The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law invites you to Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism with Julian Zelizer, Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton University, on March 11, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. in the LBJ Library Brown Room, 10th Floor.  

Professor Zelizer will discuss his new book, Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism.  Based on research in 23 archival collections and a reading of the secondary literature of most of the major national security issues in this period, the book shatters the myth that politics ever stopped at the water’s edge.

The book begins with an analysis of how President Franklin Roosevelt formed a powerful political coalition around the ideas and policies of liberal internationalism in the 1930s and 1940s, and traces the rise of the issue of national security in the following decades. Rather than a portrait of conservatism that swept through American politics, Professor Zelizer shows how conservatives had to wrestle with the legacies of liberal internationalism as well as the conflicts of the 1960s. When conservatives were in power, they encountered substantial difficulty implementing their agenda and liberal internationalism proved to be far more resilient politically than they expected.

Julian E. Zelizer is Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He received his B.A. at Brandeis University and Ph.D. at The Johns Hopkins University and is one of the leading figures in the field of American political history and a well-known public intellectual. Professor Zelizer is the author and editor of numerous books that examine U.S. political leaders, policies and institutions since the New Deal. He is a well-known commentator in the national and international television, radio, and print media.  He was featured on a show by the History Channel, Great Moments on the Campaign Trail, which was awarded an Emmy in 2008. He is a regular contributor to CNN.com, Politico, The Huffington Post, and the Washington Independent. He has also published in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and The American Prospect.