E.J. Dionne Jr., columnist at The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, will present a talk titled “Crossfire” on Wednesday, May 8, at the University of Delaware. The free public lecture, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in Room 128 Clayton Hall, is the final offering in the Global Agenda 2002 lecture series on “Understanding International Terrorism Today.”

Dionne spent 14 years with The New York Times, reporting on state and local government and national and international politics, including stints in Paris, Rome and Beirut. The Los Angeles Times praised his coverage of the Vatican as the best in two decades.

In 1990, Dionne joined The Washington Post as a reporter, covering national politics. He began his op-ed column for the Post in 1993 and has been a regular commentator on politics on both television and radio. His column currently appears in some 90 newspapers.

Dionne’s bestselling book, “Why Americans Hate Politics,” was published in 1991. The book, which Newsday called “a classic in American political history” and National Review described as “a gripping page-by-page analysis of what ails us,” won The Los Angeles Times book prize and was a National Book Award nominee.

His 1996 book, “They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era,” was described in The New York Times Book Review as “luminously intelligent.” His third book, which he edited, is “Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America,” published in 1998. He is coeditor, with John DiIulio, of “What’s God Got to Do With the American Experiment?” and he is a regular political analyst on CNN and National Public Radio.

Dionne grew up in Fall River, Mass. He graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1973 and received his doctorate from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. In 1994-95, he was a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. In May 1996, Dionne joined the Brookings Institution as a senior fellow in the Governmental Studies Program. His work at Brookings includes chairing, with Jean Bethke Elshtain of the University of Chicago, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. He is married to Mary Boyle and they have three children.

More information on UD’s Global Agenda series can be found online at [www.udel.edu/global] or by calling (302) 831-2355. The program is a presentation of the World Affairs Council of Wilmington, the University of Delaware’s Center for International Studies and departments of Communication and Political Science and International Relations.

May 6, 2002