How do people find their way through the disorientation of conflict, when fear, uncertainty, and pressure distort everyday judgment? Over decades of fieldwork in war‑torn regions, service with the Department of State, and documenting war crimes, Michael Sullivan (PC ’88) has reflected on how people make sense of extreme circumstances. Drawing on his experiences in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, and Ukraine, and engaging ideas from Viktor Frankl, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Admiral Stockdale—who turned to Epictetus during captivity in Hanoi—this conversation reflects on how people orient themselves as reference points fall away.

Michael Sullivan, Attorney and Adjunct Faculty of Justice, Law, and Criminology at American University