Current freshmen and sophomores will have the opportunity to pursue a minor in military history and grand strategy beginning in the fall. The new program of study is the “first pillar” of the college’s upcoming Center for Military History and Grand Strategy, said Assistant Professor of History Edward Gutiérrez.
“President Arnn’s vision is to make us a bastion of war and strategy that he feels is dead in higher education,” said Gutiérrez, who drafted the proposal for the new minor. “The goal of the minor is to train students to go to the beltway whether that be in defense or the military or policy-making or the intelligence community.”
The other pillars of the Center for Military History and Grand Strategy, which are still under development, will include an annual conference, a publication, and a summer seminar. The new minor will serve as the springboard for each.
“Military history has an extremely bad reputation in academia because it is instantly judged as being warmongering, but it’s in our fallen nature to have conflict and that’s an important thing that we have to face,” Gutiérrez said.
Professor of History David Stewart stressed that the new minor is not just for students interested in pursuing military careers or policymaking.
“Warfare is an activity central to human existence,” Stewart said. “We need to understand it as citizens so we don’t get some pie-in-the-sky sort of ideas about war. We need to understand what are the components that make something a good policy or a bad policy — ill-informed citizens are going to make bad decisions.”
Carter McNish, a sophomore who plans to pursue a career in military history, said he was delighted when he heard about the new minor.
“I was already planning on taking all military-themed courses I could, but now I’m spoiled for choice,” McNish said. “While I do not like having to pass up taking some military-themed courses, it is a good problem to have.”
The minor will consist of 18 credit hours split between four required classes and two electives. Required classes are global warfare one (ancient), two (medieval), and three (modern) and American grand strategy. Electives include classes such as World War I, World War II, American military history since 1914, and counterinsurgency and counterterrorism. Students will also have the opportunity to take Victor Davis Hanson’s annual course offered at the start of the fall semester for credit.
The new classes will be taught by Gutiérrez and Stewart, as well Mark Moyar, whom the college recently appointed as the William P. Harris Chair in Military History. Moyar, a prominent historian of the Vietnam War, currently works at the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Statesmanship in Washington D.C. He will move to Michigan and teach history on campus this fall.
According to Gutiérrez, the classes will be less “Eurocentric” than many offered at the college. They will explore a mix of “old” military history, which focuses on events and people, and “new” military history,” which seeks to understand how socio-cultural differences impact war.
“They’re both important — understanding the men and women who are involved in the conflict as well as the cultural aspects of it,” Gutiérrez said. “What is the difference between Eastern and Western warfare? How does Japanese culture influence how they fight? Or Chinese culture? Or Indian culture? African? European? These classes are global for a reason—we need a full understanding.”
The new minor was phased into the curriculum this academic year through a pair of courses: the Art of War in World History in the fall semester and the Just War Tradition in the West this semester. Students who have taken either of these classes will be able to transfer the credits towards the new minor.
Senior Emily Brickey, who has taken both classes, said she would have minored in military history and grand strategy if it had been offered sooner.
“Those classes have been so important because war brings out very extreme extremes in human nature,” Brickey said. “During war, you can see the best and the worst of individuals. It is easy to say that there is a right way for a person to be, speak, or act, but in the context of war it is much harder to implement those ideas. In life, we will all have to face challenges — though hopefully never as perilous as war — so it’s important for us to analyze human nature in extreme circumstances so we are prepared to face those things in the future.”
