Thomas Pickering
Former Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, who served as the U.S. envoy to the United Nations and to several countries, will participate in a panel discussion about global security threats Thursday, Oct. 29, at UT Dallas.
Topics of “Global Security Threats: A Transatlantic Lecture” will include cyberwarfare, increasing threats from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and international diplomacy. The event will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. outside of the Clark Center Auditorium (CN 1.112). The lecture will start at 6:15 p.m. Tickets are free, but registration is required. Free parking will be available in Lot U, and shuttle service to the Clark Center will be provided.
Pickering will deliver opening comments and participate in a panel discussion with Dr. Todd Sandler, Vibhooti Shukla Professor of Economics and Political Economy in UT Dallas’ School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS), and Dr. Jeffrey Fields, assistant professor of the practice of international relations at the University of Southern California. Lee Cullum, veteran journalist, commentator and host of the KERA program “CEO,” will serve as moderator.
“This roundtable will provide us a chance to explore many of the security challenges confronting global society — from terrorism to civil conflict, from failed to rogue states, and from nuclear proliferation to regional hot spots,” Sandler said.
Dr. Todd Sandler
Dr. Jeffrey Fields
Early in his career, Pickering was special assistant to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He later served as undersecretary of state for political affairs and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Israel, the Russian Federation, India, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan during a diplomatic career spanning five decades. He retired in 2000.
As secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton appointed Pickering to lead the State Department’s inquiry into an attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya. He served as chairman of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board that examined the circumstances surrounding the killing of four U.S. government workers in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012.
More recently, Pickering has served on the Iran Project, a nongovernmental entity dedicated to improving the relationship between the U.S. and Iranian governments.
The event is sponsored by the American Friends of Bucerius, the American Council on Germany and the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, in cooperation with EPPS. Ricarda Redeker, consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany in Houston, will introduce Pickering.