adviser in the Carter administration,
to present talk on campus
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser to the president of the United States 1977-1981, will speak on campus on Thursday, March 25, as a guest of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.
His talk will take place at 4 p.m. in the Luce Hall auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave. It is free and open to the public.
Brzezinski will be introduced by Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law, will provide his reflections on the presentation.
The statesman's new book, "The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership," was published last month. In it, Brzezinski writes that today's overwhelming reality is that in the opening years of the 21st century, the United States finds itself not only the most powerful nation on earth but the most powerful nation that has ever existed. He argues that, given the contradictory roles it plays in the world, the United States is fated to be the catalyst for either a new global community or for global chaos. America needs to lead rather than merely dominate by force, Brzezinski contends, as he argues for a more complex and sophisticated view of the U.S.'s global role than much of the media and political leadership are willing to entertain.
As national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, Brzezinski focused on East-West relations, emphasized the further development of the U.S.-China relationship, favored a new arms control agreement with Moscow and shared Carter's and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's view that the U.S. should seek international cooperation in its diplomacy instead of going it alone.
Brzezinski was the first director of the Trilateral Commission, a group of prominent political and business leaders and academics from the United States, Western Europe and Japan that seeks to strengthen relations among the three regions. In 1981 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in the normalization of U.S.-China relations and for his contributions to the human rights and national security policies of the United States. His publications include "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives" and "Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the 21st Century."
Brzezinski is currently with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is the Robert E. Osgood Professor of American Foreign Policy at the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization is devoted to examining the impact of the increasingly integrated world on individuals, communities and nations. For more information about the center or Brzezinski's talk, call (203) 432-1900.
