Lee Hamilton, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, vice chair of the 9/11 Commission, and president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., will give a talk at the University of California, Santa Barbara early next month.
The event will take place at 3 p.m., December 2, in Campbell Hall. Presented by UCSB's Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life, it is free and the public is invited to attend.
Hamilton, who served for 34 years as a United States Congressman from Indiana, will discuss how the United States can accomplish its goals in the world while recognizing the limits of its power. In his talk, titled "Time for a Course Correction: American Foreign Policy After Iraq," he will provide an overview of Iraq, terrorism, and other key challenges facing the United States.
"Lee Hamilton's invitation to lecture at UCSB coming from the Capps Center is quite significant," said Wade Clark Roof, a professor of religious studies and director of the Capps Center. "In earlier years Walter Capps sought to gain perspective on the Vietnam War and its impact upon our country in his extraordinary course on this topic, and now once again the United States is caught up in a tragic war. Lee Hamilton has served the country searching for the truth about our involvement in Iraq."
An important and active participant in matters of international relations and United States national security, Hamilton currently is a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Advisory Board, the Director of Central Intelligence's Economic Intelligence Advisory Panel, the Secretary of Defense's National Security Study Group, and the United States Department of Homeland Security Task Force on Preventing the Entry of Weapons of Mass Effect on American Soil.
"It's a high privilege for me to come to Santa Barbara and speak at an event that remembers Walter," said Hamilton. "He was a fine man to work with. He believed in engagement and working through difficult problems. That kind of posture and attitude is a valuable one for this country and I'm pleased to be part of any celebration of him."
Capps served 10 months as U.S. Representative from California's 22nd Congressional District. His term was cut short by a fatal heart attack in October 1997. He was succeeded in Congress by his widow, Lois Capps. Walter Capps's election to Congress had followed a 33-year career at UCSB as a popular professor of religious studies. Hamilton's lecture is one in a year-long series of events commemorating the 10th anniversary of Capps's death.
"His career in Congress was quite short, and yet he had a formidable impact while he was there," said Hamilton. "We both had an interest in foreign affairs. He came into Congress and impressed me immediately with his diligence, knowledge, and pragmatic, non-ideological approach."
For more information about Hamilton's lecture, visit http://www.cappscenter.ucsb.edu/index2.html
Related Links
Share this article
