Everything in moderation

Students gathered in the Glass Pavilion on Monday to hear Hopkins's own Professor Daniel Deudney discuss the future of nuclear weapons with Elbridge Colby, a specialist who has worked on security issues with RAND and the Center for Naval Analyses. This was the first event of the semester for the Alexander Hamilton Society, an organization that promotes debate on national issues.
While both speakers presented strong arguments and showed expertise in their field, those arguments often sailed past each other without a real sense of engagement.  Deudney's discussion of a recessed deterrent system seemed to exist in a vacuum, entirely independent of Colby's lack of faith in the feasibility of an arms control regime capable of supervising a world without nuclear weapons.
While a few final questions from the moderator, political science PhD candidate A.T. Alden, tried to steer the discussion somewhat, each debater still seemed to stand independent of the other.  The structure of the "debate" was such that neither really had a chance to interact with the other.
Each opened with a 10-minute statement of their position, and then had several turns to alternate and further develop their case, but they were never able to directly address or question each other.
This page applauds the Alexander Hamilton Society's goal of "promoting constructive debate on basic principles and contemporary issues in foreign, economic, and national security policy." In the future, however, we urge a shift in moderation style to allow for more interaction between the debaters being presented, and perhaps greater direction and steering of the conversation in general. This is not to say the Alexander Hamilton Society is unique with this problem; many other student organizations have failed to adequately moderate and structure their debates and discussions.
Speaker events and debates at Hopkins provide an excellent opportunity for students and the community to learn, engage with academics and experts, and encounter new viewpoints. Both the Alexander Hamilton Society and other organizations have succeeded in bringing interesting and relevant speakers to campus. But greater thought must also be devoted to making sure the event retains its focus and offers the greatest possible opportunity for an exchange to take place, beyond mere lecture.