ILSS Symposium Book Published

Posted: Jun 20, 2023 by Gabriella Bartlett

 At the 2022 ILSS symposium, scholars highlighted the ways in which higher education serves to strengthen US security through the lens of the human security theoretical framework and all of its components of personal, community, political, food, healthcare, economic, and environmental security, as well as others such as energy and military security. UNG's ILSS (Institute for Leadership and Strategic Studies) partnered with the Army War College, the Association of the United States Army, the Army Strategist Association, and the Atlanta Council on International Relations to host this symposium.

Following the symposium, Dr. Edward Mienie, Executive Director of the Strategic Studies Program gathered the presentations and edited them into United States Higher Education & National Security, published by UNG Press. Included in the compendium is a chapter based on the research of our own Dr. Dlynn Armstrong-Williams, and Dr. Cristian Harris.

Dr. Mienie's book details the role higher education plays within the context of national security interests. The US military is a vital component of the national security apparatus and there are numerous means where higher education plays a crucial role in assuring security. A close productive relationship between the US military and higher education is essential to its democratic way of life, and the current relationship is healthy but needs improvement.

Dr. Armstrong-Williams and Dr. Harris's chapter, Public Diplomacy and International Education, focuses on the new positions universities have fulfilled as the relationship between education and foreign policy evolves.

Dr. Armstrong-Williams explains, "US universities play a critical role in the continuation of US diplomacy.  Our paper highlights how US institutions of higher learning have tried to step forward and fill the gap to represent the United States when public diplomacy efforts have been eliminated or underfunded."

Students and faculty can download this textbook completely for free at ung.edu/university-press/books