FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 3, 2009

Contact: Sonja Matanovic 202.663.5644
E-mail: smatanovic@jhu.edu

Ambassador Eric S. Edelman to Speak at JHU SAIS for Annual Bernstein Lecture

Washington, D.C. - Ambassador Eric S. Edelman will give the sixth annual Alvin H. Bernstein Lecture on “The U.S.-U.K. Special Relationship: The End of the Affair?” at the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) on Tuesday, November 10, at 5:00 p.m.

Edelman is a current visiting fellow at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at SAIS and a distinguished fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis. This semester, SAIS is offering “Diplomatic Disasters: Statecraft in War, Peace, and Revolution,” a course he and Strategic Studies Program Director Eliot A. Cohen created and are teaching together.

On May 1, 2009, Edelman retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service, having served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House. Most recently, as the under secretary of Defense for policy, he oversaw strategy development as the department’s senior policy official. Previously, he served as U.S. ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Clinton and Bush administrations and was principal deputy assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs. In other assignments, he has been chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, special assistant to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Robert Kimmitt and special assistant to Secretary of State George Shultz. He has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and several Department of State Superior Honor Awards. He received a B.A. in history and government from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in U.S. diplomatic history from Yale University.

The event, which is open to the public, will be held in Kenney Auditorium located on the first floor of the school’s Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. Members of the public should RSVP to the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at SAIS at 202.663.5772 or ckunkel@jhu.edu.

Media who want to cover this event should register with Sonja Matanovic in the SAIS Public Affairs Office at 202.663.5644 or smatanovic@jhu.edu.