Former NATO Ambassador to Speak in December

November 20, 2008

Saint Leo University is honored to announce that Robert E. Hunter, former U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, will visit the main campus Dec. 2 to discuss the foreign policy issues that currently face the United States. He expects to comment on U.S. relations with Europe, Russia, the Mideast, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

Ambassador Hunter will speak at 4:30 p.m. in Selby Auditorium. Admission is free. The public is invited.

Ambassador Hunter has served in advisory roles to several top Democratic political candidates and party officials. In the years 1993-98, he served in the Clinton Administration as U.S. Ambassador to NATO and the Western European Union and helped force an end to the war then taking place in Bosnia. He has traveled to 90 countries over the course of his career.

Now he works as a senior advisor at Rand Corp., a prominent research organization in Washington, D.C., and continues to offer counsel on national security and foreign policy issues. The ambassador and his colleagues recently issued a far-reaching report intended to help U.S. and European nations deal more effectively with any military interventions in the future. Drawing from lessons learned in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, Hunter and his co-authors advise spending more on civilian aid for conflict-ridden areas and better coordination between U.S. civilian and military authorities. The report is available at www.rand.org.

The ambassador’s appearance is the first event of Saint Leo University’s Distinguished Speakers Series for the 2008-2009 academic year.