USU's New Political Science Department Head Gives September Kiger Hour Talk
Monday, Sep. 17, 2012
Bradley Thayer is Utah State University's new head of the Department of Political Science. He will deliver the first Kiger Hour talk of the academic year September 20.
Bradley Thayer, professor of political science and the new head of Utah State University’s political science department, will deliver the first Kiger Hour talk of the 2012-13 academic year. His timepiece, “The Permanent Value of Nuclear Weapons,” will outline how nuclear weapons create a stabilizing effect in international politics and discuss policy recommendations for the United States’ strategic arsenal.
“[Nuclear weapons] provide the United States with deterrent and coercive capabilities, as well as contributing to stability in international politics — just as they did in Cold War, and will continue to do so in the future,” Thayer said.
During his Sept. 20 talk, he will examine the major problems facing the nuclear deterrent of the United States, and suggest solutions to these difficulties.
Professor Thayer is a Fulbright Scholar Program Senior Specialist and an expert of international politics and national security. He has been widely published for his work on the origins of war and terrorism. He joined the faculty at Utah State in summer 2012 after teaching at Baylor University and Missouri State University’s Department of Defense and Strategic Studies.
He is the author of three books, including Darwin and International Relations: On the Evolutionary Origins of War and Ethnic Conflict (University Press of Kentucky, 2004); co-author of American Empire: A Debate (Routledge, 2007) and America’s Achilles’ Heel: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack (MIT Press, 1998). He is the editor of American National Security Policy: Essays in Honor of William R. Van Cleave (National Institute Press, 2007) and Debates in International Relations (Pearson Longman, 2009).
Thayer has been a Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a consultant to the Rand Corporation, the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He worked as a senior analyst for the National Institute for Public Policy, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Missile Defense Agency.
Learn more about professor Thayer’s work at Kiger Hour, an intellectual program presented by Utah State University and sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Caine College of the Arts. The event will be held Thursday, Sept. 20, from 5:15 to 7 p.m. at Montez Brothers (previously Hamilton’s), 2427 N. Main St., Logan.
A buffet with appetizers, desserts and soft drinks, iced tea or coffee is available. Cost is $6.95 per person (plus tax and gratuity) and billed on an individual basis. Guests can also order from the menu, and a cash bar is available. For planning purposes, please RSVP to Natalie Archibald Smoot in the college office, 435-797-2796, or email, natalie.archibald@usu.edu. The next Kiger Hour talk is Oct. 18.
Related links:
USU Political Science Department
USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Source: College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Contact: Natalie Smoot, (435) 797-2796, natalie.archibald@usu.edu
