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History

AGS has enjoyed a long and rich history since its founding in 2007. 

Check out the timeline below for some highlights from over the years. 

2007:

-December 3: AGS is founded. Karl Rove delivers a public lecture in Page Auditorium.

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2008

2008:

-October 7: AGS speaks with Derek Chollet, former special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council.

-November 13: AGS hosts a conversation with Juan Zarate, former deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism.

-Fall Semester: AGS Seminar is taught for the first time.

2009

2009:

-March 2: AGS discusses grand strategy with John Gaddis, Cold War historian.

-October 29: AGS speaks with Meghan O’Sullivan, former deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, about the future of Afghanistan and Iraq.

-November 9: Fareed Zakaria speaks at Duke in an event titled "Rise of the Rest: A Post-American World One Year After the Election of Obama".

2010:

-February 22: Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (and future CIA Director) William Burns joins the program to discuss foreign policy.

-March: First ever AGS military base trip. AGS visits Fort Bragg.

-April 17: First ever AGS staff ride. AGS travels to Cowpens, South Carolina.

-October 27: Best-selling author and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward joins AGS to discuss his new book Obama's Wars.

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2011:

-October 20: AGS hosts a discussion with Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona and U.S. secretary of homeland security.

-November 1: Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department, joins AGS to discuss grand strategy for the 21st century.

-November: AGS travels to Fredericksburg for a staff ride to study the Battle of Fredericksburg.

-AGS hosts over 30 events in a year for the first time.

 

2011
2012

2012:

-April 10: Former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sits down with AGS Director Peter Feaver for a conversation in Page Auditorium.

-September 10: AGS hosts a discussion with Jon Hunstman Jr., former governor of Utah and U.S. ambassador to Singapore and China.

 

2013

2013:

-February 12: AGS hosts Senator Richard Lugar, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for a public discussion.

-April 12 to 13: First Gettysburg Staff Ride.

-September 11: General David Petraeus, former director of the CIA, joins AGS for the annual Phillips Lecture.

2014:

-March 6: Karl Eikenberry, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, speaks with AGS.

-Spring Semester: AGS Through Film is taught for the first time. The students produce a film called The Bachelorette: Grand Strategy Edition.

-December 2: Former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley visits campus for the fall Phillips Lecture.

2014

2015:

-January 15: AGS hosts a conversation with Jake Sullivan, former national security advisor to Vice President Biden and future national security advisor to President Biden. Sullivan discusses President Obama's foreign policy.

-March 6 to 14: First ever AGS international staff ride. Students travel to London, Portsmouth, Normandy and Paris to learn about the D-Day campaign.

-April 8: Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and the 2012 Republican nominee for President, sits down with AGS Director Peter Feaver for a public conversation.

2015
2016

2016:

-January 29: AGS travels to Fort Bragg for a staff ride.

-March 23: Taavi Roivas, the prime minister of Estonia, delivers a lecture titled ”A 21st Century State: Anything Is Possible”.

-April 15: General Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Denis McDonough, former White House chief of staff for President Obama, join AGS for the spring Phillips Lecture.

-Spring Semester: Professor Dempsey co-teaches his first class for AGS, a seminar on U.S. civil-military relations.

2017

2017:

-2017 to 2018 Academic Year: “Audience reached by AGS” surpasses five thousand for the first time.

-April 1: Dr. Joseph Nye Jr., former dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, sits down with AGS to discuss international issues relating to deterrence and dissuasion in cyberspace.

-August 29: AGS 10th anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C.

-October 30: AGS hosts a conversation with Adam Schiff, U.S. representative from California's 28th district.

-Fall Semester: History & International Security Speaker Series begins.

2018:

-March 11 to 18: World War 1 International Staff Ride to Belgium and France.

-April 5: U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley joins AGS for a discussion titled "Confronting Today's Global Governance Challenges".

-November 9 to 11: "36 Hours at Duke" alumni engagement program.

-November 28: Artur Mas, the former president of Catalonia, joins AGS for an event titled ”Catalonia, Spain, and the EU: The Challenge of Leadership in Fractious Nation States”.

2018

2019:

-February 28: Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sits down with the program in Page Auditorium for a discussion titled ”The Future of Democracy at Home and Abroad”.

-August: AGS mentorship program begins that pairs sophomores/juniors with recently graduated seniors for monthly advising sessions.

-October 18 to 19: Field trip to SEAL Museum and SOUTHCOM in Florida.

-December 3: Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power participates in the Phillips Lecture Series.

2019
2020

2020:

-2020 to 2021 Academic Year: David Schanzer serves as the interim AGS director while Professor Feaver heads to Oxford on sabbatical.

-February 21 to 22: Field trip to FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

-July 31: AGS hosts a discussion over Zoom with Major General Ron Clark, Chief of Staff for U.S. Pacific Indo-Command. The event is titled “A Perspective on Race, Diversity, & Inclusion in the U.S. Army”.

-October 14: AGS is joined by former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster for a virtual installment of the Phillips Lecture Series.

2021

2021: 

-January 25: AGS hosts Sue Gordon, former principal deputy director of national intelligence, to discuss the national security challenges facing the Biden Administration.

-February 15: AGS holds an event titled "Duke Women in National Security". Four CTPP Fellows and one Carlucci Fellow sit down with Kim Kotlar to discuss their time working in the Department of Defense, State Department, and the Intelligence Community.

-November 12: General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joins AGS Director Peter Feaver for the fall Phillips Lecture.

2022:

-September 1: AGS hosts General Charles Q. Brown Jr., chief of staff of the Air Force and future chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for a conversation titled "An Age of Great Power Competition: Lethality, Flexibility, & Diversity”.

-November 9: Ambassador Katherine Tai, the United States Trade Representative, sits down with AGS for a discussion.

2022

2023:

-March 12 to 19: World War 2 International Staff Ride to Italy.

-March 22: Former Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett joins AGS for a public discussion in Page Auditorium with Professor Bruce Jentleson. The event is co-sponsored with the Center for Jewish Studies and Jewish Life at Duke.

-September 28: General Martin Dempsey, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Sarah Hirshland, and Adam Silver join AGS Director Peter Feaver for the fall Phillips Lecture. The discussion is titled "The Brand: America's Role in Global Sports".

-November 7: AGS hosts General William Walker, former sergeant at arms of the U.S. House of Representatives and commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, for an event titled “Protecting the Capitol on January 6th: What Happened and Why”.

2023
2024

2024:

-March 10 to 17: AGS travels to Berlin and Prague for an international staff ride to study the Cold War.

-September 4: Liz Cheney, former congresswoman and chair of the House Republican Conference, visits campus to participate in the Sanford Lecture Series. Cheney announces her presidential endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris during the event.

-October 22: Republican Strategist Karl Rove & Democratic Strategist David Axelrod sit down with AGS Director Peter Feaver for the fall Phillips Lecture in Page Auditorium.