Date: Sep 17, 2008

Roundtable to Look at America's Foreign Policy and the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Nancy Soderberg, Jay M. Parker and Peter Beinart to discuss impact of foreign policy on election

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – Three foreign policy experts will discuss America's international relations, the presidential candidates and what role foreign policy will play in the 2008 election during a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, from 12:45 to 2:10 p.m. in room 246, East Library Wing (Business Development Center), second floor, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, South Campus.

The program, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by The New York Sun and the Hofstra Cultural Center. It is part of Hofstra's Educate '08 series leading up to the October 15 presidential debate at the university, which is sponsored locally by The Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency and The John D. Miller Fund at the Long Island Community Foundation.

The roundtable will consist of:

• Peter Beinart, senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations; columnist, The Washington Post; contributor to Time; editor-at-large, The New Republic, non-resident fellow, the Brookings Institution (2005-2006). He is the author of The Good Fight: Why Liberals-And Only Liberals-Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again (HarperCollins, 2006). He also has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, Slate, Reader's Digest, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Polity: the Journal of the Northeastern Political Science Studies Association.

• Jay M. Parker, Ph.D., visiting associate professor in Georgetown University's Department of Government, adjunct associate professor in the graduate school faculties at Columbia University and George Washington University, and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency. In 2005, Dr. Parker retired from the United States Army in the rank of Colonel after 26 years of active duty service. He also served for more than a decade as professor of political and international affairs and director of International Relations and National Security Studies, Department of Social Sciences, United States Military Academy at West Point.

• Nancy Soderberg, visiting distinguished scholar at the University of North Florida, from 2001-2005. She served as vice president for multilateral affairs of the International Crisis Group in New York, a non-profit conflict prevention organization.  She served in the White House as the third-ranked National Security Council official (1993-1996) and as alternate representative to the United Nations (1997-2001), with the rank of ambassador.  She previously was senior foreign policy advisor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  She held senior positions in the presidential campaigns of '96, '92, '88 and '84 and is a member of the Platform Committee for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.  She is author of The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might (Wiley, 2005).  Her forthcoming book, The Prosperity Agenda: What The World Wants From America -- and What We Need In Return is due out in July 2008. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Concern Worldwide, she also serves on the advisory board of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and the Tannenbaum Center. 

On October 15, Hofstra University will host the third and final presidential debate of the 2008 election season.  This debate, focused on domestic issues, will be televised live around the world.

Leading up to the debate and the 2008 election, Hofstra is proud to host Educate '08, an unprecedented series of lectures, conferences, artistic performances and exhibitions, town hall meetings and interactive forums focused on the issues, history and politics of presidential elections.  Educate '08 provides our students, faculty and the entire surrounding community with access to the newsmakers, scholars and policymakers who have unique insight and knowledge of the American political system.  Many of our programs and events are free and open to the public, and we encourage you to join us for what will be a fascinating series of events.  During spring 2008's Educate '08 schedule, Hofstra hosted more than 30 events, including guests such as Mary Matalin and James Carville, David Gergen, William Kristol and Maureen Dowd, Charlie Cook, and many scholars, historians, journalists and policymakers. 
 
Find out more about Educate '08 by visiting www.hofstra.edu/educate08

The New York Sun, a five-day-a-week broadsheet, was first published in April 2002 and offers the greater metropolitan region unique opinions and intelligent, comprehensive, coverage of local, national and international news, politics, culture, business, sports, and the arts.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 140 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 22 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis. Hofstra offers a faculty whose highest priority is teaching excellence. The University also provides excellent facilities with state-of-the-art technology, extensive library resources and internship programs that match students’ interests and abilities with appropriate companies and organizations. 

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Related Link: For a complete schedule of Educate '08 programs and courses: