Ronald Reagan: The Peacemaker
Examine how Ronald Reagan confronted the Soviet Union and won the Cold War.
Spring | Fall 2023
Online Fellowship
“The proper method for the study of politics is biography,” wrote a distinguished academic. Yet the lives of eminent statesmen, though often the subject of great (and popular) books, are rarely the subject of college syllabi. This virtual fellowship will use the rigorous study of great biography to investigate a wider set of questions about geopolitics, leadership, and human character.
Guest speakers will participate in the seminar, as well, including both scholars and national security leaders. Fellows will have the opportunity to reflect on the role of individual personality in history and what makes for great leadership—and also great biography.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
Vance Serchuk & Gen. David Petraeus on Leadership & Biography
Who Should Apply? Advanced undergraduates, gap-year students, young professionals, and graduate students are all eligible to apply. Fellows may apply for, and participate in, multiple seminars. Each seminar is capped at 15 fellows.
Dates & Times: All seminars will meet online via Zoom at a set date and time over 2023. See the individual course pages for full details.
Course Materials: All course materials will be provided.
Deadline: For our Spring seminar, on The Peacemaker, the early application deadline to apply is Thursday, December 1, 2022, and the final deadline is Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Admission decisions will be made on a rolling basis so apply now!
A Fall 2023 seminar will be announced soon.
Please provide a brief account (approximately 500 words) of your interest in your selected seminars.
Unofficial; required only for current undergraduates & recent graduates.
10 pages maximum; double-spaced. Please send academic writing that best showcases your ability to invent and sustain a persuasive argument, no matter the subject-matter.
Provide the name and contact information of a professor, mentor, or supervisor.
Foreign Policy Analyst
U.S. Department of State; Office of Representative Mike Pompeo; Facebook
Stanford University, Peking University, London School of Economics
Reagan Hedlund has served in multiple foreign policy positions both in the U.S. and abroad, including stints with the House of Representatives, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and various political campaigns. She participated in Hertog’s “Great Figures of the 20th Century” Weekend Seminars in Winter 2016, with sessions on Winston Churchill, David Ben-Gurion, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher.
I do foreign policy, and I want to continue to stay involved in politics. Part of being effective on the Hill and on presidential campaigns is understanding past leaders and what they’ve done well. The Hertog program I did was focused on leaders and examining, with a critical eye but also positive themes, domestic and foreign leaders. What they’ve done well, what they did in regard to communications, building allies, working with other countries—principles that are timeless.
It was also a great way to meet other like-minded and serious people in DC and get to know some of the instructors. I feel like I’ll be friends with people from Hertog for a very long time.
It’s a chance to learn in a way that is rare for professionals, but also rare in a university setting. Due to the caliber of the instructors and the intense, high level of discussion, it feels like you’re back in college. But the things you’re talking about are elevated because you’ve had additional professional experience, and you’re speaking with both theleading expert on these issues and with people who have had some sort of experience with that same topic. It’s not as though the students just did their reading for class and showed up; they’re personally invested. So it’s kind of like college on steroids.
There is a lack of ability and time to dig into issues, particularly those that are most important for our country. The principles that we discussed in each of the “Great Figures” seminars are still applicable today. There were many times when the discussion turned from talking about how a certain leader dealt with a particular issue—whether it was nativism or trade or a deficit—to how we’re dealing with those concerns today.
Hertog is also a way to distinguish yourself. I’m on the nerd spectrum; I loved college, and I loved grad school. There are book events and things of that nature here in DC, but there’s a lack of opportunities to really dig into these important issues in an academic setting.
Hopefully, we’ll have a Republican president then, and I’d like to be a foreign policy advisor for whoever that is!
Reagan Hedlund has served in multiple foreign policy positions both in the U.S. and abroad, including stints with the House of Representatives, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and various political campaigns. She participated in Hertog’s “Great Figures of the 20th Century” Weekend Seminars in Winter 2016, with sessions on Winston Churchill, David Ben-Gurion, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher.
“Part of being effective on the Hill and on presidential campaigns is understanding past leaders and what they’ve done well. The Hertog program I did was focused on leaders and examining, with a critical eye what they’ve done well, what they did in regard to communications, building allies, working with other countries—principles that are timeless.”
William Inboden
William Inboden is Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin. Previously he served as Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council at the White House.
Vance Serchuk
Vance Serchuk is Executive Director of the KKR Global Institute and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Serchuk served for six years as the senior national security advisor to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut).
Andrew Roberts
Andrew Roberts is presently a Visiting Professor at the War Studies Department at King’s College, London and the Lehrman Institute Lecturer at the New-York Historical Society. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Masters and Commanders, which won the Emery Reves Award of the International Churchill Society and was shortlisted for The Duke of Westminster’s Gold Medal for Military History and The British Army Military Book Award. He is presently writing a biography of Sir Winston Churchill.
Michael Doran
Michael Doran, an expert in U.S. policy toward the Middle East, radical Islam, and the Arab- Israeli conflict, is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He has also held a number of senior U.S. government posts related to Middle East policy and strategic communication.
Daniel Blumenthal
Daniel Blumenthal is the Director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has both served in and advised the U.S. government on China issues for over a decade.
Christian Brose
Christian Brose is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Head of Strategy at Anduril Industries, prior to which he served as staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was also responsible for leading the production, negotiation, and passage of four National Defense Authorization Acts, which set policy and authorized spending for all U.S. national defense activities.
Matthew Kroenig
Matthew Kroenig is a Professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. A 2019 study in Perspectives on Politics ranked him as one of the top 25 most-cited political scientists of his generation. He has served in several positions in the U.S. Department of Defense and the intelligence community in the Bush and Obama administrations.
H.R. McMaster
H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Previously, he served as the 26th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for 34 years before retiring as a Lieutenant General. He is author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World.
James M. Dubik
LTG James M. Dubik (U.S. Army, Ret.) is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and a Professor at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program. General Dubik has extensive operational experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Bosnia, Haiti, Panama, Honduras, and in many NATO countries.
Frederick W. Kagan
Frederick W. Kagan is a Senior Instructor with the Hertog War Studies Program at the Institute for the Study of War. The author of the 2007 report “Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq,” he is one of the intellectual architects of the successful “surge” strategy in Iraq. He is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project.
Kimberly Kagan
Kimberly Kagan is a Senior Instructor with the Hertog War Studies Program and founder and president of the Institute for the Study of War. She is a military historian who has taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Yale, Georgetown, and American University.