Arms and the University

Donald Alexander Downs is Meiklejohn Professor of Political Science, Law, and Journalism at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of five books: Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community, and the First Amendment; The New Politics of Pornography; More than Victims: Battered Women, the Syndrome Society, and the Law; Cornell '69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University; and Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus. He is the co-founder and director of the Wisconsin Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy at the University of Wisconsin and a frequent contributor to local, state, national and international media. Ilia Murtazashvili is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his research interests include institutional design and political economy.

"Distrust or disdain for ‘the military’ may foster one’s isolation from those more familiar with it, and lead to mutual misunderstanding. Utilizing relevant political theory and sound empirical evidence, Downs and Murtazashvili demonstrate that the university’s role in providing civic and liberal education is fostered, rather than injured, by enabling members of ROTC units and student veterans to interact with other students in classrooms (and cafeterias). They note cogently that ignorance of military institutions and wars impede students and potential future policymakers from grasping strategic limits in crises. A long overdue case for the return of ROTC to those campuses that exiled them over a generation ago, as well as a good brief for the teaching of military history." —Peter Karsten, University of Pittsburgh, author of Law, Soldiers & Combat

• Part I. A Normative and Pedagogical Framework: 1. The closing of the university mind: the military/university gap and the problem of civic and liberal education; 2. Education in the regime: how a military presence can enhance civic and liberal education; Part II. ROTC and the University: 3. ROTC and the university: an introduction; 4. ROTC and the Ivies: before the storm; 5. ROTC and the Ivies: the divorce; 6. ROTC, Columbia, and the Ivy League: Sisyphus renews his quest to renew a troubled relationship; 7. Post-DADT: Sisyphus nears the top of the mountain; 8. Pedagogy and military presence: the educational influence of student-soldiers in their own words; 9. Winning hearts and minds?: The consequences of military presence for non-military students; Part III. Military History Examined: 10. Military history: an endangered or protected species?; 11. Half empty or half full?: Military historians' perspectives on the status of military history and the leading departments; 12. Military presence in security studies: political realism (re)considered; 13. Security studies in the wake of the Cold War university: paragons of productive fiction, or throwing the baby out with the bathwater?; Part IV. Concluding Thoughts: 14. Conclusion: placing the military in the university.