OSU professor speaks on warfare

by Dan Lanzillotta
For The Post

Ohio State University Professor John Mueller will speak at 4 p.m. today in the Brown House seminar room about Remnants of War: Thugs as Residual Combatants, his thesis on the nature of modern warfare.

His Remnants lecture covers the decline of the institution of war.  He said that certain standard varieties of war, such as war among major countries, have become so rare that they could be considered “obsolescent.” 

What is labeled war, Mueller’s studies indicate, is often closer to the actions of thugs working in small bands.  He cited the state of affairs in Columbia and Sudan as examples. 

According to the thesis, war has been reduced to bits and pieces — remnants —and the remaining forces are no more than street thugs.  Mueller will discuss the implications of this trend during today’s lecture.

“The argument has amazing persuasiveness,” said Sung-Ho Kim, OU associate professor of political science.  “It is of fundamental significance to international studies.”

Michael Grow, the director of the OU Contemporary History Institute, is excited about Mueller’s visit. 

“We bring scholars doing interesting work into OU to allow the campus community a chance to interact with them,” he said. 

The institute hosts about five speakers each quarter.  Past speakers include Cold War-era diplomat George F. Kennan and former President Jimmy Carter.

“We have a steady diet of reasonably prominent speakers coming in,” Grow said. 

Next on the lecture series list is historian Gordon Wood, of Brown University, on Nov. 7.  Wood will speak about the Revolution and its international implications.

The lecture, part of the Ohio University Contemporary History Institute Speakers Series, is open to the public.

Mueller is a world-renowned international relations specialist. In addition to his duties as a political science professor at OSU, he holds the Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies and has a background in dance history.  He teaches courses in everything from the war in Vietnam to the choreography of Fred Astaire.  Nearly a dozen of his books have been in print and several publishers are considering Remnants.