Paths of Dissent: Veterans and U.S. Foreign Policymaking
QI co-founder and board chair Andrew Bacevich will lead a discussion with several veterans of the so-called Global War on Terror who will reflect on the implications of their military service — what it signified and how it changed them. How did their military service affect their outlook on citizenship, war, and America’s role in the world? November 11, 2022 1:00 PM
Join us for a panel exploring the impact that military service has on veterans through the lens of American foreign policy. Here are our guest panel members.
Jason Dempsey writes extensively on Army efforts toward gender integration, the experiences of Hispanics in the military, and our counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. He served for over twenty years in the Army, where he last served as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dr. Dempsey served as an infantry officer during his military service, deploying twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq.
Gil Barndollar
Gil Barndollar is a Senior Research Fellow at CSS and a Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities. From 2018 to 2019 he was Director of Middle East Studies at the Center for the National Interest. From 2009 to 2016, Gil served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. He deployed twice to Afghanistan, as a light armored reconnaissance platoon commander and as a combat advisor with the Georgian Army.
Joy Damiani
Joy Damiani is a writer, podcaster, and musician. Recruited as a teenager into the U.S. Army out of hometown Syracuse, N.Y., months after 9/11, Joy spent six years as an enlisted public affairs specialist, emerging after two deployments to Iraq with an altered sense of patriotism. Joy has toured the U.S. extensively and is currently based in Portland, Ore. Joy co-hosts a podcast, What the Folk, with writer Sarah Baranauskas, which features independent music and conversations with creatives, educators, and visionaries doing the best they can to make the apocalypse a better place.
Erik Edstrom
Erik Edstrom graduated from West Point in 2007. He was then deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as an infantry platoon leader. Erik spent the remainder of his service as the Presidential Escort Platoon Leader during the Obama administration. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School, was selected for the U.S. Special Forces (SFAS), and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. After the military, Erik went on to earn both an MBA and a Master of Science, studying climate change, from Oxford University.
Andrew Bacevich
Andrew Bacevich co-founded the Quincy Institute in 2019 and is the Chairman of the institution’s board of directors. He is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University. A graduate of West Point and Princeton, he served in the army before becoming an academic. Bacevich is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books, among them: The New American Militarism (2005), The Limits of Power (2008), Washington Rules (2010), America’s War for the Greater Middle East (2016), The Age of Illusions (2020), After the Apocalypse (2021), and Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out against America’s Forever Wars (2022).
