Dickey Center for International Understanding

05/29/2026

The Global Arctic: Unprecedented Change, Global Stakes. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences, represented by Institute of Arctic Studies Director Melody Brown Burkins, along with G7 science academy colleagues released an S7 statement calling for urgent, internationally coordinated action to safeguard the Arctic and to protect against the cascade of possible global effects from rapid climate change in the region.

https://zurl.co/QA37F

05/28/2026

Taking Territory: the Persistence of Conquest since 1945. Cornell University Press is publishing our former Rosenwald postdoc Dan Altman, now Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University.

https://zurl.co/8HSOG

Taking Territory is an eye-opening account of why territorial conquest remains a phenomenon today.The end of World War II seemingly brought about a decline of territorial conquest. Many have argued...

05/27/2026

The Right Way for Europe to Spend More on Defense. Stephen Brooks and Luis Simón argue in Foreign Affairs that Europe should expand its conventional military capabilities while continuing to rely on U.S. support systems such as intelligence, logistics and cyber capabilities. "Europe thus needs a plan to secure reliable access to this suite of military enablers for the foreseeable future" because reproducing the United States' military infrastructure "would take at least a decade of lead time and a level of funding that is likely beyond the continent's means."

https://zurl.co/RGgX7

America should cofinance the continent’s rearmament.

05/21/2026

SecDef Pete Hegseth recently promoted a proposed $1.5 TRILLION defense budget. In her latest column, Elizabeth Shackelford argues that it is indefensible generally speaking and particularly dangerous in the hands of the current warmongering administration.

https://zurl.co/0DTH7

Giving the Trump administration a massive increase in funding only dials up the risk of further aggression and provocative posturing.

05/20/2026

Before delivering the keynote at Dartmouth's Social Justice Awards, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa spent time with students from the Dickey Center's War & Peace Fellows, Great Issues Scholars, and Global Health Fellows — the kind of frank, close-access conversation that sits at the heart of what Dickey does.

Ressa, a journalist of nearly 40 years and CEO of Rappler, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her reporting on human rights abuses under the Duterte government in the Philippines and her sustained fight against disinformation. She was candid with students about the journey: she started pre-med, hated it, and found her way through theater and dance — which she now sees as foundational. The most effective people, she told them, have developed both sides of their brain.
She pushed back hard on what she called "cognitive surrender" — the tendency to outsource your thinking to AI and, in doing so, lose the mental muscles that make you effective. And she was sharp on why journalism is under attack: the goal isn't to make you believe any one thing, but to make you distrust everything. "Journalism is an antidote to tyranny," she said.

Her framework for navigating what's ahead: build from the inside out. Know your values — she described spending years "growing into" hers — and construct your life and your digital presence to protect yourself first, then your community, then journalists, then the institutions worth defending.

Hopeful, pragmatic, and clear-eyed — exactly the kind of voice Dickey works to bring into conversation with our students.

https://zurl.co/MpwcI

05/20/2026

As part of our Global Mental Health Initiative, we recently brought together a remarkable group of researchers and clinicians to explore one of the most pressing — and most underdiscussed — challenges in global health: the mental health of the healthcare workforce itself. Burnout, stress, trauma, and a widening treatment gap that no amount of goodwill alone will close.

What made this panel so compelling was its insistence on moving from diagnosis to solutions. Lisa Marsch, Danny Forger, Zul Merali, and Michael Heinz — moderated by Thomas Thesen — examined how data science, mobile sensing, and generative AI can serve as genuine workforce multipliers, with a particular focus on the research partnership Dartmouth has built with the Brain & Mind Institute at Aga Khan University in Nairobi. This is the kind of international, evidence-grounded collaboration that shows what universities can actually do when they take a problem seriously.

Mental health — for students, for communities, for healthcare systems worldwide — is a defining challenge of this moment. At Dartmouth, that's not just a statement of concern. It's an area where we're doing the work.

https://zurl.co/u5yLU

As global healthcare systems face a critical shortage of providers, digital innovation is more than a novel addition. It is a necessity for the mental healt...

05/19/2026

We're thrilled to welcome Anya Gorodentsev to the Davidson Institute for Global Security at Dartmouth as Program Manager.

Anya joins us with five years at the U.S. Department of State, including work in the Office of Foreign Assistance Oversight and the Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs, where she managed aid portfolios supporting justice sector reform in Ukraine and served at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Earlier in her career she held research positions at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Center for National Interest, and Harvard's Kennedy School.

Anya holds an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown, where her capstone focused on Arctic security, and a B.A. in Political Science and Russian from the University of Vermont. Her depth in European and Eurasian affairs — and her firsthand experience translating policy into practice — make her a tremendous addition to the Davidson team.

05/13/2026

The Dickey Center and the Guarini Institute for International Education welcomed Dr.Tara Harvey of Intercultural to for an engaging workshop series on intercultural learning and development. Faculty and staff explored practical strategies for strengthening intercultural competence and integrating intercultural learning into their teaching and programming. Dr. Harvey also connected with several student groups, including the King Scholars. Thank you to everyone who joined these thoughtful and energizing conversations!

05/08/2026

The Davidson Institute's War & Peace Fellows got a rare opportunity this week: lunch with Dmitri Alperovitch, one of the most consequential figures in American cybersecurity.

Alperovitch co-founded CrowdStrike, led landmark investigations into state-sponsored cyber espionage — including Chinese intrusions into Google and dozens of other organizations — and now chairs the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a nonprofit focused on great power competition and national security policy. He correctly predicted Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and serves on the U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board.

For students thinking about careers at the intersection of technology, policy, and national security, it doesn't get more relevant than this. Conversations like this one are exactly what the War & Peace Fellows program is built for.

05/06/2026

ICYMI: Last week's conversation with David Sanger was exactly what the Dickey Center strives for — the kind of exchange that leaves you thinking long after it's over. Sanger brought four decades of reporting to bear on some of the hardest questions in international affairs right now: the nature of U.S.-China-Russia rivalry, the role of AI and cyber in modern conflict, and whether the frameworks we've relied on are still fit for purpose. His analysis was sharp, his access to decision-makers unparalleled, and his willingness to sit with complexity — rather than flatten it — made for a genuinely thought-provoking evening.

Missed the Obenshain Family Great Issues Lecture? Watch it. https://zurl.co/XSNZY

1 like. "New Cold Wars: A Journalist's view of Geopolitics. David Sanger of the New York Times"

05/05/2026

Shout-out to three remarkable Dartmouth students; great to see our Great Issues Scholar alumni Jackson and Will honored for their work, and a real pleasure to have Jackson back at the Dickey Center as a Global Health Fellow.

https://zurl.co/GJM4H

The Dartmouth spoke to Gracie Bartos ’27, Jackson DeConcini ’22 and Will Nelson ’27 about their interests and career plans.