This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Arnold Offner, Cornelia F. Hugel Professor of History, will talk about “Abuse of Power: George W. Bush and U.S. National Security” 7:30 p.m. today in the Oechsle Hall auditorium.
Sponsored by the Phi Alpha Theta history honors society, History Club, and history department, the talk will focus on the “Bush Doctrine” and recent developments in Iraq.
“The Bush administration’s National Security Statement of September 2002 is a radical concept that transforms the legally accepted doctrine of preemptive war against an imminent threat into an illegal policy of waging ‘preventive’ war against any alleged threat, no matter how remote or unformed,” says Offner. “Instead of waging war only as a last resort, Bush proposes to wage war as a matter of presidential choice. This has led to war in Iraq, and if other nations follow the Bush doctrine precedent, the result will be international chaos.”
Offner is author of Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War, 1945-1953, a 632-page volume published in March 2002 by Stanford University Press. Lafayette students contributed to the book project, which drew praise from historians and was reviewed by The New York Times, which noted that “discussions of the book have resurrected timeworn divisions in the field of cold war history.”
Offner also is the author of The Origins of the Second World War: American Foreign Policy and World Politics, 1917-1941; and American Appeasement: United States Foreign Policy and Germany, 1933-1938. He is coeditor of Victory in Europe, 1945: From World War to Cold War.
His recent publications include an article, “President Truman, the Korean War, the Peoples Republic of China, and the Perils of Regime Change” in The New England Journal of History.
Offer has involved Lafayette students in his research and mentored them in their own research projects. For example, he guided Kimberly Posocco ’03, a double major in English and history, in her honors thesis on the Hippie counter-culture movement and partnered with her in EXCEL Scholars research on Hubert H. Humphrey’s political career.
He is a recipient of the Mary Louise Van Artsdalen Prize for outstanding scholarly achievement and the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award for distinctive and extraordinary teaching.
Kim Posocco ’03 researched the counter-culture movement and the political career of Hubert H. Humphrey in separate projects under the direction of Arnold Offner, Hugel Professor of History.