Globalization dominates our world today--yet its strategic implications are rarely considered.  What happens when a globalized economic system receives a shock not from an economic or epidemiological event, but from a war, when actors are deliberately attempting to exacerbate the derangement?  This talk explores efforts by the British government to ensure food security, especially the critically important supply of grain, first in the pre-1914 globalized economy and then after the outbreak of World War I.  The history of these efforts may help us to think through the scale and scope of possible international conflict in the 21st century. 

Nick Lambert was educated at the University of Oxford in economics and in history.  He subsequently held fellowships at Yale, Oxford, and Australian National University.  Between 2016 and 2018, he was the “Class of 1957 Chair in Naval History and Heritage” at the United States Naval Academy.  His major publications include Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution (1999) and Planning Armageddon (2012).  His most recent book, The War Lords and the Gallipoli Disaster (2021), was published last month by Oxford University Press. 

This event is by invitation only. 


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ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This talk is part of the History Working Group Seminar Series. A central piece of the History Working Group is the seminar series, which is hosted in partnership with the Hoover Library & Archives. The seminar series was launched in the fall of 2019, and thus far has included six talks from Hoover research fellows, visiting scholars, and Stanford faculty. The seminars provide outside experts with an opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on their work. While the lunch seminars have grown in reputation, they have been purposefully kept small in order to ensure that the discussion retains a good seminar atmosphere.

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