Tanner Lecture: Citizenship in an Age of Perpetual Conflict

The Tanner Lecture Series on Ethics, Citizenship, and Public Responsibility, will host Phil Klay, Dartmouth College graduate and United States Marine Corps Veteran. Klay is the author of Redeployment, winner of the 2014 National Book Award. His work provides a powerful collection of stories that takes readers to the front lines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His newly released novel, Missionaries, offers a meticulously researched bird’s-eye depiction of the remote yet interconnected ways that American-sponsored wars are waged across the globe. Among its many early accolades, it was named a “favorite book” by former President Obama. For more information on the speaker, please visit www.prhspeakers.com.

American war today is in a strange place. On the one hand, America just withdrew its last ground troops from Afghanistan, seemingly bringing a twenty-year war to an end. But even as he announced the withdrawal, President Biden promised that we’d keep killing American enemies there, using “over-the-horizon” strike capabilities. This creates a strange situation for Americans, largely protected from the harsh consequences of war, and yet citizens of a country using lethal force across the globe. We generally find out about the extent of our involvement only when US soldiers die, resulting in a bizarre circumstance for Americans trying to understand their citizenship, and their humanity, in relation to the killing done in our name. What does it mean to be a citizen of a country that is not at peace, but doesn’t seem to believe it’s at war? Klay’s speech will try to offer some answers to that question.A book signing will follow the lecture.

Register Here

Live streaming will also be available and the link will be on the Tanner web page, The Tanner Lectures Series.

This lecture series is coordinated by the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, and co-sponsored by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), and SU Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA). Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided. Parking is provided for a small fee in the University Avenue Garage (UAG), with Trolley service to the National Veterans Resource Center. For additional accommodations and information, contact jjnocevs@syr.edu or 315.443.5850.

The Tanner Lecture Series on Ethics, Citizenship, and Public Responsibility has been generously endowed by W. Lynn Tanner ’75 PhD.