January 5, 2006
Wesley Clark keynote speaker for 2006 Sears Lecture Series
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Gen. Wesley K. Clark, a 2004 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, will kick off the 2006 Purdue University Sears Lecture Series on Jan. 17.
The theme for the series is "Do We Really Care About Human Rights?: The Balkans, Afghanistan and Africa." Clark's keynote address, "The Balkans: A Strategic Vision," will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse.
"This year's Sears Lecture Series keynote speaker helped move the United States and its NATO allies from indifference to intervention during the 1990s in the Balkan region," says Charlie Ingrao, professor of history and the series organizer. "As commander of NATO who visited Bosnia frequently, Gen. Clark witnessed the horrific legacy of three years of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Muslims and Catholics in 1992. When a similar campaign was launched in 1998 against the Albanian population in Kosovo, Gen. Clark assumed a leading role in stopping this atrocity."
Together with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Clark helped save thousands of lives, Ingrao says.
Clark retired as a four-star general from the United States Army and served as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces in Europe from 1997 to 2000. Clark has been active in politics, including his 2004 campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He also wrote "Waging Modern War," which is about his experiences during the conflict in Kosovo, and "Winning Modern Wars," which examines the strategy of the United States in the Mideast.
The Sears Lecture Series is free and open to the public. Tickets to reserve seats are available for the Clark talk at campus box offices in Stewart Center and Elliott Hall of Music or by calling (765) 494-3933 or (800) 914-SHOW. Seats will be reserved until 7:20 p.m. A reception and book signing will follow Clark's talk, and tickets will be available at the talk to attend the book signing. For more information, contact the Department of History at (765) 494-4122.
Other talks in the series include:
• Roy Gutman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign editor for "Newsday," will present "Mayhem in Taliban Afghanistan: How We Missed the Story" at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 15 in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. Gutman has reported on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of Yugoslavia. He is the author of two books, "Banana Diplomacy: The Making of American Foreign Policy in Nicaragua 1981-1987" and "A Witness to Genocide: The 1993 Pulitzer Prize Winning Dispatches on the Ethnic Cleansing of Bosnia."
• Jacques Paul Klein, currently distinguished visiting professor at Princeton University, will present "U.S./U.N. Relationship in the 21st Century: Liberia as a Model" at 7:30 p.m. on March 7 in Fowler Hall. After serving with distinction in a series of offices in the U.S. State Department, he directed successive U.N. peacekeeping missions in Croatia, Bosnia and Liberia.
The lecture series is sponsored by the Department of History, which is housed in Purdue's College of Liberal Arts.
The biennial series is named for the late Purdue historian Louis Martin Sears, who was a faculty member in the then joint Department of History and Political Science from 1920 until his retirement in 1956. Sears specialized in diplomatic history and biography and was the author of numerous books. The lecture series bearing his name is alternately sponsored by the history and political science departments.
Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu
Source: Charlie Ingrao, (765) 494-8385, ingrao@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: Journalists interested in covering the talk should contact Amy Patterson Neubert at the Purdue News Service, (765) 494-9723 or apatterson@purdue.edu, to reserve a seat.
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