AUSTIN, Texas—Former deputy national security adviser and incoming LBJ School Dean James Steinberg will start the 2005-06 International Security Speaker Series on Sept. 21 with a talk titled, “America and the World in the 21st Century.”
Steinberg, whose appointment as LBJ School dean will go into effect next Jan. 1, is vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Steinberg served as deputy national security adviser to President Bill Clinton from December 1996 to August 2000. During that period he also was the president’s personal representative to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits. Prior to becoming deputy national security adviser, he was director of the State Department’s policy planning staff (1994-96) and deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1993-94).
The International Security Speaker Series is a campus-wide program designed to explore the trends, processes and threats that will dominate 21st century international relations. In its second year, the series will feature presentations by historians, strategists, legal scholars and policymakers. Taking a multidisciplinary approach and focusing on the intersection of policy and theory, it aims to expose the university community to fresh approaches in international security studies. The series is directed by LBJ School Professor Francis J. Gavin and sponsored by the University of Texas Global Challenges Initiative.
“The International Security Speakers Series in its first year brought to Austin exactly the right experts on exactly the right topics,” said LBJ School Professor Elspeth Rostow, an expert on U.S. foreign policy. “It looks as though the program in 2005-06 will maintain the same high standards. Anyone concerned about the precarious state of world affairs should make it a point to attend.”
A major highlight this fall will be a panel discussion on intelligence reform in the United States that features Admiral Bobby R. Inman, former director of the National Security Agency and interim dean of the LBJ School; Dr. Robert Gates, former director of central intelligence and now president of Texas AandM University; Senator Charles Robb, who co-chaired the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction; and James C. Langdon Jr., chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Speakers in last year’s series explored a broad range of U.S. international policy dilemmas. To an audience of hundreds in the LBJ Auditorium, U.S. Central Command Commander-in-Chief General Anthony Zinni offered a critical assessment of the Middle East. At a smaller engagement in a more intimate setting, UC Berkley Professor John Yoo led a controversial discussion examining international law and the use of force in the wake of conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. To a crowd that included top university administrators, Drew Erdmann, a former Bush administration adviser on the Middle East, questioned academia’s effectiveness in training international policymakers. And drawing from his soon-to-be released book titled “Winning the War on Terror,” UT Law Professor Philip Bobbitt shared his views on steps the U.S. should take at home and abroad to improve security and minimize the risks of terrorist attacks.
“The opportunity of having such a distinguished series of speakers share their views and experiences with members of the UT community was in itself extremely enriching,” said Sofia Avila, a UT Austin Plan II student who attended last year’s series. “Besides creating an awareness concerning issues of international security, the speaker series is an invaluable learning experience.”
The schedule for the 2005-06 International Security Speakers Series is available online. Free and open to the public, the lectures will be held from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Brown Room on the 10th floor of the LBJ Library and Museum unless otherwise noted. A map and directions to the LBJ School are available online. For additional information, contact msgerson@mail.utexas.edu.
For more information contact: Megan Scarborough, LBJ School of Public Affairs, 512-471-8954.
