Col. John Plating "Air Transport and the Politics of War" Feb. 21, 2013 - 7:30 p.m. Col. John Plating is an associate professor of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He earned his Ph.D. in military history at The Ohio State University, and is the author of The Hump: America's Strategy for Keeping China in World War II, published by Texas A&M University Press in 2011 (and available via immediate download from Amazon.com). He has also been featured as a guest historian on the Discovery Channel's aviation documentary, "Wings," and is also a senior pilot with over 2,300 flying hours in trainer and transport aircraft, including combat flying time in the Balkans in the 1990s. During his lecture, Plating will argue that military air transport -- perhaps more than any other application of air power -- is uniquely suited to making its impact felt in the realm of politics. Said differently, if Clausewitz's dictum is true -- that war is an extension of politics by other means -- then air power's purest means of impacting the sphere of the political is seen in the use of military air transport. In fact, one could go as far as to say that air transport is an extension of politics by other means. Over the course of the lecture, he will look at a handful of noteworthy airlift operations to make his case. Click here to return to the lecture schedule.