Melvyn P. Leffler is Emeritus Professor of American History at The University of Virginia. He is the author and editor of books on the Cold War and on U.S. relations with Europe, including For the Soul of Mankind (2007), which won the George Louis Beer Prize from the American Historical Association, and A Preponderance of Power (1993), which won the Bancroft, Hoover, and Ferrell Prizes. Along with Odd Arne Westad, he is the co-editor of the three volume Cambridge History of the Cold War (2010). He has served as president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Harmsworth Professor at Oxford University, and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at The University of Virginia. His most recent book is Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq (2023).

Abstract: This lecture will focus on why the analogy to the U.S.-Soviet Cold War is erroneous and dangerous. On the other hand, planning for a great power rivalry is prudent and sensible.  So, what needs to be done?