Steven Lobell is professor of political science at University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Lobell is the author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books including, most recently, Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016) and The Political Economy of Regional Peacemaking (University of Michigan Press, 2016). He is also the PI of Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative award on "Power Projection, Deterrence Strategies, and Escalation Dynamics in an Era of Challenging Near Peers, Rogue States, and Terrorist and Insurgent Organizations." In this event, Lobell will present a finely tuned theory of balancing, arguing that states do balance effectively. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/lobells

Annette Becker is a professor at University of Paris-Nanterre and honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She is deputy director of the International Research Center of the Historial de la Grande Guerre [Museum of the Great War]. She has published widely on World War I, its commemoration, return of the soldiers, humanitarian aspect and trauma, and now focuses on the cultural aspects of the wars and links between the two World Wars. She will discuss her latest book Messagers du désastre, Raphaël Lemkin, Jan Karski et les génocides (Fayard, 2018), a history of the concept of genocide: the perpetrators, the victims, and the "messengers" who try to warn, to see, to speak. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/beckera

Carol Graham is the Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, College Park Professor at University of Maryland, and senior scientist at Gallup. Her most recent books include Happiness for All? Unequal Lives and Hopes in Pursuit of the American Dream (Princeton, 2017), The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being (Brookings, 2011), and Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires (Oxford, 2009). At this event, Graham will discuss how well-being metrics can be used to identify and monitor trends in life satisfaction and hope, and in desperation and misery. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/grahamc

Daniel P. Ahn is a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he teaches graduate courses on energy economics and conflict; senior adviser at the Rapidan Group; and adviser for the U.S. government. He was previously the chief economist at the U.S. Department of State, where he advised the secretary and senior principals on a wide range of international economic and security topics relevant to U.S. foreign policy, including global macroeconomic growth, financial stability, economic sanctions, counter-terrorist financing, international trade, and energy security. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/ahnd

Peter Turchin is a scientist and an author who wants to understand how human societies evolve, and why we see such a staggering degree of inequality in economic performance and effectiveness of governance among nations. Turchin is the founder of a new transdisciplinary field of cliodynamics, which uses the tools of complexity science and cultural evolution to study the dynamics of historical empires and modern nation-states. His most recent books are Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth (Beresta Books, 2015), and Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History (Beresta Books, 2016). Read more and register at go.osu.edu/turchinp

This lecture will examine the experience of war through four key themes: the appropriation of memory, the trauma of war, the ambiguity of victory, and the soldier experience. It will offer insights into the political, cultural, economic, social, ideological, psychological, and geographical factors that characterized conflict in Afghanistan across the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Robert Johnson is director of the Changing Character of War Research Centre at the University of Oxford. He is author of The Great War and the Middle East (2016) and The Afghan Way of War (2011), among other titles. For more information, contact Jennifer Siegel. 

When economists and philosophers talk about human well-being, are they talking about the same thing? Can we make progress on challenges like environmental sustainability and other important policy questions without a shared understanding of what human well-being consists in? This conference aims to foster interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration between philosophers and economists who are interested in well-being. It should be of interest not only to philosophers and economists, but to anyone interested in human well-being. Main speakers include Daniel Hausman (Philosophy - Wisconsin) and John Weymark (Economics - Vanderbilt)  Read more and register