After the detonation of the first hydrogen bomb, Manhattan Project physicist Edward Teller sent a telegram reading "It's a boy" to the wife of one of his colleagues.
The bomb's successful detonation, according to Jeffrey Stout '72, a professor of religion at Princeton, cemented the United States' position as a superpower in the 20th century and ushered in an era of U.S. foreign policy based on domination instead of cooperation.
Last Friday, in his lecture "It's a Boy: How Militarism Has Corrupted the Republic," Stout spoke about the dangers of American militarism, and the history of U.S. foreign policy to a sizeable audience in Petteruti Lounge.
Stout said he saw his lecture partially as a response to the justification of the Iraq War through the Just War principles of political philosopher and University of Chicago professor Jean Bethke Elshtain.
"Our actions reveal domination to be one of the major ends of our foreign policy," Stout said, and thus violate the principles of Just War.
The so-called liberation of Iraq was not a suitable justification for entering a war, because it is unfair to single out one country rather than uniformly apply Just War, Stout said.
Similarly, he said an aggressive foreign policy fortified by the threat of nuclear war is not just. He noted that the United States still has some of its nuclear arsenal on foreign soil, which reveals its "intention to dominate."
"Anyone dominated by a master, however benign that master may appear, is still a slave," he said.
Stout warned that the United States' perversion of Just War principles will lead to unfortunate consequences.
With the growing power of India and China, "the age of the single superpower is almost over," he said. He warned that if the U.S. does not reform its policies, it will soon have to drink from the "bitter cup" of regret, referencing the famous line from Shakespeare's "King Lear."
Stout responded pessimistically to a question about how he would advise the Obama administration to proceed. He said he thought President Obama was "actually in a box" because there is "no counter-power outside of the establishment."
He listed prominent politicians such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. John McCain R-Ariz., and Colin Powell as members of the "war establishment" who had helped legitimize the Bush administration's "militarism."
It is important for Obama to educate the public about the nature of the situation, Stout said. He noted that Obama's experience as a community organizer will be an asset for this task.
The most important thing for ordinary citizens to do is to hold their government accountable, Stout said. In that way, they can develop a counter to the establishment. Unless they take a stand against leaders who violate Just War principles, citizens in effect allow leaders "to engage in preemptive war with impunity," he said.
Many students who attended the lecture are enrolled in REL0290C: "Christian Ethical Theories," in which they have read some of Stout's work.
Andrew Ingram '09, a student in the class, said, "It's one of the neat things about Brown that you get to meet the authors of the texts you read."
