Forum to focus on how U.S. military relates to others

Friday, May 25, 2007

The Patuxent Summer Institute is scheduled for June 6 and 7 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Cole Cinema.

The forum, in its second year, is a cooperative effort between the college and The Patuxent Partnership.

‘‘Our goal,” said Zach Messitte, director of the college’s Center for the Study of Democracy and assistant professor of political science, ‘‘is to bring together two very different cultural groups — students and staff of a liberal arts college and members of the military defense community — to see what each can learn from the other. We’ve chosen three key issues that we feel will affect the future of the military.”

The June 6 morning session will look the military and the media and include discussions about embedded journalists, the Internet and censorship.

Panelists include Newsweek correspondent Michael Isikoff, former CNN world affairs correspondent Ralph Begleiter and P.J. Crowley, a senior fellow and director of national defense and homeland security at the Center for American Progress and former senior director of public affairs for the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. Messitte will act as the morning panel’s moderator.

The afternoon group will look at the relationship between the military and non-government organizations that provide international disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.

Panelists will include retired Vice Adm. James Blenn Perkins III, president of L-3 Communications⁄TMA Corp., and former deputy commander in chief, U.S. Southern Command, responsible for military services in Central and South America, including nation building and disaster relief; Stephan Klinghofer, senior vice president of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law; and William Roberts, professor of anthropology at the college, who is a former Peace Corps volunteer stationed in West Africa. Bonnie Green, executive director of The Patuxent Partnership, will be the panel’s moderator.

The Thursday forum will discuss how America’s armed forces interacts with the military forces from other nations. Panelists include Australian Brig. Gen. Damian Roche, who recently served as his country’s liaison officer to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff; Thomas Mahnken, deputy assistant secretary of defense for policy planning; and Michael S. Gerson, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies in the Center for Naval Analyses’ International Affairs Group. Thursday’s group moderator will be Louis Hicks, professor of sociology at SMCM who is currently a visiting professor of social sciences at the U.S. Army War College.

‘‘It’s fundamental to democracy,” said Hicks, ‘‘to involve other sectors of society in what the military is doing, to appreciate a different perspective. The idea is that our military is much different than it was in the past. Today the military needs to regularly interact with non-military entities. That’s the discussion all these panelists will bring to the table.”

E-mail Paul C. Leibe at pleibe@somdnews.com.