Mt. Lebanon High School hosts global issues seminar
Lt. Col. Michael Mierau speaks about “Justification of the Use of Force.”
Lt. Col. Thomas Asbery’s topic was “Climate Change Impacts on National Security.”
Lt. Col. Richard Ball speaks about “Profession of Arms.”
Lt. Col. Matthew Strub’s topic was “Cyber Security Disaster Response.”
Amiena Mahsoob, World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh global education program director, introduces the Army officers.
Social studies teacher George Savarese kicsk off the seminar in the Mt. Lebanon High School auditorium.
U.S. military personnel often visit schools as recruiters.
The lieutenant colonels, however, visited Mt. Lebanon High School on Feb. 3 as educators.
“These are Army officers who aren’t ‘rah-rah, go Army!'” social studies teacher George Savarese explained. “These are intelligence officers. A lot of them were in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a lot of them were in strategic officer training schools, basically learning the military strategy: what to do in Afghanistan, what to do in Iraq, what to do against ISIS.”
Thomas Asbery, Richard Ball, Michael Mierau and Matthew Strub were in Mt. Lebanon to lead a global issues seminar, presented by the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, a nonprofit organization that has promoted a deeper understanding of what occurs internationally since 1931. All four career officers attend the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.
”They are participating in an education outreach program designed to promote dialogue on national security and other public policy issues between students at the War College and the community at large, so that those of us who aren’t serving and are taxpayers can understand what exactly the U.S. military is doing,” Amiena Mahsoob, World Affairs Council global education program director, said in introducing the officers.
Each spoke to the audience, which included students from other schools in attendance and by videoconference, about a subject of international relevance: Asbery, “Climate Change Impacts on National Security”; Ball, “Profession of Arms”; Mierau, “Justification of the Use of Force”; and Strub, “Cyber Security Disaster Response.” For the latter part of the seminar, they met with smaller groups to address further topics.
”Those are really challenges that our students are interested in, our teachers are interested in, even our media are interested in,” Savarese said. “But how much do we really know about cyber warfare, about North Korea, about terrorist threats?”
The seminar reflects the world’s seismic shift of the past quarter century, helping to reinforce instruction about recent history and current events.
“After 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we had sort of a honeymoon period of 10 years where the U.S. was the only power in the world,” Savarese explained. “Then suddenly, after 9/11, we saw that the world had changed. The challenges have changed.
”And as teachers, we’re constantly trying to present to our students all the different challenges,” he continued. “Whether they’re coming from terrorist groups like al-Qaeda or ISIS, or even individuals, you have all kinds of different challenges that we didn’t face when we were growing up.”
Mt. Lebanon High School and the World Affairs Council have been collaborating on programs since the 1970s, and students often have the opportunity to hear “jaw-dropping stories from visitors, Savarese said.
“A few years ago, we had one officer who told the story of one of his assignments, to be undercover at the Super Bowl, along with a number of other officers,” he recalled. “And what they had to do was simply dress as fans and just walk around. They didn’t watch the game. They walked around and watched the crowd.
”And that was fascinating to the students. You have Army intelligence officers; you have homeland security; you have CIA, FBI, all there. Because that’s one of the main terrorist threats.”