Clements Center and King’s College London Host First Conference in Austin

Keynote speeches from well-known policy professionals such as Michael Gerson, former George W. Bush speech writer and Lord John Reid, former British Defense Secretary and Home Secretary, as well as history expert Mel Leffler, the Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of many prize-winning books, were the highlight of the event. The next conference in this series will be held at King’s College London in Fall 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

For more photos from the visit, please click here.

PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT:

In the immediate aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Blair Government and the Bush Administration forged an extremely robust strategic partnership. This collaboration began with the close personal relationship between the two leaders, and came to encompass tight operational cooperation in the military, diplomatic, and intelligence realms, all of which together defined a new phase of the US-UK “Special Relationship” as it entered the 21st century. Outcomes of this partnership included global operations against al Qaeda, the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq. In developing their strategies in the conflict, both governments embraced certain common themes including an emphasis on the need for assertive action, the ideological nature of the terrorist foe, and the promotion of the universal values of human liberty as long-term antidotes to jihadist ideology.

History played a considerable role in shaping these strategies as well. In some dimensions the US and UK drew on common historical precedents, such as World War II and the Cold War, and the personal partnerships forged by past leaders such as Roosevelt-Churchill and Reagan-Thatcher. Yet in other ways each government also drew on different historical precedents and traditions, ones that loom large in one nation’s collective memory but not the other, such as Vietnam for the US, and Suez and Northern Ireland for the UK. More recent ‘lessons learned’ were also created by the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s and tentative interventions in African countries such as Somalia and Sierra Leone. The response of the US and UK to the September 11th attacks, both together and separately, cannot be understood without the role of history. This conference will explore how history shaped the respective responses of the US and UK to September 11th, and consider what perspectives history might offer for policy in the present and future.