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West Point–Bard Initiative

Founded in 2006, the West Point–Bard Initiative (WPBI) serves as a model of cooperation and collaboration between a U.S. liberal arts college and a service academy, and provides unique opportunities for students to explore the complexities of civil-military relations in a democracy.

Students and faculty from Bard and the United States Military Academy at West Point exchange ideas in the classroom and through public presentations, debates, and extracurricular activities. Initiative efforts also include annual leadership discussions between cadets and Bard’s Women and Leadership class; regular debates on a wide range of public policy issues between the West Point debate team and the Bard Debate Union, including the Bard Prison Initiative debate team at Eastern Correctional Facility; and Bard student participation in the annual West Point Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA). Both institutions regularly exchange faculty as guest lecturers in counterinsurgency, strategy, military history, and advanced international relations theory, and West Point professors often serve as faculty in Bard’s Global and International Affairs program in New York City. In addition, Bard and West Point hold regular joint conferences, accompanied by a seminar simultaneously taught at both institutions, by which students exchange views and faculty produce published work on key issues of civics and public life.

What We Do

  • Joint Classes
    Every spring, Bard College students and West Point cadets participate in advanced seminars on international relations theory. The classes meet separately in Annandale-on-Hudson and at West Point, then come together several times during the term for joint sessions.
  • Debates
    For the past several years, Bard and West Point students and cadets (who are sometimes joined by faculty) have held mixed-team debates on issues ranging from relations with Iran to Just War to Drones. 
  • Extracurricular Activities
    Each fall, Bard students participate in West Point’s Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA). Most springs, Bard students present their Senior Project research as part of West Point’s Projects Day.

Conferences

  • Equality—More or Less?
    Bard College students and United States Military Academy at West Point cadets presented a three-day conference in April 2017 exploring issues surrounding equality entitled "Equality—More or Less?" Running in tandem with joint courses at both institutions, the conference challenged participants to examine of what equality means in different areas of human culture, thereby holding up a mirror to ourselves.
  • Intolerance: Political Animals and Their Prey
    Bard College and West Point presented a conference entitled “Intolerance – Political Animals and Their Prey,” in April 2015. Running in tandem with courses at both institutions, the conference explored human divisiveness, intolerance, and political and social conflict, and explored ways in which contemporary culture might deal with these influences. The interdisciplinary collaboration culminated in a book by the same name, edited by Robert E. Tully and Bruce Chilton (Hamilton Books, 2017).
  • Can War Be Just?
    The Just War program, which took place in spring of 2012, brought Bard students and West Point cadets together for: interdisciplinary courses focusing on Just War at both institutions; joint classes five times during a semester; guest lectures by faculty at both institutions; an international academic conference held at Bard; a public debate on the resolution, “This house believes that war can be just”; and a book, Just War in Religion and Politics (University Press of America, 2013).

Discover More

Podcast: The Influence of Military Music on the American Sound
Whitney Slaten, professor of ethnomusicology.

Podcast: The Influence of Military Music on the American Sound

Listen now to this three-part series on on the influence of military music on the American sound, from reconstruction to the roaring twenties. Bard’s Whitney Slaten, professor of ethnomusicology, joins Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jonathan Crane and Staff Sergeant Kristina Teuschler of the West Point Band for a wide-ranging conversation across three episodes.

Listen Now

Bard Students Attend Conference on U.S. Affairs at West Point
Photo courtesy Josh Minsup Kim ’22.

Bard Students Attend Conference on U.S. Affairs at West Point

Bard students represent the College at the annual Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. SCUSA attracts students from colleges and military academies across the country and has students participate in intensive roundtable sessions on specific national security issues as well as plenary sessions led by prominent military and civilian officials. Bard's participation in the conference is supported by the Mellon Foundation.