it's fortunate to have chris mcdermott from the department of defense with us as a commentator. welcome to you as well chris. i am christian ostermann and i direct the wilson center history program and i'm delighted to be cochairing this seminar and as always which eric garner from george washington university. today, eric will introduce our speaker and moderate the discussion . as many of you regular viewers know, the washington history seminar is a collaborative decade-long effort of our two organizations, the wilson centers story and public policy program , international history center of the historical association. prior to the pandemic we met on a weekly basis at the wilson center. now we are pleased to come to you via zoom and facebook. behind the scenes there are individuals who help produce this event, peter beer stecker of the policy program and rachel wheatley with the national history center. even in this zoom only era, staging these events is labor-intensive and given tuesday tomorrow, let me ask for your support. we thank our two institutional reporters at the page c

out where you can purchase it via the university of kansas press website and i want to thank chris mcdermott at the nunn school and kathy grandin for helping us pull this together and i want to thank frank for actually taking on the challenge and producing such an accessible and enlightening book and it does have residence as we've been discussing today for the challenges that we face not only today but in the future and of course for senator nunn for giving us that legacy to be the bellwether for us as we forge ahead. with that let me thank you both again and thanked the audience for joining us today and remember, this is just to wet your appetite. this is the beginning of our nunn forum series and the next one will be occurring at the end of january so stay tuned for more information. with that, take care and be safe. >> you are watching tv on c-span2, every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors. book tv on c-span2, created by america's television companies brought to you by these television companies to provide book tv to viewers as a public service. on our author interview

it's my privilege to introduce our speaker this afternoon, and discuss her chris mcdermott professoranthropology at the george washington university but she received a ba from dartmouth from the fletcher school of law and diplomacy and phd from harvard. her research focuses on post- conflict societies. : : i am getting used to zoom but i miss the opportunity to be together, to be in a room, have that response. very grateful, look forward to this discussion. i would like to begin with basic remarks. it might be helpful to share my screen in the presentation, this will set the scene. i hope we can all see one another. on a cool damp day in november of 2018, i went to the tomb of the unknown soldier at arlington national cemetery. in washington see, i knew the trip would be difficult, a journey across the memorial bridge, a structure built to connect the monument to the national mall to the cemetery. rain pelted down on the steps, pacing before the sturdy block of the original world war i precipice. attend-year-old boy who watched in rapt attention as they shifted the rifle from one to