General Brent Scowcroft, one of the country's leading experts on national security, defense and foreign policy and a former national security adviser, will deliver the George Herbert Walker, Jr. Lecture on Tuesday, April 15. His lecture, titled "America and the World: Can We Cope?" will begin at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave. Sponsored by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies YCIAS , the event is free and open the public.
General Scowcroft served as national security adviser to both Presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush. He is currently head of the Scowcroft Group and president of The Forum for International Policy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advocating American leadership in foreign policy. Both have headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Recently, General Scowcroft joined with other national leaders, including President Bill Clinton, in calling for a global ban on chemical weapons. He cosigned with former Republican senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker Kansas and former Democratic senator David Boren Oklahoma a letter of support for President Clinton, who has been pleading for Senate support of the treaty. The Chemical Weapons Convention, which has been signed by 161 countries and ratified by nearly half so far, would ban the development, production and acquisition of chemical weapons, as well as their stockpiling and transfer. General Scowcroft has stated his view that it is imperative for the U.S. to approve the treaty to retain leadership on security issues. The accord will take effect at the end of the month with or without U.S. ratification.
Born in Utah, General Scowcroft began a long and distinguished career in the U.S. military when he joined the Armed Services in 1943. He graduated from West Point in 1947 and served in the Air Force in a number of capacities, including assistant air attache in Belgrade, Yugoslavia; special assistant to the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and military assistant to President Richard Nixon.
General Scowcroft was assigned in 1953 to the U.S. Military Academy's department of social sciences, where he was appointed assistant professor of Russian history, a post he held until 1957. He earned both a master's degree in 1953 and a doctorate in 1967 in international relations from Columbia University. He also attended Lafayette College, Georgetown University School of Languages and Linguistics, the Armed Forces Staff College and the National War College.
From 1982 to 1989, General Scowcroft was vice chair of Kissinger Associates, Inc., where he assisted a wide range of U.S. and foreign corporations in strategic planning and risk assessment. He remained actively involved in national security affairs 1978-89, serving on the President's Special Review Board, also known as the Tower Board, that investigated the Iran-Contra affair.
The George Herbert Walker, Jr. Lecture in International Studies enables the YCIAS to bring to campus eminent scholars and public figures to speak to students and faculty on topics that complement existing course offerings. The lectureship was established by George Herbert Walker III '53 in memory of his father, a graduate of the Class of 1927.