Speakers/Luncheons
March 6, 2012 — Monthly Speaker Event
Speaker: Thom Shanker, New York Times Pentagon National Security Correspondent
Topic: After Iraq, Ahead in Afghanistan … and the Big Showdown over Military Spending
Location: UCCS, Berger Hall. Click here for directions and parking information.
Time: Reception at 5:30 p.m., Program at 6:00 P.M.
Over the past 15 years, U.S. defense spending doubled in real terms as America fought two unique wars and responded to a host of 21st century security challenges. Now what?
Thom Shanker covers the Pentagon, the military and national security for the New York Times. He is co-author, with Eric Schmitt, of Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda (2011, Times Books and Henry Holt and Co).
Mr. Shanker joined the New York Times in 1997 as Washington editor. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he frequently embedded with regular and special forces field units ranging from squad to corps. Prior to joining the New York Times, he was foreign editor of the Chicago Tribune, where he covered the wars in former Yugoslavia and was the first reporter to uncover and write about the Serb campaign of systematic mass rape of Muslim women. He was the International Herald Tribune's Moscow bureau chief from 1985-1988, then Pentagon correspondent from 1988-1990, and returned to Moscow from 1990-1992 to cover the death of the USSR and the collapse of the communist empire in Eastern Europe.
Mr. Shanker graduated Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Colorado College, and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the college in 2004. He also studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, specializing in strategic nuclear policy and international law. He also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
April 11, 2012 — Panel Discussion
Panel:
Ambassador Jack Pritchard, President, Korea Economic Institute
Mr. Juseong Lim, First Secretary, Embassy of the Republic of Korea
Ms. Jaime Oberlander, Foreign Affairs Officer, DPRK Unit, Office of the Korean Affairs, Bureau of East Asia and Pacific, U.S. Department of State
Topic: "The Future of Korea"
Location: Broadmoor West, Rocky Mountain Ballroom
Time: 11:30 A.M.
April 26 — Inaugural World Affairs Council Annual Dinner
Speaker: Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, former Assistance Secretary of State for African Affairs & Director, Center for Policy and Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University
Topic: "Africa: Challenges and Opportunities of a Too-long Ignored Continent"
Location: TBD
Check back for more details
