• Workshop: Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Consortium Change Agent Program, Kenan-Flager Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, July 2015.


  • Panel Discussion: “Response to Remarks of H.E. Former President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,” Lui Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, Notre Dame, IN, June 2015. Chair.


  • Conference: “Privacy in a Free Society,” The Liberty Fund, Washington, DC, May 2015.


  • Inaugural Lecture: “Is A Grand Strategy of Restraint Politically Viable?” Charles Koch Grand Strategy Lecture Series, Institute of World Politics, Washington, DC, May 2015.


  • Workshop: “Bridging the Gap: Meeting on Engaging University Leadership,” School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, May 2015.


  • Workshop: “Fostering Greater Scholarly Relevance: The Perspective From Higher Education Leaders and the Philanthropic Community” Carnegie Corporation of New York, New York, NY, May 2015. Principal Organizer and Talk: “Ranking Irrelevance: Disincentives for Scholarly Relevance.”


  • Convention: International Studies Association, New Orleans, LA, February 2015. Panel: “Democracies and War.” Chair.


  • Graduate Seminar: Notre Dame/Mellon Initiative on Religion Across the Disciplines, Notre Dame, IN, February 2015. Paper: "A Coming Reformation of Religion in International Affairs?"


  • Panel Discussion: “Tortured Nation: Morality, Security, and Torture,” Center for Civil and Human Rights, Notre Dame, IN, January 2015. Panelist. 


  • Workshop: "Strengthening the Links," Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, January 2015. Paper: “Why the Wizards of Armageddon Ran Into An Intellectual Dead-end: And What That Tells Us About the Relevance of Academic Nuclear Strategy Today” [with Paul C. Avey].


  • Television Interview: “Former President George H.W. Bush and the Israel-Palestine Conflict,” al-Jazeera/America, New York, NY, January 2015.

2015 Conferences, Seminars and Public Talks

MCDesch.com

  • Panel Discussion: “Foreign Policy in 2016 and Beyond,” Notre Dame International Security Center and Notre Dame Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, December 2015.


  • Panel Discussion: “Terror in Paris and Beyond,” Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame, November 2015.


  • Hesburgh Lecture: “What Should We Fight For? (The Case for a Grand Strategy of Restraint),” The Notre Dame Club of Hartford, CT, November 2015.


  • Panel Discussion: “Summit on Realism & Restraint: A New Way Forward for American Foreign Policy,” The American Conservative with the Department of Political Science at George Washington University and the Charles Koch Institute, November 2015. Panel: “Elites and the Public: How Foreign Policy Is Made.”


  • Talk: “Where Will the World Be in 2030? The View from the NIC and ND,” Lumina Foundation Investment Committee Retreat, Notre Dame, IN, October 2015.


  • Convention: Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, Chicago, IL, October 2015. Roundtable: “Reconstructing Realism.”


  • Hesburgh Lecture: “What Should We Fight For? (The Case for a Grand Strategy of Restraint),” The Notre Dame Club of the New Jersey Shore, Middleton, NJ, October 2015.


  • Talk: “How the Wizards of Armageddon Became the High Priests of the Cult of the Irrelevant: They Followed Economics to an Intellectual Dead-end,” Security Studies Program, MIT, Cambridge, MA, September 2015.


  • Panel Discussion: “The Politics of American Foreign Policy,” Charles Koch Institute, Washington, DC, September 2015. Talk: “Is An Alternative to the Grand Strategy of Primacy Politically Viable?”


  • Panel Discussion: “The Obama Administration’s Iran Deal: Good Deal or Raw Deal?” The Helen Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, September 2015.


  • Web Roundtable: “Has The 'Israel Lobby' Lost Its Grip On D.C.?” Huffington Post, September 2015.


  • Convention: American Political Science Association Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA, September 2015. Roundtable: “Author Meets Critics: Bartholomew Sparrow’s The Strategist.” Chair and Commentator. Panel: “Rethinking the U.S. Grand Strategy Debate.” Chair.