Annual War Studies Symposium

The Seventh Annual War Studies Symposium was held on 5 April 2025 on UNT campus. The theme of the symposium was "How Russia Lost the Last Cold War." The presenter was Dr. Sarah Paine, William S. Sims University Professor Emerita of History and Grand Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College.

Dr. Paine has taught at the U.S. Naval War College since 2000 and lectures on many different historical periods and subjects. She holds four master’s degrees and received her Ph.D in Russian and Chinese History from Columbia University. She is an established author, with her book Imperial Rivals: China, Russia and Their Disputed Frontier (1996) receiving the 1997 Barbara Jelavich Prize and The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949 (2012) winning the 2012 PROSE Award for European & World History and the 2014 Richard W. Leopold Prize.

The Sixth Annual War Studies Symposium was held on 6 April 2024 at Embassy Suites in Denton. The theme of the symposium was "Stalin's War”, presented by Dr. Sean McMeekin, Francis Flournoy Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College.

Dr. Sean McMeekin has taught at Bard College since 2014. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley, and has previously taught at Koç University in Istanbul, Bilkent University in Ankara, Yale, and New York University.

McMeekin is an established author and has currently published seven books along with numerous articles and essays. Of them, his book The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (2015) was awarded the 2015 Arthur Goodzeit Book Prize; The Russian Origins of the First World War (2011) was awarded the 2011 Norman B. Tomlinson Jr. Book Prize; and The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power (2010) won the 2011 Barbara Jelavich Book Prize.

The Fifth Annual War Studies Symposium was held on 1 May 2023 at the Embassy Suites in Denton. The theme of the Symposium was "Death of the Luftwaffe: The Air War over Germany", which was presented by Dr. S. Michael Pavelec, Professor and Director of Research at the US Air Command and Staff College.

Dr. Pavelec has taught at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS) of the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB since 2011. He was previously an assistant professor of history at Hawaii Pacific University, where after only a year he became the program chair for diplomatic and military studies. Dr. Pavelec received his Ph.D. in 2004 from Ohio State University and specializes in 20th century military history, airpower, and diplomacy.

Dr. Pavelec is the author or editor of five books and has published numerous articles and book chapters on airpower, technology, space, and cyber warfare. He has been the subject matter expert for well-known history shows such as Nazi Megastructures: Battle Ready (2019), What on Earth? (2015), and Nazi Mega Weapons (2013). He is also the author of five monographs on air power.

The Fourth Annual War Studies Symposium was held on 28 April 2022 at the Embassy Suites in Denton. The topic of the Symposium, "More Than Strength and Honor: Uncovering the Roman Army with Archaeology”, was presented by Dr. Lee L. Brice, Professor of History and Distinguished Faculty at Western Illinois University.

Dr. Brice joined Western Illinois University in Fall 2003 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been recognized by his university as an award-winning teacher, having won an award for Outstanding FYE Teaching and the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award for Undergraduate Research Mentoring. His specialized areas of research are Mutiny and Indiscipline in Macedonian and Roman militaries as well as Greek coinage, especially of Corinth. In 2014 and 2018, Dr. Brice was selected as a Gertrude Smith Professor at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, the oldest American foreign research institute. In 2017, he was selected to be a 2017–2018 Elizabeth A. Whitehead Distinguished Scholar at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Also in 2018, he was Senior Fellow at the Australian Center for Ancient Numismatic Studies, Gale Distinguished Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney and Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at Auckland University in Auckland. Most recently, he was selected in 2019 to be the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer at WIU and to deliver the 2020 lecture "The Colts of Corinth Revisited: A Numismatic Study."

Dr. Brice has published seven books on ancient history, including most recently New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare (2020) and People and Institutions in the Roman Empire (2020, coedited with Andrea Gatzke and Matthew Trundle), in addition to articles and chapters on Corinthian coinage, Greek and Roman military history, teaching history, and the Roman army on film. He is the series editor of Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Brill), senior editor of the journal Research Perspectives in Ancient History, and a member of the Journal of Military History advisory board.

The Third Annual War Studies Symposium was held on 25 April 2018 at the SpringHill Suites Marriott Denton. Dr. James G. Lacey presented the talk "The Washington War: FDR's Inner Circle and the Politics of Power that Won World War II."

Dr. Lacey serves as Professor and Director for War, Policy, and Strategy in addition to Political Economy at the Marine Corps War College. Prior to his appointment at the War College in June 2010, he spent six years working as part of Washington D.C.’s Institute for Defense. A widely published senior analyst, Dr. Lacey worked on several projects concerning the economics of war, the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, strategic communications, and long-term US strategic policy. He was an active-duty military officer for twelve years, serving in the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the United States Army Europe Headquarters. He retired from the Army Reserves in 2005 after 24 years of service.

Dr. Lacey has extensive experience in several Wall Street firms focusing on "capital market operations." He is a successful professional journalist with columns in National Review, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Affairs, New York Post, and New York Sun, as well as Time Magazine. He was also an embedded reporter with the 101st Airborne Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In addition, Dr. Lacey has taught graduate level courses in Military History and Global Issues at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities. He has also lectured and conducted seminars at numerous academic and policy institutions across the United States.

Dr. Lacey holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from The Citadel and a Ph.D. in Military History from Leeds University. His dissertation focused on the economic underpinnings of U.S. strategy in the Second World War. His book publications include Iraqi Perspective Project (2006); Takedown - The 3rd Infantry Division's 21-Day Assault on Baghdad (2007); Terrorist Perspective Project (2008); Global Jihad (2008); Cannons of Jihad (2008); Pershing (2008); The Making of Peace (2009); Keep from All Thoughtful Men (2011); The Making of Grand Strategy (2011); The First Clash: The Greco-Persian Wars (2011); The Moment of Battle (2013); Great Strategic Rivalries (editor, 2016); The Washington War (2018); and The Gods of War (2018). Dr. Lacey is also the author of over one hundred articles and studies on history, strategy, economics, global events, and more. He regularly publishes in Military History Magazine, Military History Quarterly and the Journal of Military History.

The Second Annual War Studies Symposium was held on 25 May 2017 at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum. The presentation was titled "1967 - Make or Break Year in the Vietnam War", and was presented by Dr. Andrew Wiest, Professor of History and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Southern Mississippi.

After attending the University of Southern Mississippi for his undergraduate and master’s degrees, Dr. Wiest went on to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago. Specializing in the study of World War I and Vietnam, Dr. Wiest has served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom and as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Warfighting Strategy at the United States Air Force Air War College. From 2011 to 2012, Dr. Wiest held the Charles W. Moorman Distinguished Alumni Professorship in the Humanities.

Since 1992, Dr. Wiest has been active in international education, leading a study abroad program to London and Normandy most summers and developing the award-winning Vietnam Study Abroad Program. He has also presented his research at both national and international talks and conferences.  National Geographic Channel and Lou Reda Productions based their Emmy-nominated documentary Brothers in War on Dr. Wiest's book The Boys of '67, with Wiest serving as lead historical advisor to the project. He additionally served as lead historical advisor to the Lou Reda production of Vietnam in HD, appeared on several documentaries for the History Channel, Granada Television and Lucasfilms, and has served as a commentator on military events for national news outlets including CNN, the BBC, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dr. Wiest’s 2007 book, Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN, won the Society for Military History's 2009 Distinguished Book Award. He is also the author of Vietnam: A View from the Front Lines (2013); The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam (2012); Haig: The Evolution of a Commander (2005); and Passchendaele and the Royal Navy (1995). His other works include Triumph Revisited: Historians Battle for the Vietnam War (2010), co-edited with Michael Doidge; America and the Vietnam War: Re-Examining the Culture and History of a Generation (2009), co-edited with Glenn Robins and Mary Kathryn Barbier; Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land: The Vietnam War Revisited (2006); and War in the Age of Technology: Myriad Faces of Modern Armed Combat (2001), co-edited with Geoffrey Jensen.

The Inaugural War Studies Symposium was held on 20 April 2016. Brigadier General (Ret.) Dr. Robert A. Doughty presented "The Battle of Verdun: Fresh Perspectives on the 100th Anniversary of the Great War.”

General Doughty served as both Professor and Head of the Department of History at the United States Military Academy from 1985 to 2005. In the late 1970s, he served as an instructor at the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth and was instrumental in establishing the Combat Studies Institute. Doughty returned to West Point in 1981 as an Academy Professor in the Department of History and served as the chief of the European History Division. He became the Deputy Head in 1984 and the Head the following year. Under Doughty’s leadership, the West Point Department of History developed one of the finest undergraduate history programs in the nation. From 1995 to 1996, he held the Harold Keith Johnson Chair of Military History at the U.S. Army Military History Institute. He retired in July 2005 after forty years of service in the U.S. Army. In 2009, he presented the Harmon Memorial Lecture in Military History at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

Born in Tullos, Louisiana, General Doughty graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1965 and received his Ph.D. from Kansas University in 1979. Following his commissioning as an Armor Officer, Doughty served with distinction in a variety of command and staff positions, including two assignments in Germany and a combat tour in Vietnam. His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, and Combat Infantry Badge.

He is the author of four books, numerous articles, and co-authored a military history textbook, Warfare in the Western World (1996). His book, The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919–1939 (1985), won the American Historical Association's Paul Birdsall Prize in 1986. Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War (2005) won the New York Military Affairs Symposium's 2005 Arthur Goodzeit Book Award, the Western Front Association's 2006 Norman B. Tomlinson Jr. Book Prize, the Society for Military History's 2006 Samuel Eliot Morison Prize, and the Society's 2007 Distinguished Book Award.