Annual Events
AWC Civil-Military Relations Conference
During the spring, the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy and a co-sponsoring academic program, in collaboration with the AWC, host a conference on Civil-Military Relations.
The conference aims to link past, current, and future civilian and military leaders to discuss challenges and concepts for building sustainable trust in American civil-military relations. The panels and discussions seek to establish a common understanding of what this trust looks like in American civil-military relations; develop and foster relationships between past, current, and future civilian and military leaders; and highlight the voices of students.
Past themes include:
- The American Public and Its Military
- Politicization of the Military
- Civil-Military Relations at the Senior Level
- A New Dimension in Civil-Military Relations: Military, Civilian Government, and the Private Sector in Cyberspace
- Who Commands and who serves?
In 2023, the AWC at Duke partnered with Georgetown's Center for Security Studies to present, "The All-Volunteer Force at 50: Civil-Military Challenges and Opportunities."
Young Scholars Conference
The AWC invites Ph.D. students, early scholars, and early policy practitioners to submit proposals for a one-day conference on great power competition in a rapidly changing security landscape.
The 2023 conference featured scholarship addressing three broad areas shaping the curators of great power competition:
- Security: Defending the First and Second Island Chains, Conventional and Nuclear Deterrence, Escalation Management
- New Domains: Cyber, Space, AI, Information Warfare, and Economic Statecraft & Security
- International Order: Europe, the Global South (i.e., Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands), and Human Rights
AWC Policy Workshop
The AWC hosts an annual 2-day policy workshop to tackle issues related to American internationalism. Its aim is to bring together the best “thinkers” from both academia and policy in a venue free of distractions for serious, off-the-record discussions.
Past themes have included:
- Ukraine and Its Global Implications
- Domestic Politics and National Security
- The Pivot to China
- Organizing for Long Term Strategic Competition
AWC Fall Fellows Summit
Each year, AWC fellows gather in Washington, D.C., for a 3-day summit to meet one another in person, exchange scholarly ideas, and connect with prominent academics and policy experts. This summit continues the AWC's commitment to fostering relationships among AWC scholars and building a pipeline of professional experts.