar Association based on his work in Continuing Legal Education on legal advocacy. In November 2006, he was honored by the National Communication Association with the Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education. The same organization honored him in 2011 with the Douglas W. Ehninger Rhetorical Scholar Award. He is one of two people in the discipline to be honored with lifetime awards for scholarship and teaching. His co-authored book with David Frank, Shared Land/Conflicting Identity in 2002 was honored in 2003 with the Kohrs-Campbell prize in rhetorical criticism. A recent survey of journals ranked him among the fifty most published scholars in the discipline.
This series is co-sponsored by the University of Kansas Department of Communication Studies, the Department of History, and the Department of Political Science.

Five Great Presidential Speeches
2/6/2020

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
“Ich bin ein Berliner.”
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
What makes a presidential speech great?
Three renowned experts, with decades of scholarship on presidential rhetoric and countless award-winning articles and books published between them, will answer that question in this the first of Presidential Lecture Series at the Dole Institute of Politics. This program will feature a conversation about five great presidential speeches with leading experts on presidential rhetoric: Dr. Mary Stuckey from Penn State, Dr. David Zarefsky from Northwestern, and Dr. Robert C. Rowland from KU. The discussion will focus on what makes a presidential speech “great,” why they chose the works they did, and what great presidential rhetoric tells us about American democracy.
This program is free and open to the public. No ticket is required.
Mary E. Stuckey specializes in political and presidential rhetoric, political communication, and American Indian politics. She is the author, editor, or co-editor of fourteen books and author or coauthor of roughly 80 essays and book chapters. She has received the Michael M. Osborn Teacher/Scholar Award, the Rose B. Johnson Award (with Zoe Hess-Carney), the Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award, the Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award, the inaugural Carl Couch Center, Bruce E. Gronbeck Political Communication Award, and NCA’s Distinguished Scholar Award. She has served as editor of the Southern Communication Journal and the Quarterly Journal of Speech and as book review editor for Rhetoric and Public Affairs. She is Interim Editor of the Rhetoric & Public Affairs. She co-edits Peter Lang’s series with Mitchell McKinney, The Frontiers of Political Communication. Her current book project is on the history of controversial elections.
David H. Zarefsky is an American communication scholar with research specialties in rhetorical history and criticism. He is professor emeritus at Northwestern University. He is a past president of the National Communication Association (U.S.A) and the Rhetoric Society of America. Among his publications are six books and over 70 scholarly articles concerned with American public discourse (both historical and contemporary), argumentation, rhetorical criticism, public speaking, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the rhetoric of the war on poverty during the Johnson administration. His lectures on argumentation and rhetoric can be heard in a course for The Teaching Company.

The Craft of the Presidential Speechwriter
2/11/2020

Dr. Craig Smith served as a full-time speechwriter for President Gerald Ford, as a consulting writer to George H. W. Bush and as a consultant to CBS News for convention, election, and inaugural coverage. He has also explored presidential speeches as a Professor at Cal State Long Beach. Dr. Smith will engage in a dialogue about speechwriting, presidential and otherwise, sharing his unique knowledge as an award-winning scholar and also a renowned practitioner, who can provide an inside perspective on the role played by the speechwriter, how that role varies with different presidents, and how speechwriting has evolved.
Dr. Craig R. Smith has won the Ehninger Award for contributions to rhetorical theory and the Gronbeck Award for political communication, both from the National Communication Association. He has won that organization’s Robert O’Neil Award three times for scholarly papers on the First Amendment. He has won the Outstanding Professor Award from the National Speakers Association. After completing a Ph.D., Dr. Smith taught at San Diego State University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Alabama Birmingham, where he founded the Communication Studies Department. He also served as a full-time speechwriter for President Gerald Ford, as a consulting writer to George H. W. Bush and as a consultant to CBS News for convention, election, and inaugural coverage. He served as founding president of the Freedom of Expression Foundation in Washington, D.C. from 1983 to 1988. He then became a full professor at California State University, Long Beach until he retired in 2015. He has published 18 books and over 65 scholarly articles.

Comparing and Contrasting Two Powerfully Eloquent Presidents—Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama
2/18/2020

Reagan and Obama. Conventional wisdom would contend that these two presidents had little in common. The actor versus the scholar. The grandfather versus the father. The Republican versus the Democrat.
Presidential rhetoric scholar Dr. Robert C. (Robin) Rowland, of the department of Communication Studies at KU, has written extensively about the rhetoric of both President Ronald Reagan and President Barack Obama. Rowland, who presented the keynote on rhetoric at the Reagan Centennial celebration at USC and the Reagan Library and has won national awards for his research in both rhetoric and argumentation, argues that the rhetoric of Reagan and Obama is more similar than has been recognized. In a dialogue, Rowland will explore the similarities and differences between the rhetoric of Reagan and Obama.

Social Media & Contemporary Presidential Rhetoric
2/25/2020

Few events have more radically reshaped the public sphere than the rise of mass media. From radio to television to social media, the past century fundamentally altered how presidents in the United States communicate with the electorate, and how those leaders were perceived by the people. Dr. Denise Bostdorff of Wooster College has studied presidential rhetoric for more than thirty years and produced some of the most influential books and articles on that topic in that period. In a dialogue, Dr. Bostdorff will discuss key moments in the development of presidential rhetoric over the last several decades, the role of presidential rhetoric in shaping American politics, and the drastic changes in presidential rhetoric associated with the rise of social media and the presidency of Donald Trump. This series is co-sponsored by the University of Kansas Department of Communication Studies, the Department of History, and the Department of Political Science.
Denise M. Bostdorff is professor and chair of Communication Studies at The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. She has published two books—The Presidency and the Rhetoric of Foreign Crisis and Proclaiming the Truman Doctrine: The Cold War Call to Arms, which won the Bruce E. Gronbeck Political Communication Research Award. In addition, she has published essays on presidential rhetoric about race, foreign policy, political campaigns, and war in outlets such as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and Rhetoric & Public Affairs.

2020 SPRING | Spying in the Cyber Age
2020-02-12 08:00 - 2020-04-22 17:00 | The Dole Institute of Politics, 2350 Petefish Drive, Lawrence, KS, 66045, United States
Dole Fellow Ron Marks
Read more about Dole Fellows >>
The Dole Discussion Groups are made possible be a grant from Newman’s Own

Recruiting in the Cyber World – Q or Bond or Both?
2/12/2020

Ian Fleming’s legendary suave super-spy, James Bond, has imprinted himself on the collective imagination of society as what a true intelligence gathering agent looks and acts like. While this has never really been the case, the reality today is even farther afield from the tuxedo-clad, martini-swilling 007. In the digital age, do modern spies look more like Bond’s geeky, gadget-obsessed quartermaster “Q” than Bond himself? Dole Fellow Ron Marks welcomes former Chief of the Directorate of Digital Innovations Hiring for the CIA Roynda Hartsfield, who will discuss what the CIA and the intelligence community at large is looking for in a 21st century spy.
Another misconception that lingers in the minds of the public is that intelligence operatives are always agents of a government, or “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” In reality, the intelligence industrial complex has ballooned from $27 billion annually in 2001 to $86 billion today. Hartsfield and Marks will explore what this shift in the terrain means, the differences and similarities between what the public and private sectors look for when hiring new operatives, and what types of individuals should apply.
This discussion group is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to get world-class advice and information about pursuing a career in this rapidly growing industry. It is also a chance to dispel the fictions around what spies in our age look like, and perhaps for attendees to see themselves in a field they had previously relegated to “spies” like James Bond.
Roynda “Roy” Hartsfield is a recently retired senior Central intelligence Agency officer and formerly Chief of the Directorate of Digital Innovations Hiring. Roy has spent most of her career overseas focused on operational issues around the globe. She currently heads Talent Acquisition for Excel Technologies and is President of PTG Consulting focused on bringing more diversity and inclusion to STEM.

Speaking Truth to Power in the Cyber Age?
2/19/2020

E.C.H.E.L.O.N.
P.R.I.S.M.
M.Y.S.T.I.C.
These infamous mass surveillance programs not only dominated many a conspiracy-theorist blog, but also began shifting public understanding of intelligence gathering in the age of the internet. As the role of computers rose, the role of human beings seemed to diminish. The practical truth lies somewhere between the Rosenbergs and Facebook. Dole Fellow Ron Marks welcomes the Honorable Randall M. Fort, former assistant secretary of state for Intelligence and Research, as they delve into this new world where the purposes of computers and humans in intelligence gathering have shifted in unprecedented ways.
Fort is an expert on the emergence of artificial intelligence and other technological tools used in data mining and processing. In this discussion, he and Marks will explore how these emergent technologies change the intelligence game, but also how integral humans remain to the overall process. To that point, they will discuss how to utilize personal networks to collect information without competing with senior executives. Fort and Marks will serve as guides through a rapidly shifting landscape in which the technologically adept person may have the career advantage.
Randall M. Fort is director of Corporate Programs Security for Raytheon. He joined the Engineering, Technology and Mission Assurance leadership team in July 2009. Prior to Raytheon, Fort was employed at the U.S. State Department as the assistant secretary of state for Intelligence and Research, from 2006 to 2009. He managed the production and dissemination of all-source intelligence analysis for the secretary of state and other senior policymakers. Fort headed the department’s Cyber Policy Group and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research— a member of the U.S. intelligence community.
Before his U.S. State Department appointment, Fort was director of Global Security for Goldman Sachs, from 1996 to 2006, where he was responsible for all aspects of physical security risk management, including
investigations, travel safety, executive protection, risk analysis, access control, perimeter protection and security technology. He also served as chief of staff to the president and co-chief operating officer of the firm. From 1993 to 1996, Fort was director of Special Projects at TRW, Inc. for two of the corporation’s Space and Defense operating groups.
He served as the deputy assistant secretary for Functional Analysis and Research in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the U.S. Department of State from 1989 to 1993. He was also the special assistant to the secretary for National Security and director of the Office of Intelligence Support at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1987 to 1989. Prior to moving to Treasury, he served as a professional staff member, first as assistant director and subsequently as deputy executive director, of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House from 1982 to 1987.

The Lawless Cyber Frontier
2/26/2020

Nineteenth century southwestern America lit up movie and television screens and imaginations from the earliest talkies to the latest blockbusters. The lawless West and the rugged cowboy protecting the innocent are archetypes embedded in the American psyche. Westerns have, with a few exceptions, grossly romanticized a terrifying time for the men, women, and children pushing the frontier ever westward with little or no protection. The frontier a century and a half later has no oceans to arrest its forward progress, and for many, the anarchy of cyberspace has wrought havoc on their lives with few white-hat wearing lawmen to rescue them.
Dole Fellow Ron Marks welcomes Stephanie Pell, Assistant Professor and Cyber Ethics Fellow at West Point’s Army Cyber Institute, to a discussion of bringing the rule of law to a lawless frontier. Pell stands out as an expert on the existing laws of the internet, and a leader in creating new ones, particularly at the international level. As countries and companies weaponize information on a global scale, Pell and Marks will provide vital insight into how we survive the new Wild Wild West.
Stephanie Pell is an Assistant Professor and Cyber Ethics Fellow at West Point’s Army Cyber Institute (ACI), with a joint appointment to the Department of English and Philosophy. Pell is also an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.
She writes about cybersecurity, privacy, surveillance, cyber ethics, and national security law and policy. Pell’s work has been published in several law journals, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, and the Connecticut Law Review, as well as in the popular magazine Wired. Prior to joining West Point’s faculty, Pell served as Majority Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, serving as lead counsel on Electronic Communications Privacy Act reform and PATRIOT Act reauthorization during the 111th Congress. Pell was also a federal prosecutor for over fourteen years, working as a Senior Counsel to the U. S. Deputy Attorney General, as a Counsel to the U.S. Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. She was a lead prosecutor in U.S. v. Jose Padilla, in which in which American citizen was detained as an enemy combatant prior to criminal indictment, trial, and conviction on various terrorism charges, for which she received the U.S. Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award, and
in U.S. v. Conor Claxton, a court case involving IRA operatives who purchased weapons in South Florida and smuggled them into Belfast, Northern Ireland during peace process negotiations.

In Home, at Home and Abroad – How Intelligence Is Made and Used in the 21st Century
4/1/2020

The word “spy” almost drips with connotations. From James Bond to Spy vs. Spy to Black Widow, pop culture has no end of colorful characters who claim spying as their profession. One thing they all have in common is they work for a government. In the post-9/11 world, this changed, as the intelligence industry more than tripled in value. Spies much more frequently work for private firms. The burgeoning industry saw public and private organizations casting much larger nets and scooping up oceans of data. The ability to sort through so much information remains a key struggle.
Dole Fellow Ron Marks welcomes Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis & Production and former Vice Chairman for Evaluation on the National Intelligence Council, to the Dole Institute for a fascinating study of how intelligence is gathered, made, and used in an era where information flows more like Niagara Falls than a faucet. Lowenthal has run organizations both in government and the private sector, bringing a balanced perspective to a field that governments no longer monopolize. Join Marks and Lowenthal as they examine an industry that has radically transformed in the last 20 years and forever changed the definition of a “spy.”
Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, an internationally recognized expert on intelligence, is President Emeritus of the Intelligence & Security Academy, LLC, a national security education, training and consulting company. From 2002-2005, Dr. Lowenthal served as the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis & Production and also as the Vice Chairman for Evaluation on the National Intelligence Council. Prior to these duties, he served as Counselor to the Director of Central Intelligence. Dr. Lowenthal was the Staff Director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 104th Congress (1995-97), where he directed the committee’s study on the future of the Intelligence Community, IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century. He also served in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), as both an office director and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and has been the Senior Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
Dr. Lowenthal has written extensively on intelligence and national security issues, including ten books and over 100 articles or studies. He published The Future of Intelligence. His textbook, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, has become the standard college and graduate school textbook on the subject. Dr. Lowenthal is a frequent public commentator on intelligence issues.
He is on the adjunct faculty of the Johns Hopkins University and Sciences Po in Paris (Institut d’études politiques de Paris), and is a Visiting Professor at the Norway Defence Intelligence School (NORDIS). He was an adjunct for 14 years at Columbia University. He is the Executive Director of the International Association for Intelligence Education and a Chairman Emeritus of the Intelligence Committee for AFCEA. He is currently a member of the Intelligence Community Studies Board and the FBI Intelligence Analysts Association.
In 2005, Dr. Lowenthal was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Intelligence Community’s highest award. In 2006, he received AFCEA’s Distinguished Service Award for service to the Intelligence Community. In 1988, Dr. Lowenthal was the Grand Champion on “Jeopardy!,” the television quiz show.

Ghost in the Machine: Being a Reporter in the Age of Total Information
4/8/2020

On June 1, 1980, the Cable News Network launched, creating the first 24-hour news channel. It marked the first major departure from the decades-old model of television news broadcast twice a day. Then the internet swept the world, splintering not only televised news but print and radio as well. In the span of only three decades, the entire landscape of journalism changed. For most, we only see the external changes, the increasing need to curate our sources of information from an ever-increasing number of choices, but what is it like for the people who work in the field?
Dole Fellow Ron Marks welcomes his guest Jenna McLaughlin, national security and investigations reporter for Yahoo News. McLaughlin will share her experiences in working in a world-class non-traditional news agency, how she deals with the demands to constantly gather information for the 24/7 news cycle. She will also discuss how she balances the need to get the information out fast and the need to get it right.
Jenna McLaughlin is a national security and investigations reporter for Yahoo News, where she focuses on the intelligence community, foreign policy, and other issues. McLaughlin previously covered intelligence and national security for CNN, Foreign Policy Magazine, The Intercept, and Mother Jones Magazine, following her graduation from Johns Hopkins University in 2014.

The Death of 20th Century Power Structures and Adapting to the Birth of the 21st Century World
4/15/2020

Few inventions so radically re-shaped the world as the internet did in the 1990s. The pillars of society, economics, information, communication and government shook, cracked, and some even crumbled, perhaps none so dramatically as the political structures that supported and ordered the world. As of yet, no new framework has emerged to replace the old. Even the foundational idea of the nation-state as a political concept and the basis for the modern definition of a country threatens to buckle under the forces of change.
Dole Fellow Ron Marks welcomes his guest Dr. Greg Treverton, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, to examine how future leaders can cope with these tectonic changes and how to build a new framework. Treverton, the most senior intelligence analyst for President Barack Obama, will provide deep insight into what that structure might look like, as well as an understanding of how the rising power of private players, such as Facebook, challenge the power of nations.
This discussion group is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear the foremost experts in this field reflect on what brought us to our present state, how to get to the next evolution, and what your role in all of this might be.
Gregory F. Treverton is Professor of the Practice of International Relations and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California. He served as chairman of the National Intelligence Council from September 2014 to January 2017. Earlier, he directed the RAND Corporation’s Center for Global Risk and Security, and before that, its Intelligence Policy Center and its International Security and Defense Policy Center. He also was associate dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School.
He has served in government for the first Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, handling Europe for the National Security Council and as vice chair of the National Intelligence Council, overseeing the writing of America’s National Intelligence Estimates. In addition to RAND, he has taught at Harvard and Columbia universities, has been a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and also deputy director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
His latest books are Dividing Divided States and Beyond the Great Divide: Relevance and Uncertainty in National Intelligence and Science for Policy (with Wilhelm Agrell).

Everyone’s an Editor: Finding “Truth” in Cyber News
4/22/2020

Cronkite. Murrow. Brinkley.
In the not so distant past, these men dominated the American news landscape. With two channels (eventually three) to get your televised news, you watched at least one of them. They were the Gatekeepers. The Arbiters of Truth. The advent of cable news, and then internet, brought an end to the Gatekeepers. Many lauded a new era of “democratized” journalism. What emerged had the best and the worst of the “news,” and suddenly, no one was there to sort through it all to find the truth.
The internet has made everyone an editor. Dole Fellow Ron Marks welcomes his guest Shelby Coffey, former editor of the L.A. Times and US News and World Report, to discuss how dramatically the world of journalism has changed in only 40 years. Information is faster than ever and there is far more of it. In this discussion group, Marks and Coffey will teach how to cut through the noise and find the truth.
Shelby Coffey III began his journalistic career as a reporter at The Washington Post, later becoming deputy managing editor. He is the former editor of the Los Angeles Times and US News and World Report. He was President of CNN Financial News and executive Vice President of ABC News. He was named editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation in 1995. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International advisory council of APCO Worldwide and the board of the Newseum in Washington DC.

The Aisne-Marne Counteroffensive, 1918: The Turning Point of World War I
2020-03-04 00:00
Although the turning points of the American Civil War and World War II occurred in the middle of those conflicts, the outcome of the Great War was not decided until the last months of the war. The Ludendorff Offensives had pushed both sides into a deadly race against time that pitted German tactical successes against the ability of the Americans to arrive in sufficient numbers to give the Allies the crucial edge. The lecture will discuss how the Franco-American victory at Aisne-Marne changed the course of the war and convinced Ferdinand Foch that the strategic and operational advantage in the conflict had decisively shifted to the Allied cause.
This program is free and open to the public. No ticket is required.
Dr. Richard S. Faulkner is the William A. Stofft Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He served 23 years in the U.S. Army and commanded a tank company in the 1st Armored Division during Operation Desert Storm. He is the author of The School of Hard Knocks: Combat Leadership in the American Expeditionary Forces, which was the recipient of the Society for Military History’s 2013 Distinguished Book Award. His second book, Pershing’s Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I received the World War I Association’s 2017 Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Prize for the best work of history in English on World War I, the Organization of American Historians’ 2017 Richard W. Leopold Prize, and the Army Historical Foundation’s 2017 Excellence in U.S. Army History Book Award.

A Powerful, Prevailing Truth: Women in Politics a Century After Suffrage
2020-03-05 00:00
In the century since women gained the vote with the ratification of the 19th amendment, the role of women in the political sphere has increased dramatically in some ways with little advancement in others. This panel of women elected officials will share their experiences as women in politics and the importance of women in public service and the political realm.
Dr. Barbara W. Ballard is the Senior Associate Director at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas and has served as an Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Associate Dean for Student Life and the Director of the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center. Ballard also teaches for the School of Education and Department of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. Ballard is a member of the Kansas Legislature. She was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1992. Ballard serves on the House Leadership Team as the Democratic Caucus Chair and is the first African American to do so, serving over fifteen years. She is a past President of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and is the President of the NBCSL Foundation. Ballard is a past officer of the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women.
Representative Susan Concannon is serving her 4th term in the Kansas State House of Representatives, where she serves on Appropriations, Taxation and Chairman of Children and Seniors Committee. She also serves on the Bob Bethel KanCare Oversight Committee, which is charged with overseeing the state’s Medicaid managed care system. Concannon is a graduate of Bethany College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She is also an alum of Leadership Mitchell County and Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership. Since moving with her husband to Beloit in 1987, Concannon has dedicated much of her time to community service in the Beloit area. Prior to her election to the legislature, she helped start the Mitchell County Regional Medical Foundation and served as the Executive Director.
Vicki Schmidt is the current Kansas Insurance Commissioner. Previously, she spent 40 years serving Kansans as a pharmacist, oftentimes speaking out against flaws in healthcare and Medicaid. Schmidt was then elected to public office, serving as the Chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. As a state senator, she actively worked on insurance-related issues that faced families who had children with autism. Schmidt graduated from KU’s School of Pharmacy.
Representative Ponka-We Victors has served in the Kansas House of Representatives since 2010 and represents the 103rd district of Wichita, Kansas. She is the first Native American woman to serve in the Kansas Legislature and is the daughter of Juan and Sandra Victors, both alumni of Haskell Indian Nations University. Victors is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation of Arizona and Ponca tribe of Oklahoma. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Wichita State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Newman University.
This event is co-sponsored by the Political Science Department of KU.

Guadalcanal, 1942: The Turning Point of the Pacific Theater in World War II
2020-04-02 00:00
Dr. Kuehn’s talk will dispute the claim that the Battle of Midway is the turning point of the Pacific War and offer an argument that the campaign on Guadalcanal from August 1942 to early February 1943 constitutes the actual turning point in the war. This presentation examines the campaign from this vantage point and emphasizes how what began as the seizure of an undefended island airfield turned into a war of attrition on land, sea, and air between the Empire of Japan and the United States and its allies.
Dr. John T. Kuehn is Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He retired from the U.S. Navy in 2004 at the rank of commander after 23 years, serving as a naval flight officer flying land and carrier-based aircraft. He has taught a variety of subjects, including military history, at CGSC since 2000. He authored Agents of Innovation, A Military History of Japan: From the Age of the Samurai to the 21st Century, Napoleonic Warfare: The Operational Art of the Great Campaigns, and co-authored Eyewitness Pacific Theater with D.M. Giangreco as well as numerous articles and editorials and was awarded a Moncado Prize from the Society for Military History in 2011. His latest book from Naval Institute Press is America’s First General Staff: A Short History of the Rise and Fall of the General Board of the Navy, 1900-1950. During 2016-2017 Dr. Kuehn served on CNO Admiral John Richardson’s Fleet Design Advisory Panel assessing congressionally mandated architectures for the fleet of 2030.

1941: The Turning Point in the Holocaust
2020-05-07 00:00
Few years in modern history have been as eventful as 1941. For most Americans, the December 7 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor resonates as the year’s signal event, an action that thrust the United States into World War II. For the Soviet Union and its clients, Operation Barbarossa, the sudden Nazi attack of June 22, earns the distinction as the most eventful, as the Wehrmacht turned its mechanized might onto its erstwhile ally. 1941 also marked the beginning of the Shoah, the designed destruction of the Jews of Europe. During the 1930s, Hitler’s regime had applied ever-increasing methods of persecution onto the Jews of Germany and other European countries as they were occupied. Before 1941, the Nazi actions were primarily designed to dispossess the Jews of their wealth and compel their emigration. Coincident with Barbarossa, however, persecution turned into a more generalized European slaughter; it was the great turning point in the Holocaust.
This program will stream live on our YouTube channel.
Dave Cotter is the Director of the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has been a faculty member since 2009 and was previously a member of the Department of History at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. He has an M.A. in History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, an M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, and an M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Gratz College. In addition to the history curriculum, he is active in the Genocide and Mass Atrocities Studies Seminar at the Staff College. In the past year, he has made genocide-related presentations to the Society for Military History, the Watson Institute at Brown University, the Dole Institute of Politics, and the Naval War College. Dave is a retired military officer with 32 years of experience, including multiple combat deployments and command at battery, battalion, and brigade levels.

Barbarossa’s Siege of Rome, 1167: The Turning Point for Medieval Italy
2020-06-04 00:00
In an effort to thwart the ambitions of his political rivals, the Hohenstaufen ruler Frederick Barbarossa invaded Italy in 1167 with the goal of driving all the way to Sicily. Following successful sieges in northern Italy, he took his army to Rome: he captured the city on July 24 and then stirred its citizens into revolt against Pope Alexander III, who was forced to flee to Benevento. Six days later, Barbarossa installed an antipope (Paschal III) on St. Peter’s throne, and Paschal, in return, crowned him Holy Roman Emperor. Matters abruptly changed thereafter. A destructive storm and widespread plague ultimately drove the emperor out of Rome and back north, into the waiting arms of the Lombard League, a coalition of sixteen Italian cities that had formed an alliance against him. What followed was a series of military defeats and humiliating near-captures as Barbarossa frantically tried to escape to Saxony. It was the beginning of the end of imperial control over northern Italy: in 1176, the Lombard League decisively defeated Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano, and in 1183 he granted its members the right to self-governance. In the following century, the Italian Renaissance was born in these independent states.
This program will be live on our YouTube channel.
John D. Hosler is an Associate Professor of Military History at the Command and General Staff College. An expert in medieval warfare, he is the author of The Siege of Acre, 1189-1191: Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, and the Battle that Decided the Third Crusade, which was named a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year.

A Conversation on Race Part I
2020-06-16 00:00
The justifiable outrage over the death of Mr. George Floyd has spread across the United States and beyond. As thousands of people take to the streets demanding racial justice, the need for civil and thoughtful discourse has scarcely been more acutely felt in the history of our country. The Dole Institute’s mission is to provide the forum for exactly this kind of important and uncomfortable conversation.
“A Conversation on Race” will be hosted by Senior Associate Director Dr. Barbara Ballard and will feature Dr. Roosevelt “Rose” Barfield and Cherylyn Harley LeBon as her guests. This program will be the first in an ongoing series on race-related issues with additional installments to be announced at a later date. Ballard, who serves in the Kansas State Legislature since 1993, will welcome Barfield and LeBon back to the Institute, as both were Dole Fellows in the past. Barfield served in the U.S. Army for 32 years, retiring as a Brigadier General, and LeBon worked extensively in national politics, including as assistant administrator for Intergovernmental Affairs for George W. Bush.
This special program will be live-streamed to the institute’s YouTube channel and to its website, www.doleinstitute.org. Due to continuing concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic, the program will only be available online. Follow the Dole Institute on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for updates regarding this and future programming.
Barfield served in the U.S. Army for 32 years, retiring from active duty in 2009 as a Brigadier General. He served as a Military Legislative Assistant to the U.S. Senate from 2008 to 2009. He was the guest speaker for the Dole Institute Student Advisory Board program in Fall 2010 and was the Spring 2013 Dole Fellow. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Consilium Group and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
LeBon was the assistant administrator for Intergovernmental Affairs for the George W. Bush administration, working with the White House, Governors, and local and state officials coordinating disaster relief, economic development, and financial assistance. She also served as Senior Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. She was the Fall 2017 Dole Fellow and is currently a partner with the law firm Dunlap, Bennett & Ludwig.

Let the Shameful Wall of Exclusion Come Down: The 30th Anniversary of the ADA
2020-07-21 00:00
On Tuesday July 21st, the George & Barbara Bush Foundation will convene key activists, advocates and policymakers who helped make the Americans with Disabilities Act a reality for a bipartisan celebration of that landmark civil rights legislation – and, equally important, focus on the challenges that will shape the future of the disability movement. Dole Institute of Politics Associate Director and Director of Museum and Archives Audrey Coleman will be among the guests for the discussion.
The 90-minute online program, titled “Let the Shameful Wall of Exclusion Come Down,” taken from President Bush’s remarks on July 26, 1990 as he signed the ADA, starts on July 21st at 12:30 pm Central and will be moderated by Judy Woodruff, the managing editor and anchor of PBS’ NewsHour.

Commemoration of 30th Anniversary of the ADA
2020-07-26 00:00
The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement is joining the Dole Institute of Politics, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate, George Bush Presidential Library & Museum and George W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum to host a virtual rally commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 2020.
Hosting the rally virtually on Twitter and Instagram will not only allow participants to socially distance but also increase accessibility for people who might face physical barriers to attending an in-person event. Renowned disability rights activists, including Senator Tom Harkin (retired), Senator Bob Dole (retired), Judy Heumann and Claudia Gordon will speak at the event.
The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was known as the Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities at the time it was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990.
For more information about the rally and the 30th anniversary of the ADA visit The Harkin Institute’s website or contact Emily Schettler, emily.schettler@drake.edu, 515-205-6319.

The Battle of Shiloh, the Turning Point of the American Civil War
2020-08-06 00:00
Civil War fans often point to Antietam or Gettysburg as the turning point of the war, but overlooked is the night of April 6, 1862, when Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee was teetering on the edge of annihilation on the banks of the Tennessee River. The day had begun with a surprise attack by Confederate forces near Shiloh Church and had witnessed the heaviest fighting of the war to date, through places like the Hornets’ Nest and Hell’s Hollow. That evening, Grant’s subordinates all advised an immediate retreat, but he chose to stay and fight, a decision that resulted in the most significant turning point of the Civil War.
Watch the live-stream of this program on our YouTube channel.
Harry S. Laver is a professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, who specializes in the American Civil War and World War II Europe. His recent publications include A General Who Will Fight: The Leadership of Ulysses S. Grant (University Press of Kentucky, 2013), and as co-editor, The Art of Command: American Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell (University Press of Kentucky, 2nd ed., 2017). From 2013 to 2014 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the National University of Ireland at Maynooth. In 2017 he was selected as the Educator of the Year in Department of Military History at the Staff College.

1979: The Turning Point of the Cold War
2020-09-03 00:00
President Carter had a visceral dislike of the CIA and its use of covert missions. However, he overcame his initial perception when he saw an opportunity to use the CIA and its covert action as a means to increase the pressure on the political and social systems of the Soviet Union. Using the tenets of the Helsinki Accords as a means to advance the cause of human rights and civil liberties, Carter used the CIA as a critical tool to support the Solidarity Movement in Poland, as well as the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Though credit for these efforts tends to fall to the presidency of Ronald Reagan, it was, in fact, President Carter, who saw this unique opportunity to pressure the Soviet Union on its human rights record. Carter’s efforts represent a critical turning point in the last decade of the Cold War.
This program will be live-streamed to the institute’s YouTube channel and its website, www.doleinstitute.org. Due to continuing concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic, the program will only be available online. Follow the Dole Institute on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for updates regarding this and future programming.
Dr. Sean N. Kalic
Kalic, a Professor in the Department of Military History at the US Army’s Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he has taught since 2004, is a Cold War scholar, who has written on the militarization of space, the global war on terrorism, US space policy, Cold War espionage, and the Russian Revolution. Additionally, he has presented lectures for the Slovenian General Staff, the Slovenian Command and General Staff College, the US Naval War College, and the US Army’s Futures Study Group.

Francesca Chambers and MJ Lee
2020-09-09 00:00
As we head into what promises to be a highly contentious election season, journalism has never been more vitally important. However, the media landscape is undergoing turbulent change with older media giving way to social media. Join CNN Political Correspondent MJ Lee and McClatchy White House Correspondent and KU graduate Francesca Chambers as they discuss the 2020 elections and the state of journalism in America. This event is co-sponsored by the KU Journalism and School and the Political Science Department.
This special program will be live-streamed to the institute’s YouTube channel and to its website, www.doleinstitute.org. Due to continuing concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic, the program will only be available online. Follow the Dole Institute on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for updates regarding this and future programming.
Francesca Chambers is a White House Correspondent for McClatchy. She previously held the position of Senior White House Correspondent at DailyMail.com and its Emmy-winning, syndicated newsmagazine DailyMailTV. She is a proud graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, from which she also has a BA in political science.
MJ Lee is a correspondent for CNN covering politics, campaigns, and national breaking news stories. She is currently covering the 2020 presidential elections. Before joining CNN, Lee was a finance and politics reporter at Politico in Washington, DC. She was born in South Korea and grew up in Hong Kong. She has a bachelor’s degree in government and Chinese from Georgetown University.

Marines Return to Vietnam
2020-09-10 00:00
In 1967, John Musgrave was wounded in Vietnam. More than fifty years later, he, along with fellow marine John Solbach, journalist Lindsey Foat, and historian Bill Tuttle, returned to the Southeast Asian country. In this program, the four guests will discuss this experience and what it was like to return while sharing images from the trip captured by Musgrave’s son, Daniel.
Lindsey Foat spent ten years working as a reporter, producer, and community engagement expert at Kansas City PBS. She led the station’s content and engagement efforts focused on veterans, including award-winning, local documentary, and innovative engagement initiatives for Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War. Through that work, she was lucky to work with and befriend John Musgrave and joined him on his return trip to Vietnam. Currently, Lindsey is the Content and Communications Director at the Rabbit hole, which is an immersive museum for children’s literature.
Dan Musgrave is a writer and photographer with a particular interest in the intersections of the human and animal world. At the moment his efforts are mainly directed toward a collaborative memoir with his father, probing the interpersonal and intergenerational ramifications of combat. Dan’s work has earned recognition from the Iceland Writers Retreat, Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Odyssey Writing Workshop, and several literary magazines and journals. He is a registered member of the Osage Nation, and an alum of Grinnell College.
John Musgrave was born in 1948 in Independence, Missouri—a suburb of Kansas City. After high school he enlisted in the Marine Corps, ultimately becoming a member of the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. He served in Vietnam for 11 months before being permanently disabled by his third wound at the battle of Con Thien in November 1967. After returning to the states, John studied at Baker University in Baldwin City, KS, where he struggled with PTSD and suicidal tendencies. Eventually, he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War, participating in protests in Washington, DC, and elsewhere around the country. After years of struggle, depression, and heart-searching, he learned to cope with his PTSD, though as with most veterans, that would remain a lifelong process. He has worked extensively with other veterans in suicide-prevention programs such as the National Veteran’s Wellness and Healing Center, and the U.S. Army’s Worldwide Stand-Down for Suicide Awareness. In recent years he has been particularly focused on post-9/11 vets.
John Solbach is a Lawrence attorney who served in Vietnam with the 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines Lima Company in 1967 and 1968. He served in the Kansas legislature for 14 years. He lives with his wife on a farm west of Lawrence
William M. Tuttle, Jr., is Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of Kansas. In support of his research, Bill Tuttle has been awarded major fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Henry A. Murray Research Center, Radcliffe College. He has also held residential fellowships at the Institute of Southern History, Johns Hopkins University, the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University, and the Stanford University Humanities Center.

2020 CONSTITUTION DAY | Kansas in the U.S. Supreme Court
2020-09-15 00:00
KU Law Professor Lou Mulligan leads guests: Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas, Lauren Bonds; Professor of Law Emeritus at Boston University School of Law, Larry Yackle and Constitutional Law Professor, Josh Blackman through a discussion of three of the most important cases appearing before the Supreme Court this fall.
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia – questioning whether religious organizations should be exempt from generally applicable laws that impinge upon religious practice.
Jones v. Mississippi – questioning whether and how juveniles may be imprisoned for life sentences.
California v. Texas – questioning the constitutionality of the ACA, i.e. ObamaCare.
This program is sponsored by Mark P. Johnson.
This special program will be live-streamed to the institute’s YouTube channel and to its website, www.doleinstitute.org. Due to continuing concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic, the program will only be available online. Follow the Dole Institute on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for updates regarding this and future programming.
South Texas College of Law Houston Professor, will discuss California v. Texas. Professor Blackman is co-counsel for an amicus party and filed a brief in the case. Professor Blackman earned his JD from George Mason University Law School and his BS from Pennsylvania State University.
Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas, will discuss Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The ACLU is an amicus party in the case. Ms. Bonds earned her JD from Duke, and her BA from KU, where she was an All-American athlete.
Lumen “Lou” Mulligan joined the KU Law faculty in 2010, where he teaches predominantly civil litigation courses. He was named as an Earl B. Shurtz Research Professor in 2019. Mulligan also teaches undergraduate classes in the KU Honors Program. Mulligan served, or continues to serve, on the Kansas Judicial Council – Civil Rules Advisory Committee, the executive committee of the appellate section of the Kansas Bar Association, the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeal Criminal Justice Act Panel, the board of directors for Kansas Legal Services, and the Kansas Court of Appeals Mediation Study committee. Mulligan frequently offers testimony to the Kansas legislature as well. Mulligan continues with representation in court, most often in an amicus curia or pro bono capacity.
Boston University Law School Professor, will discuss Jones v. Mississippi. Professor Yackle is co-counsel, an amicus party, and filed a brief in the case. Professor Yackle earned both his JD and BA from KU in addition to an LLM from Harvard Law School.

2020 FALL | Politics, Pandemic and Protests
2020-09-23 00:00 - 2020-11-18 00:00
Unpacking the 2020 general election with the Dole Institute’s fall fellow, Collen McCain Nelson, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Vice-President of the Kansas City Star.
Dole Fellow Colleen McCain Nelson
Read more about Dole Fellows >>
The Dole Discussion Groups are made possible by a grant from Newman’s Own.

Election 2020: The State of the Race
9/23/2020

As the 2020 presidential campaign enters the final sprint to the finish, we’ll kick off this fall discussion series by assessing the state of the race after a tumultuous and unpredictable spring and summer. Which states are likely to decide this election? What issues and messages are resonating with voters? This will be a broad overview of the political landscape and a prelude to future Dole Institute events, touching on campaign strategy, fundraising, and the state of play in the battle for control of Congress.
Allan J. Katz served as Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Portugal from March 2010 until August 2013. Upon returning to private life, Ambassador Katz joined the University of Missouri in Kansas City (UMKC) as a Distinguished Professor where he served from 2013 until 2019. In 2019, he joined the faculty of William Jewell College as Distinguished Professor in Residence. Additionally, in 2014, he founded and remains CEO and Chairman of an NGO, American Public Square, which brings together non-like-minded people to engage in civil, fact-based dialogue about polarizing issues. He serves as Executive Committee Chair of the Academic and Corporate Board to ISCTE Business School in Lisbon, Portugal. Additionally, he serves as a non-executive Board Member of EDP Renewables (global energy company, a leader in the utilities sector and part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index), a board member of the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Foundation, and a former board member of the International Relations Council of Kansas City.
Kevin Yoder is a 5th generation Kansan who represented the 3rd District of Kansas for four terms from 2011-2019. During his entire tenure in Congress, Kevin served on the House Appropriations Committee, where he chaired both the Homeland Security and the Legislative Branch Subcommittees. He regularly crossed the aisle working with members of both parties to push for key initiatives, including historic expansion of medical research funding at the National Institutes of Health and new investments in early childhood education programs like Head-start. Prior to serving in Congress, Kevin was elected four times to the Kansas State Legislature representing Overland Park and Leawood, and he served as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Kevin is a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Why did everyone underestimate Joe Biden?
9/30/2020

Even though Joe Biden entered the 2020 Democratic presidential primary as the front-runner, many political pundits and journalists lost confidence in the former vice president along the way, writing his political obituary and declaring him an also-ran who had missed his moment. How did they get this race so wrong? And at a moment when it appeared that Sen. Bernie Sanders was gaining steam and possibly emerging as an unstoppable force, how did Biden quickly change the narrative and begin to unify the party?
Edward-Isaac Dovere is a staff writer for The Atlantic, where he covers the presidential campaign. He got his start covering politics in his native New York and was the senior White House reporter for POLITICO in Barack Obama’s second term. He is currently working on a book about Democrats in the Trump years, tentatively titled, “You Are Right to Be Concerned,” out spring 2021.
Peter Nicholas is a White House reporter for The Atlantic. He has also worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Times-Picayune newspaper.

How the Coronavirus Has Upended the 2020 Campaign
10/7/2020

With relatively little warning, the coronavirus pandemic brought the 2020 presidential campaign to a virtual halt, cancelling candidates’ rallies for months, throwing the conventions into limbo, shutting down in-person fundraisers and making gladhanding and personal appeals to voters an impossibility. For a time, President Donald Trump was confined to the White House, and Democratic nominee Joe Biden was forced to campaign from his basement in Delaware. How did the campaigns adapt? And how is COVID-19 still altering the dynamics of the race?

It’s the Economy, Stupid
10/14/2020

Conventional wisdom has long suggested that presidents win reelection when the economy is strong and lose when the economy is faltering. Will that hold true in the 2020 election? For three years, President Donald Trump could lay claim to a thriving economy, low unemployment and a strong stock market. But the bottom fell out when the coronavirus took hold in this country, spurring Depression-era unemployment and gutting entire industries. Will voters hold Trump responsible for the economic fallout from a pandemic?

A War of Disinformation
10/21/2020

What role is disinformation playing in the 2020 presidential campaign? In 2016, many were shocked — shocked! — to learn that completely false “news” stories about the election were shared far and wide on social media. Four years later, little has been done to slow the spread of disinformation on a variety of online platforms. Foreign governments have made no secret of their intent to meddle in our elections. And the president himself has had a tenuous relationship with the truth, elevating conspiracy theories and repeating falsehoods. What can voters do to separate fact from fiction?

Do Endorsements Matter?
10/28/2020

Time was, newspaper endorsements were a consequential boost for campaigns. But in an era of multiplying media outlets and declining newspaper subscriptions, do endorsements still carry the same weight? In 2016, Donald Trump earned the endorsements of only 20 daily newspapers in the entire country, but he won the White House. We’ll convene opinion journalists to explore what role editorial boards are playing in the 2020 election and consider the question of whether traditional candidate endorsements have outlived their usefulness.

Election 2020: Lessons Learned
11/18/2020

With the 2020 election now in the rearview mirror, we’ll do a deep dive into the deciding factors in this year’s presidential campaign. Did polls, journalists, and political prognosticators get it right this time? What surprised us on Election Day? Were the mistakes of 2016 repeated in 2020? We’ll wrap up this election season with an assessment of lessons learned from the 2020 campaign and a look ahead to what awaits the next president and Congress.

Seven Days in September 1814: The Turning Points of the War of 1812
2020-10-01 00:00
The British demands in mid-1814 were fierce and would have reduced the United States in size and limited its potential for expansion. The United States had declared war on Great Britain in 1812 because the British were seizing American merchant ships and cargoes, taking crewmen into the Royal Navy involuntarily, and providing arms to Native Americans on the frontier. However, American armies had lost battle after battle with little potential to accomplish the nation’s war goals. The British negotiating position at Ghent was to create an Indian buffer state north of the Ohio River, take about half of Maine, and demilitarize the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. They had captured Fort Niagara, occupied 100 miles of the coast of Maine, and burned Washington. Then, in one week in September 1814, the U.S. defended Baltimore (its 3rd largest city) and won the battle of Plattsburgh in New York. Two thousand soldiers besieged in Fort Erie broke out and pushed the British back 20 miles. After that, Duke Wellington advised the British government to drop any claims for territory and negotiate a settlement. British prospects for a decisive victory were not propitious and the war was very expensive. The British cabinet reluctantly agreed and the treaty was signed on Christmas Eve. The three American victories, “Seven Days in September,” were a turning point of the war and set America back on the course of greatness.
This program is closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.
This special program will be live-streamed to the institute’s YouTube channel and to its website, www.doleinstitute.org. Due to continuing concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic, the program will only be available online. Follow the Dole Institute on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for updates regarding this and future programming.
Rich Barbuto was raised on the shores of Lake Erie in New York State. Graduating from West Point in 1971, he served as an armor officer for twenty-three years in Germany, Korea, Canada, and other U.S. posts. Rich took an early interest in military education and taught at the Armor School, ROTC at Eastern Kentucky University, the Canadian Forces Staff College in Toronto, and the Command and General Staff College. He earned a Ph.D. in American History from KU and was the deputy director of the Department of Military History at CGSC for twelve years. Rich has written several books and numerous articles on the War of 1812 and is a frequent speaker at history conferences and public venues. Rich continues researching and writing military history; his fourth book is in the publication process with the University Press of Oklahoma.

A Conversation on Race Part II: Asian-Pacific and Hispanic concerns
2020-10-21 00:00
“The problem of racism in this country is multi-faceted and complex,” said Director Bill Lacy. “As we move forward in this series, we want to address additional communities and how racism affects them. For the second installment of ‘A Conversation on Race,’ we will discuss Asian-Pacific and Hispanic concerns. We look forward to another insightful, respectful, and important discussion with a stellar panel of guests.”
The event will feature Christina Haswood, Territory Senator Carmelo J. Ríos-Santiago, State Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos, and former State Representative Jene Vickrey and will be moderated by Senior Associate Director of the Institute, Dr. Barbara Ballard.
Christina Haswood is a public health professional and a candidate for the Kansas House of Representatives in District 10. She is also a member of the Navajo Nation, and if elected, she would be just the third Native American in Kansas history to be a state legislature. She received endorsements from Emily’s List, the Kansas National Education Association, the Sunrise Movement of Lawrence Kansas, the Kansas Sierra Club, seven current Kansas state legislators, as well as former Governor Kathleen Sebelius and current Congresswoman Deb Haaland and Congresswoman Sharice Davids. She is currently running unopposed for the general election.
Carmelo J. Ríos-Santiago is the current Majority Leader of the Puerto Rico State Senate. In 2004, he was elected as one of the youngest Senators of his class, representing the Bayamón District of Puerto Rico and chaired the Municipal and Financial Affairs Committee. He was elected in 2018 as President of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, a non-profit organization representing over 400 elected Hispanic state legislators throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. During his tenure, he was also part of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
Sharon Tomiko Santos was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives in 1998. She chairs the House Education Committee and serves on the House Capital Budget Committee and Consumer Protection & Business Committee. She has received numerous awards for her legislative and community work, including the Kip Tokuda Community Leadership Award from the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation and the Leadership and Vision Award from Junior Achievement of Washington.
Jene Vickrey is life long resident of Louisburg, Kansas. He was elected to the Kansas House in 1992 and recently retired after 28 years. He was elected to serve as Assistant Majority Leader, Speaker Pro Tem, and Majority Leader for two terms.
