Renowned Counterinsurgency Expert John Nagl Will Deliver Holstein Ethics Lecture on March 23

CHESTERTOWN, MD—One of the world’s top experts on national security and counterinsurgency, John A. Nagl, will deliver the Holstein Ethics Lecture at Washington College Wednesday afternoon, March 23. The talk, “Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife,” will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. The title is taken from Nagl’s 2005 book Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam, a comparison of British and American strategies he first wrote as a dissertation at Oxford University.

Now president of the D.C.-based Center for a New American Security, Nagl spent 20 years as an armor officer in the United States Army, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and earning renown for his mentorship of junior officers. His last military assignment before retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel was at Fort Riley, KS, where he trained the transition teams that embed with Iraqi and Afghan units.

A distinguished 1988 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a Rhodes Scholar, Nagl later taught security studies at West Point and at Georgetown University. In 2007, he co-wrote the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. He has been published or interviewed by numerous national media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes, NPR, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. For more information on John Nagl and the Center for a New American Security, visit http://www.cnas.org/node/72.

Dr. Nagl’s talk is sponsored by the Holstein Ethics Committee at Washington College, part of an ethics program founded by 1968 alumnus Richard Holstein to encourage students to examine the ethical aspects of their actions.

Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in colonial Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Sarbanes, Maryland's Longest-Serving U.S. Senator, to Visit Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Retired U.S. Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, the longest-serving senator in Maryland history, will discuss "The Importance of Ethics to Our Society" at Washington College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Tuesday, October 7, at 4:30 p.m.

The lecture is presented by the Richard Holstein '68 Ethics Program.

Among his other senatorial accomplishments, Sarbanes co-authored the bipartisan Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, enacted in response to major corporate and accounting scandals that cost investors billions of dollars. "The New York Times called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 'the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt'," said Washington College President Baird Tipson. "As our nation embarks upon the largest corporate bailout in history, it is especially timely that the former ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will visit our campus to speak with our students about the importance of ethics in our society."

Sarbanes, who for decades served as Maryland's Democratic senior senator, had the principles of fairness and opportunity instilled in him by his parents from a very early age. Born in Salisbury, Maryland, in 1933, he was the son of Greek immigrants who owned the Mayflower Restaurant on Salisbury's Main Street. Sarbanes' parents understood the importance of hard work and the value of education. They instilled these values in their children along with an appreciation of the benefits of living in a democratic society.

Sarbanes attended Princeton University on an academic and athletic scholarship. A Rhodes Scholarship then took him to Oxford University. He returned to the United States and graduated from Harvard Law School.

Sarbanes was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, then a three-term Congressman from the Third Congressional District. In 1977, he began his record-length career as United States Senator from Maryland.

Throughout his years of public service, Senator Sarbanes worked hard to provide the citizens of Maryland with dedicated, independent representation. When he retired in 2007, the Democratic National Committee declared, "Be it ... resolved, that the DNC offers Senator Sarbanes its best wishes as he leaves the Senate and its hopes that his retirement from the Senate will not mean his retirement from opportunities to continue his efforts in behalf of the great causes for which he has already labored long and hard."

The Richard Holstein '68 Ethics Program is named in honor of a Washington College graduate who, two years ago, launched a new program to bring about a deeper appreciation for the value of ethics in American life. In addition to sponsoring the Holstein Prize in Ethics, awarded annually to a graduating senior, the Holstein Program brings distinguished individuals of national significance to campus to lecture and meet with students in an informal setting for discussion. The Holstein Program also supports a summer stipend for a faculty member who adds significant ethical content to a course.

Admission to "The Importance of Ethics to Our Society" is free and open to the public.

September 24, 2008