Gunn Memorial Museum Presents Legacy of WWI

Dr. Michael John Williams will give the free presentation, The Evolution of International Society: The Legacy of World War I, on Sunday, January, 18 at 1:00 pm in the Wykeham Room of the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, Connecticut. Following this lecture, a closing reception for the award winning exhibit, Over There: Washington and the Great War, will take place from 2-4pm in the Gunn Museum.

The Great War was a turning point in the evolution of warfare and it was a conflict that would have far reaching ramifications for international society. The First World War led to the development of international laws regulating the use of certain weapons in warfare, while at the same time serving as the catalyst for a revolution in military affairs that would be realized in the Second World War. The conflict of 1914-1918 the result, in part, of fervent nationalism, also provided impetus for the European project and the idea of a European pacific federation. Meanwhile, the American role in the war provided President Wilson with the ability to enunciate his 14 Points, one of which, the right to self-determination, would undermine the European colonial empires ushering in decades of change. But perhaps most importantly, the war and its conclusion would set the basis for the next conflict in Europe. A truly transformative conflict, the legacy of the First World War still reverberates today. This lecture will trace developments from the war beyond the armistice to see how they went on to shape the world today.

Michael John Williams is Professor of International Relations, Director of the International Relations Program and Affiliate Professor at the Center for European Studies at New York University. His research focuses on US foreign policy, transatlantic relations, civil-military relations and the intersection between war, technology and society. Before coming to NYU, Dr. Williams was Reader (Associate Professor) of International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London.

His most recent publications include Science, Law and Liberalism in the American Way of War: The Quest for Humanity in Conflict (2014), co-authored with Dr. Stephanie Carvin (Ottawa), “The Afghan War, 2001-2012” in the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History (2012) and, The Good War: NATO and the Liberal Conscience in Afghanistan (2011). He is also co-editor of the critically acclaimed edited volume Power in World Politics (2007).

Dr. Williams is a Stephen M. Kellen term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on the Armed Forces and Society and an alumnus of the International Summer Policy Institute at American University. He has held a Robert Bosch Fellowship in Germany, a Visiting Fellowship at the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford & Nuffield College and a DAAD Fellowship at the Bundeswehr Center for Military History and Social Science in Potsdam, Germany. He was an investigator in the Sustainable Peacebuilding Network, a collaborative research project involving 20 scholars from six countries, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and directed by Prof. Roland Paris (Ottawa).

Prof. Williams is also currently Senior Associate Scholar at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington D.C. and editor-in-chief of the journal International Politics Reviews and former co-editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies. From 2006-2008 Dr. Williams directed the Transatlantic Security Programme at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London, he was previously the programme officer for the Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War at the University of Oxford and he worked in the US Senate and at the US Embassy in London. He has consulted for policy makers in the United States, Canada and Europe on various international security issues.

Educated at the universities of Delaware, Hamburg, Bath, Berlin, and Moscow he earned his doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Admission to the presentation, exhibit, and reception is free. The exhibit and associated programs are supported in part by a grant from the Connecticut Community Foundation. The Gunn Library and Museum is located at 5 Wykeham Road, at the intersection of Wykeham Road and Rt. 47, on Washington Green. Call the Museum at 860-868-7756 or view www.gunnlibrary.org for more information.

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