About
The Hertog Global Strategy Initiative is a research program that employs historical analysis to confront present and future problems in world politics. Each summer, invited experts and select undergraduates, graduate students and mid-career professionals gather at Columbia University for three months of intensive study, independent research, and collaborative writing on a critical issue in international affairs. The 2012 topic is: The History and Future of Religious Violence and Apocalyptic Movements.
Students in the program will spend the first two weeks of the summer in “total immersion” training on international religious violence and the methods of transnational history. The following seven weeks will be spent conducting independent research and team projects. In August, the class will reconvene and participants will present their research, develop future scenarios, and participate in a crisis simulation exercise. Students will then have four weeks to compose an article-length paper based on their research in the program. Together, the initiative will demonstrate the potential for collaborative historical research on key problems in world politics.
The 2012 global strategy seminar will be taught by Matthew Connelly, Professor of History at Columbia University, and Monica Toft, Director of the Belfer Center’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at Harvard University. They will be assisted in the classroom by a number of experts in the field. This year’s participants include: R. Scott Appleby, Peter Bergen, William J. Bratton, Harvey G. Cox, Jr., Martha Crenshaw, Ed Husain, Mark Juergensmeyer, David Kilcullen, Nina Shea, Jessica Stern, and Zachary Tumin.
The 2012 Hertog Global Strategy Initiative will run from May 29 through August 23 (return date flexible). It has been made possible by a gift from the Hertog Foundation, which was founded by Roger Hertog. A graduate of City College of New York, Hertog is chair of the New York Historical Society; chair emeritus of the Manhattan Institute; and a trustee of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, the New York Public Library, the New York Philharmonic, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He is also vice-chair emeritus of Alliance-Bernstein L.P. In 2007, he received the National Humanities Medal.
