Webcasts Home
Browse:
- Biography, History
- Culture, Performing Arts
- Education
- Government
- Poetry, Literature
- Religion
- Science, Technology
More Audio, Video Resources at the Library
TITLE: Is Diplomacy the Answer?
SPEAKER: Dick Smyser
EVENT DATE: 10/23/2008
RUNNING TIME: 57 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Does the U.S., as a longstanding superpower, need a diplomatic strategy to protect and advance our interests in the new world? William R. Smyser examined the topic in a lecture at the Library of Congress.
Speaker Biography: Dick Smyser, an adjunct professor in the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University, is an expert on the economy and politics of Europe and on global humanitarian matters. During his career, Smyser has worked for the U.S. government, the United Nations and in foundation management and academia. He lived in Germany during the 1930s and later served there with U.S. forces in the 1950s, under General Lucius Clay in Berlin in the 1960s and as a political counselor at the American Embassy in Bonn. He was an adviser to the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam in 1969. Smyser has held a number of senior executive positions in the White House and was a senior member of Henry Kissinger's National Security Council staff, having played a key role in American efforts to establish diplomatic relations between the United States and Communist China during the 1970s. In addition to his position at Georgetown University, Smyser teaches at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, works as a consultant on international politics and economics for private firms and the State Department, and is a periodic commentator for the BBC and Deutsche Welle. He has written 10 books. The most recent are "The Humanitarian Conscience: Caring for Others in the Age of Terror" (2003), "How Germans Negotiate: Logical Goals, Practical Solutions" (2002) and "Yalta to Berlin: the Cold War Struggle over Germany" (1999).