Coastal Carolina University philosophy and religion professor Michael Ruse will lead a discussion on war and international politics on Wednesday, March 14 at 7 p.m. at the Waccamaw Higher Education Center in Litchfield. The event is free and open to the public.

This is the sixth event in Coastal's "Unheard, Unseen, Unsolved" dialogue series, sponsored by the Board of Visitors of Coastal's Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Ruse will focus on specific elements of war such as guerilla warfare, terrorism and deterrence as they relate to post-cold war and international political affairs. "The talk will explore what we can expect in a world with only one superpower and what these new conditions hold in store for America and the world." said Ruse.

At the end of the Second World War, two superpowers dominated international politics under the doctrine of deterrence, according to Ruse. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a shift in the meaning of deterrence as the confrontation was no longer between two somewhat equal opponents, but between a superpower and any number of relatively weaker states or non-state actors.

Ruse received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1984 and a master's degree and Ph.D. from Stony Brook University in New York. He was an assistant professor of philosophy at the American University in Cairo from 1993 to 1998, when he joined the Coastal faculty.