The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) is pleased to present Seth Cropsey as its 10th annual General Josiah Bunting Veterans Day lecturer. The address will take place on Veterans Day, November 11, at 8:00 p.m., via Zoom.
Seth Cropsey, Hudson Institute
Mr. Cropsey founded Yorktown Institute in 2022 and is the Institute’s president. He was previously senior fellow and director of the Center for American Seapower at Hudson Institute where he specializes in defense strategy, U.S. foreign and security policy in the Middle East and East Asia, and the future of U.S. naval power.
Cropsey began his career in government at the U.S. Department of Defense as assistant to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and subsequently served as deputy undersecretary of the Navy in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, where he was responsible for the Navy’s position on efforts to reorganize DoD, development of the maritime strategy, the Navy’s academic institutions, naval special operations, and burden-sharing with NATO allies. In the Bush administration, Cropsey moved to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to become acting assistant secretary, and then principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. Cropsey served as a naval officer from 1985 to 2004.
From 1982 to 1984, Cropsey directed the editorial policy of the Voice of America (VOA) on the solidarity movement in Poland, Soviet treatment of dissidents, and other issues. Returning to public diplomacy in 2002 as director of the U.S. government’s International Broadcasting Bureau, Cropsey supervised the agency as successful efforts were undertaken to increase radio and television broadcasting to the Muslim world.
Cropsey was previously a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of the Heritage Foundation’s Asia Studies Center.
Cropsey’s articles on national security and foreign policy have been published in Commentary, Foreign Affairs, The Public Interest, The National Interest, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times, and other national journals.”
He is the author of Seablindness: How Political Neglect Is Choking American Seapower and What to Do About It (Encounter Books, 2017) and Mayday: The Decline of American Naval Supremacy (Overlook Duckworth, 2013).
General Josiah Bunting, for whom the series was named, served as an infantry officer in Vietnam with the Ninth Infantry Division. He received the Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnam Honor Medal–2nd class, Presidential Unit Citation, Parachute Badge, Combat Infantry Badge and Ranger Tab. Subsequently, he taught history at West Point and at the Naval War College. He served as President, Briarcliff College (1973-1977); President, Hampden-Sydney College (1977-1987); and Superintendent, VMI (1995-2003). He published four novels, including The Lionheads (G. Braziller, 1972), a best-seller that was selected by Time Magazine as one of “The Ten Best Novels” of 1973.
Veterans Day honors American veterans of all wars. The commemorative holiday grew out of the end of World War I and the armistice that called a halt to the hostilities, signed in 1918 on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” Veterans Day succeeded Armistice Day. It recognized the obvious: that World War I was not, as many had hoped, the great war to end all great wars. And so, in 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law Congressional legislation that traded the name Armistice Day for Veterans Day and broadened the purpose of the commemoration.
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