National Security Lecture Series at DMGS
The Daniel Morgan Graduate School Lecture Series is specifically designed to bring together speakers with divergent opinions on national security with the goal of enabling the public to engage in robust and informed discussions. It has hosted some of the most distinguished and influential leaders, thinkers, and practitioners of the national security community. These members of the national security community have provided our students, faculty, and guests with first-rate analysis of some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Daniel Morgan Graduate School will continue to host speakers who can help prepare the next generation of leaders, scholars and, practitioners to develop actionable solutions to global and domestic security challenges.
On Friday, Tomasz Grzywaczewski, a journalist and author from Poland and certificate student at Daniel Morgan Graduate School, gave a special presentation titled “War in Ukraine from 2015-2018,” where he offered insights into the volatile situation in the Ukraine and Russia-Ukrainian relations. Since 2015 Tomasz Grzywaczewski, a journalist from Poland, has been covering the different stages of the war in Donbas. From the fierce fights in 2015 to the obscure for the modern notion of warfare, trench war in 2018, he has been gathering the testimonies of people entangled in this never-ending conflict, stimulated by the re-emerging Russian empire.
Tomasz says, “This is a story of how, using national feuds and historical resentments, former neighbors, friends, and even family members can be drawn into bloody conflict. This is a story about how war becomes part of the human soul and causes it to rot.”
Tomasz’s presentation was in keeping with our goal of drawing attention to the perspectives of national security professionals and other eminent experts on the most pressing challenges faced by the international community. Tomasz’s experiences demonstrate the unique nature of DMGS’s programs, where professional students with remarkable backgrounds in national security and international relations can still gain insight and knowledge from our unique programs.
Tomasz set the stage for his presentation:
Machine gun fire and explosions can be heard.
“Be calm, that is far from us.”
“The soldier signals that we do not have hide underground.”
“She is somewhere over there. And she is shooting at me or it’s me shooting at her.” He lights a cigarette, looking at the front line. “My love believed in Moscow’s new baby. The great Russian-Donbas motherland. I never talked to her after that. Her world stopped being my world.”
The conflict which erupted in eastern Ukraine lingers on. Officially it is peace, but when the night falls, gunfire starts again. On and on again. In the pain and suffering of the war, new unrecognized states are born near Donetsk and Lugansk.
The quality of DMGS’ graduate programs is aptly demonstrated by students like Tomasz, a professional journalist, who still believe that time spent learning from our distinguished faculty is a worthy investment of their time. Our degree programs serve to credential those who are seeking highly specialized careers in the national security community or those wanting to transition into this field. Learn more about our innovative and practical teaching as well as how you could jump-start your own career in national security or intelligence by clicking the link below.
BIOGRAPHY
Tomasz Grzywaczewski is a journalist, writer and Ph.D candidate at the Chair of Public International Law and International Relations, University of Lodz. Currently, he is a certificate student at Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security in Washington DC.
He is the author of the books, “Life and Death on the Dead Road” and “Across the Wild East,” for which he won the Magellan Prize for the best reportage book in 2013, awarded at the Warsaw Book Fair. His new book, “Dream Boundaries, About Unrecognized States,” devoted to the post-Soviet unrecognized states, was published in February 2018 by Czarne Publishing House. He is a member of The Explorers Club. Tomasz is also co-directing a documentary feature “Shadows of the Empire” based on his most recent book. The movie, shot in Kaliningrad Oblast, Ukraine, Georgia,Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, will be released in Winter 2019.
