BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Crisis and Conflict: The British Naval Intellectual Establishment\
 , 1905-1908 - James Ainsworth (Clare Hall)
DTSTART:20110125T173000Z
DTEND:20110125T190000Z
UID:TALK29492@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ilya Berkovich
DESCRIPTION:British naval intellectual culture would take on three distinc
 t tropes in this period\, evolving from the genesis of academic deliberati
 ons and disputes to form a coherent intellectual strategic community. Firs
 tly\, there can be seen an academic quest for naval strategy defined not b
 y mere accepted wisdom or received knowledge as may have characterised ear
 lier years\, but by “scientific” strategy formulated upon immutable 
 “first principles” or “laws”\, derived from historical and practic
 al lessons and those regarded as authorities and experts from their employ
 ment of this methodology. Secondly\, armed with what they regarded as this
  higher form of scientific strategy\, the intellectuals sought representat
 ion in the decision making processes of Government and the Admiralty on na
 val strategy as dispassionate thinkers free from the tumult of external co
 ncern and influence. Thirdly\, this would engender political problems\, as
  the intellectuals and the culture they were part of inevitably did become
  embroiled in political wrangling\, leading to definitions of themselves a
 s “non-political” or “apolitical” from their supposedly dispassion
 ate and scientific study of strategy\; these definitions would cause a cri
 sis in the entire community as many could not resolve these two roles.
LOCATION:Seminar Room N7\, Pembroke College
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR