Seminar Series: The Future of Diplomacy Project April 2, 2013 Description: Michael Dobbs is a former Washington Post foreign correspondent who covered the collapse of Communism, and has just completed a trilogy of books about the Cold War. His latest book, Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman from World War to Cold War, looks at the origins of the longest ideological conflict in American history. Earlier books examined the peak of the Cold War during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, (One Minute to Midnight), and the grand finale between 1980 and 1991 (Down with Big Brother). This seminar will discuss lessons from the Cold War for contemporary U.S. foreign policy, and the switch from the successful Cold War strategy of "containment" to preventive military action in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.