The Tennessee World Affairs Council joined Lipscomb’s Department of History, Politics and Philosophy for a public discussion on the United States’ role in today’s global community.
TWAC President Patrick Ryan was the evening’s moderator.
“The Tennessee World Affairs Council is a nonprofit educational group,” Ryan said. “We’re all volunteers, and we all have day jobs. We just want to educate and inspire our fellow citizens in regards to what’s going on in the world.”
The group that gathered Monday, Sept. 28, debated questions regarding the United States’ international as examined on the PBS-sponsored show “Obama at War: Inside the Obama Administration’s Struggle to Deal with ISIS and the Civil War in Syria.”
The points raised include defining what American interests are worth fighting for militarily, whether or not military expansion is necessary to preserve modern American interests, how partisan politics impacts American international relations and what political doctrines the next United States president should adopt.
TWAC not only is a nonprofit organization, it also is nonpartisan and was born out of a group of concerned citizens.
“I was a naval officer for 26 years and was in Navy intel, so I kind of had an outsized interest in international affairs when we started this in Cookeville a few years back,” Ryan said.
TWAC has moved its headquarters in recent months to Nashville.
The group is planning to host similar discussions Sept. 29 at Green Hills Public Library, Sept. 3o at the Frothy Monkey and Oct. 7 at Belmont University.