November 7, 2011

SAIS hosts launch of Eliot Cohen book on the American way of war

The Nitze School of Advanced International Studies will host a discussion of Conquered Into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles Along the Great Warpath That Made the American Way of War, a new book by Eliot Cohen, director of the SAIS Strategic Studies Program, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10.

Cohen’s introductory remarks will be followed by a panel discussion by Tom Ricks, author and military journalist; Nicholas Westbrook, director emeritus of Fort Ticonderoga; and Charles Doran (moderator), director of the SAIS Canadian Studies and International Relations programs.

In Conquered Into Liberty, to be released Nov. 15 by Free Press, Cohen describes how the British, French, Americans, Canadians and Indians fought over the key to the North American continent: the corridor running from Albany, N.Y., to Montreal that was dominated by the Champlain Valley and known to Native Americans as the “Great Warpath.” He reveals how conflict along these 200 miles of lake, river and woodland shaped the country’s military values, practices and institutions.

Even today, the Great Warpath legacy endures, says Cohen, who is the author of the prize-winning Supreme Command and former counselor of the U.S. Department of State. U.S. Army rangers trace their lineage and military culture to the ranger unit formed here in the middle of the 18th century by Robert Rogers, he says, and when Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan this year, they took part in the tradition of “cross-border operations” stretching back centuries.

The event will be held in the Nitze Building’s Kenney Auditorium. Non-SAIS affiliates should RSVP to conquered.into.liberty2011@gmail.com.