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Two nationally
renowned speakers will be featured in a public forum at Schreiner
University Tuesday, Nov. 14. Dr. Ron Hatchett and Dr.
Bill Martin will present the
Labatt Speaker Series, “Transforming the Middle East: Plans and
Prospects,” at 7 p.m. in the Cailloux Campus Activity
Center ballroom on the Schreiner campus.
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Hatchett is
the director of
Schreiner’s Center for Global Studies and a former senior
civilian official in the Department of Defense working arms control
and international security issues during the administration of
President Ronald Regan.
"Success in Iraq and in the broader war on terrorism will depend in
large measure on how we define our objectives,” Hatchett said. “It
seems to me that there is a growing consensus across political
boundaries in our country that we need to take a closer look at what
we trying to accomplish in the Middle East and how we should go
about it. Our presentation will hopefully shed some light on this
issue."
From 1983-1986, Hatchett was the Secretary of Defense Representative
to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions Talks (MBFR) negotiating
NATO and Warsaw Pact conventional force levels in central Europe. In
1986 he became the Secretary of Defense Representative to three
other multi-national security organizations in Europe: the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
concerning security, economic, and human rights issues; the mandate
talks for NATO-Warsaw Pact negotiations on Conventional Forces in
Europe (CFE); and the NATO High Level Task Force on conventional
arms control.
Prior to taking his position in the Office of the Secretary of
Defense, Hatchett served for 20 years as an Air Force officer
working intelligence and politico-military affairs. Hatchett's
academic specialties are foreign policy, European Studies and Middle
Eastern Affairs. He also frequently appears as a commentator
on local and national television and radio news programs.
Martin is the Harry and Hazel Chavanne emeritus professor of
sociology and Chavanne Senior Fellow for religion and public policy
at the
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice
University, where he taught from 1968 until 2005. He is a graduate
of Abilene Christian University and Harvard Divinity School and
received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1969. During his years at Rice,
he has received numerous teaching awards, including a Lifetime Award
for Excellence in Teaching. His articles, most dealing with various
aspects of religion, have appeared in such publications as The
Atlantic, Harper's, Esquire, and Texas Monthly, for which he writes
a monthly column, “Faith Bases,” about religion in Texas. He is also
a frequent guest on national and local news and discussion programs.
“Oil, tribalism, historic animosities, greed, lust for power, U. S.
policy and reaction to it—all make prospects for peace in the Middle
East unpromising,” Martin said. “But no responsible attempt to
understand this troubled region can ignore the power of religion to
inspire, inflame, and legitimize both helpful and disastrous action
by the major protagonists.”
This will be a great opportunity for members of the community to
benefit from Hatchett’s perspectives on the political and military
implications of recent developments in the Middle East, as well as
Martin’s observations on the social and religious components of
contemporary events in the volatile region. There will be a question
and answer session following the discussion.
For more information, contact Martha York, director of
CIL, at 830-792-7352 or
mlyork@schreiner.edu. |
