Kelly Greenhill is associate professor at Tufts University and chair of the Conflict, Security and Public Policy Working Group at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.  She is author of Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion and Foreign Policy (Cornell); of Sex, Drugs and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict (Cornell, with P. Andreas) and The Use of Force, 8th ed (with R. Art). She is currently completing a cross-national study that explores why, when, and under what conditions, contested (or "extra-factual") sources of political information - such as rumors, conspiracy theories, and myths - materially influence the development and conduct of states' foreign and defense policies. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/greenhillk2

The Nature of War: American Environments and World War II will examine American involvement in World War II through an environmental lens, focusing on how the war reshaped American landscapes, institutions, and environmental thinking, and how wartime developments helped shape the contours of postwar American environments and environmental thinking. It will also explore the ways in which American environmental endowments structured and delimited the U.S. war effort - that is, how nature and natural resources set the parameters for what is possible in total war. In exploring the case of World War II, the workshop will delve into broad questions of the relationships among environment, war, and security, both in the United States and globally. The aim is an edited volume that will be engaging enough for undergraduates and general readers but deep enough for scholars. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/natureofwar

3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Vipin Narang is Mitsui Career Development Associate Professor of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of MIT's Security Studies Program. His first book, Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era (Princeton, 2014) on the deterrence strategies of regional nuclear powers, won the 2015 ISA International Security Studies Section Best Book Award. He is currently working on his second book, Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation (Princeton, under contract), which explores how states pursue nuclear weapons. In this talk, Narang will explore the strategies of proliferation available to states - hedging, sprinting, sheltered pursuit, and hiding - and develop a theory for which strategies are likely to be chosen. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/narangv

The Cold War was not simply a bipolar political confrontation between the communist East and the capitalist West. Rather, there was a variety of multipolar interactions among the First, Second, and Third Worlds. Historians of eastern Europe have been at the forefront of redefining the nature of these interactions. The goal of Iron Curtain Crossings is to investigate the variety of ways in which eastern Europe emerged as an important international player, by promoting its own ideas of modernity, progress, humanism, culture, and everyday life. This workshop will bring together scholars to debate the meaning of the global Cold War as it unfolded in diverse settings between eastern Europe and the outside world. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/ironcurtain

The symposium will address the complex issues related to extremist jihadi groups in the Middle East. Panelists will provide detailed background information on these groups as well as the on area they operate in. They will then provide an up-to-date analysis of the current situation in these regions. They will conclude with a discussion of the implications for U.S. foreign policy followed by a Q and A session. Panelists include Amr Al-Azm (left), associate professor at Shawnee State University and an active member of the Syrian opposition; Alam Payind, director of the Middle East Studies Center; and Richard Herrmann, director of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/jihadis

Elizabeth Hurd is associate professor of political science at Northwestern University with a courtesy appointment in religious studies. She teaches and writes on religion, politics and international public life. Her work pursues an integrative approach to the study of politics and religion focusing on dilemmas of national and international governance involving difference, equality, power, law, and pluralism. Her books include The Politics of Secularism in International Relations (2008) and Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (2015), both published by Princeton. In this talk, Hurd introduces the central argument of Beyond Religious Freedom. The book is a study of state-sponsored global efforts to promote religious freedom, religious engagement and the rights of religious minorities. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/hurde

5 p.m., 004 Scott Lab East, 201 W 19th Ave.

Sponsored by Center for Folklore Studies

4 p.m., 165 Thompson Library, 1858 Neil Ave. Mall

Sponsored by Middle East Studies Center