The “Young Turks” workshop takes place on the margins of the biennial International Conference of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society held in Reston, VA. Hosted by Duke Principal Dr. Peter Feaver, the workshop brings together senior mentors with younger scholars – anyone from ABD up through pre-tenure junior professors – within political science focused on civil-military relations.
The workshop is designed to create a strong network across the growing number of political scientists, especially younger scholars, conducting innovative research in the area of civil-military relations. It also has an auxiliary benefit of linking the strong cadre of research scholars in professional military education institutions with those in the rest of higher education. By scheduling the workshop alongside IUS, the workshop also strengthens the flagship academic organization studying civil-military relations in the United States and the rest of the world.
This year, the workshop took place following the close of IUS on Sunday, October 15th, and featured 30 participants who attended from around the world. Attendees emphasized the benefits they received in terms of mentorship and research guidance as well as the opportunity to brainstorm new ideas. Since America’s role in the world depends in great measure on the health of the U.S. armed forces, and since that health is itself dependent on well-functioning civil-military relations (in the United States and elsewhere), the Young Turks project makes a vital contribution to the AWC mission.