For Immediate Release

Contact: Cristal Logan

Vice President, Aspen Community Programs

The Aspen Institute

[email protected]
Tel. 970-544-7929

The Aspen Institute to Welcome Ambassador Christopher Hill, Ambassador
Robert Hutchings, and Dr. Jeremi Suri
Hurst Lecture Series to host a panel on foreign policy on March 10

ASPEN, CO, February 18, 2016 –– The Aspen Institute is pleased to welcome Ambassador Christopher Hill, former Ambassador to Iraq and Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Ambassador Robert Hutchings, Professor at Princeton University and former chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Dr. Jeremi Suri, Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. The panel will discuss Hutchings and Suri’s new book Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy, which analyzes the activities of a diverse group of diplomats in cases including: the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the U.S. opening to China, the Camp David Accords, the creation of the European Union, and the completion of the North American Free Trade Agreement. They will discuss how diplomats serving currently can have a positive impact on issues abroad. 

Part of the Hurst Lecture Series, this event is open to the public and will take place on March 10, 2016 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. in the Doerr-Hosier Center on the Institute’s Aspen Meadows campus. The Hurst Lecture Series is generously underwritten by the Hurst Family Foundation.

Tickets are $20 and are on sale now at www.aspenshowtix.com, (970) 920-5770, or in person at the Wheeler Opera House. Early ticket purchase is encouraged, as a full-capacity audience is expected for this event.  Doors will open at 5:00 p.m., and any unclaimed tickets will be sold at the door.

Ambassador Christopher Robert Hill is the Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, a position he has held since September 2010. In addition to overseeing the Josef Korbel School, Ambassador Hill is author of the book  Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy: A Memoir , a monthly columnist for Project Syndicate, and a highly sought public speaker and voice in the media on international affairs. Ambassador Hill is a former career diplomat, a four-time ambassador, nominated by three presidents, whose last post was as Ambassador to Iraq (April 2009-August 2010). Prior to Iraq, Hill served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2005 until 2009 during which he was also the head of the U.S. delegation to the Six Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. Earlier, he was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Ambassador to Poland, Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia, and Special Envoy to Kosovo. He also served as a Special Assistant to the President and a Senior Director on the staff of the National Security Council.

Ambassador Robert Hutchings is the Walt and Elspeth Rostow Chair in National Security and Professor of Public Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and served as Dean of the LBJ School from 2010 to 2015.  Before coming to UT, he was Diplomat in Residence in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, the Chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council in Washington, Director for European Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council, and Special Adviser to the Secretary of State, with the rank of ambassador. Hutchings is a lifetime director of the Atlantic Council of the United States, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and founding president of the Austin Council on Foreign Affairs.  A recipient of the National Intelligence Medal and the U.S. State Department Superior Honor Award, he was also awarded the Order of Merit (with Commander's Cross) of the Republic of Poland for his contributions to Polish freedom.

Dr. Jeremi Suri has a joint appointment in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the University of Texas at Austin Department of History. Suri was previously with the University of Wisconsin, where he was the E. Gordon Fox Professor of History, the Director of the European Union Center of Excellence, and the Director of the Grand Strategy Program. He has received numerous awards for his research and teaching, and Smithsonian Magazine named him one of America's "Top Young Innovators" in the Arts and Sciences in 2007. He is the author of seven books, including the widely acclaimed biography of one of America’s most distinguished diplomats, Henry Kissinger and the American Century (Harvard University Press, 2007), .Liberty's Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from Washington to Obama (Free Press/ Simon and Schuster, 2011), and The Power of the Past: History and Statecraft (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE ASPEN INSTITUTE

Friday, February 26

Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series

Blue Zones: Secrets of a Long Life

Featuring Tony Buettner, national spokesperson and senior vice president of business development at Blue Zones, an organization that puts the learnings of the world's longest-lived people to work in people’s lives, families and communities. Tony is a former expedition member, explorer and brother of National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner, who researched and discovered these places around the world where factors combine to allow people to live longer and better, known as Blue Zones. As the lead on all Blue Zones Community projects, Tony helps build partnerships between states, communities and employers to bring health and longevity initiatives that have empowered and delivered measurable results in eight states and 30 communities across the country to date. Tony will discuss the research that serves as the foundation for the Blue Zones methodology and share insight into what factors help to create a Blue Zone community.

Paepcke Auditorium, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Fee: $20. Tickets at www.aspenshowtix.com.

Friday, March 11

Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series

Making Peace Possible

This event will feature Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama and head of the Shambhala lineage, which is grounded in the power of creating enlightened society in everyday life. He will discuss a realistic possibility of peace with an emphasis on the humanizing quality of meditation and a strategy for breaking down society into simple interactions of individual impact. The Sakyong is the author of the bestselling titles Running with the Mind of Meditation, Ruling Your World, and Turning the Mind into an Ally.

Paepcke Auditorium, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Fee: $20. Tickets at www.aspenshowtix.com.

For more information on events open to the public, please contact Zoe Brown at (970) 544-7935 or [email protected], call the Aspen Community Programs information hotline at (970) 544-7970, or visit the Institute’s website at www.aspeninstitute.org

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has an office in New York City and an international network of partners.

###