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Why and How We Fight

New Perspectives on the Causes and Costs of America’s Wars

Join scholars Elizabeth N. Saunders and Tanisha Fazal for a fascinating discussion about how the elite make decisions about our wars and the many hidden medical costs of war. Co-sponsored by NU.

About the Speakers:

Elizabeth N. Saunders is a Professor of Political Science at Columbia University (as of January 1, 2024). Prior to joining Columbia, she was a Professor in the School of Foreign Service and the Director of the Mortara Center for International Studies, as well as a core faculty member in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. 

Her research and teaching interests focus on the domestic politics of international relations and US foreign policy, especially the role of leaders, the presidency, and the politics of using force. She is an editor and contributor to the Good Authority blog, and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Read more here.

Her newest book The Insiders’ Game: How Elites Make War and Peace (Princeton University Press, 2024) argues that elite politics are central to understanding when and how democracies fight wars. 

Tanisha Fazal is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Her scholarship focuses on sovereignty, international law, and armed conflict. Fazal’s current research analyzes the effect of improvements in medical care in conflict zones on the long-term costs of war. 

A frequent commentator on international relations and foreign affairs, she has been a fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University. In 2002 she was awarded the Helen Dwight Reid Award of the American Political Science Association. From 2021-2023, she was an Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Read more here.

Her newest book Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War (Oxford University Press, 2024) offers a comprehensive history of US military medicine, examines how the US has assessed the costs of war prior to major conflicts, and explicitly connects changes in military medicine to changes in veterans' benefits and the costs of war.

Co-sponsored by Northwestern University. To request ADA accommodation for a program, service, or activity, please call 847.866.2919

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