We are excited to be a co-sponsor of this Cooper Series event featuring Professor Margaret MacMillan, emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford. Read more about the event below, and we hope to see you there.

“Friend or Foe? War and Society”
Wednesday 7th September 2022
7:00-8:30 p.m. in the Science Center’s Chang Hou Auditorium 101
Swarthmore College (map)
Reception to follow

War is one of the most fundamental driving forces of human civilization. Today, prominent voices claim that we live in the most peaceful era in human history, but contemporary technologies such as artificial intelligence and cyberwar pose potentially existential threats. We should not turn away from the subject of war, however abhorrent we may find it. Rather, we must understand war to mitigate its effects, but also, vitally, because it is integral to understanding who we are.

Professor Margaret MacMillan is one of the world’s preeminent scholars of international relations. A best-selling author and frequent commentator in the media, she is known for her unparalleled grasp of her subject – war and peace – as well as her gift for vivid and powerful storytelling.  Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World (2001) is widely regarded as a masterpiece and was awarded the Duff Cooper Prize, Hessell-Tiltman Prize, and Samuel Johnson Prize. Other works include: Women of the Raj (1988); Nixon in China: Six Days that Changed the World (2006); The Uses and Abuses of History (2008); The War that Ended Peace (2014); History’s People (2015) and War: How Conflict Shaped Us (2020).   She is emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford, former Warden of St Antony’s College (University of Oxford) and visiting distinguished historian at the Council on Foreign Relations (2020-21).  In 2021, MacMillan won the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. 

This event is co-sponsored by the departments of History, Political Science, and Peace and Conflict Studies.