Andrew Bacevich Speaking Topics

• Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

  Andrew Bacevich gives an uncompromising critique of the guiding assumptions that lead America's foreign policy and military strategy—what he dubs the "Washington rules," a set of principles that have dominated America's direction for over half a century. Bacevich argues that these rules—that America must always have a massive military capable of rapid engagement, that global stability is dependent on America's military might—are so entrenched that no elected official or policy maker has been able to alter them. These rules have led America to insolvency and perpetual war. How have the "Washington rules" shaped history, and can these rules ever be changed? Bacevich takes audiences on a journey into the heart of American doctrine to help us understand who we are as a nation, and where we go from here.

• The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

  America is suffering a triple crisis. Our government, led astray by years of an imperialistic presidency, is now a democracy in name only. Our military is overstretched and exhausted. Our economy, buckling under the weight of a uniquely American urge to over-consume, is in a tailspin. How did we get here, and how do we fix it? In this talk, Andrew Bacevich shows you how previous administrations, dating back as far as the end of the Second World War, have led America on this increasingly unsustainable path. This is how we reverse it, Bacevich says: we must look to the neglected tradition of realism. In short, we must respect power and its limits; suppress claims of American Exceptionalism; be skeptical of easy solutions, especially those involving force; and make sure that the books balance. Bacevich's talk, far from an exercise in finger pointing, is an indispensable outline to fixing America's urgent problems before the damage becomes irreparable.

Breach Of Trust

The United States has been “at war” for more than a decade. Yet as war has become normalized, a yawning gap has opened between America’s soldiers and the society in whose name they fight. For ordinary citizens, as former secretary of defense Robert Gates has acknowledged, armed conflict has become an “abstraction” and military service “something for other people to do.”

Drawing from Breach of Trust, bestselling author Andrew Bacevich takes stock of the separation between Americans and their military, tracing its origins to the Vietnam era and exploring its pernicious implications: a nation with an abiding appetite for war waged at enormous expense by a standing army demonstrably unable to achieve victory. Among the collateral casualties are values once considered central to democratic practice, including the principle that responsibility for defending the country should rest with its citizens.

Citing figures as diverse as the martyr-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the marine-turned-anti-warrior Smedley Butler, Bacevich summons Americans to restore that principle. Rather than something for “other people” to do, national defense should become the business of “we the people.” Should Americans refuse to shoulder this responsibility, Bacevich warns, the prospect of endless war, waged by a “foreign legion” of professionals and contractor-mercenaries, beckons. So too does bankruptcy—moral as well as fiscal.