The Center for Military, War, and Society Studies (CMWS) facilitates essential conversations about – and with – the U.S. military, holding national or international symposia that bring together scholars, policy makers, and members of the armed forces. We foster research on the U.S. military on the KU campus and beyond, supporting scholarship that examines the military not only as an instrument of national defense but also as a central institution in American society. We also support "War and Society" scholarship, asking how changing social and cultural factors help to shape military institutions and affect ways of waging war, how warfare and conflict affect the broader society, economy, and culture of the United States and other nations, and how war and the military are understood and represented in American life.