Newswise — BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University will convene a high-level, two-day conference March 30 and 31 at which about two dozen policy analysts, scholars, political leaders and journalists will consider the critical foreign policy issues that will face the United States’ next president.

“America’s Role in the World" is being convened by former Sen. Richard Lugar and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, distinguished faculty members in the School of Global and International Studies and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, and Lee Feinstein, founding dean of the school and former U.S. ambassador to Poland.

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor and assistant to President Barack Obama, will keynote the conference.

Other speakers will include Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind.; Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; James Steinberg, former deputy secretary of state and dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University; Elisa Massimino, president and CEO of Human Rights First; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie Savage; and three former U.S. ambassadors. Distinguished scholars at IU and other foreign policy leaders also will participate.

“Under the leadership of our colleagues and distinguished public servants, Richard Lugar and Lee Hamilton, I am proud to host this timely conference on some of the most critical foreign policy issues that will face the next president,” Feinstein said. "From Day One, the new president will confront a daunting set of global issues. Our conference speakers, who include national security leaders with a diverse range of views, will aim to prioritize and address the next president’s inbox.”

The conference is open to the public, but registration is encouraged. Events will take place in the auditorium of the Global and International Studies Building, 355 N. Jordan Ave., on the IU Bloomington campus. Registration is free for IU students, faculty and staff and $100 for all others. Single-day registration is available for $60. Deadline to register online is March 24.

Among the other featured speakers are:

-- Christopher Robert Hill, dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, South Korea, Poland and Macedonia and special envoy to Kosovo.-- Christopher A. Kojm, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council.-- Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and a former deputy assistant secretary of state.-- Philip Zelikow, former National Security Council staff member, under secretary of state and executive director of the 9/11 Commission.-- Award-winning journalist Robin Wright.-- James T. Morris, former executive director for the United Nations World Food Programme, vice president of Pacers Sports & Entertainment and an IU trustee.

IU faculty participants will include IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel; Huss Banai, assistant professor of international studies; Gardner Bovingdon, assistant professor of East Asian languages and cultures; Fred H. Cate, IU vice president for research, Distinguished Professor and C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law; Emma Gilligan, assistant professor of international studies; Feisal Istrabadi, director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and professor of practice at the IU Maurer School of Law and School of Global and International Studies; and Michelle Moyd, associate professor of history.

The entire program will be presented live online at www.broadcast.iu.edu, where it will be archived for later viewing.

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