Martin Kramer, editor of the Middle East Quarterly and former director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, will discuss “Living with Terrorism: The Israeli Experience” during the next Global Agenda lecture to be held at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 13, in Room 128 Clayton Hall.

Kramer’s latest book is “Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America.” He is an acknowledged expert on the Islamic world.

The 2002 Global Agenda lecture series, which is free and open to the public, has at its theme “Understanding International Terrorism Today.” Previous speakers have included Peter Bergen, an international correspondent who conducted an interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, and Marcelle Wahba, U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

Ralph Begleiter, Rosenberg Professor of Communication and coordinator of the series, who served for 18 years as CNN’s world affairs correspondent, said the series provides “an extraordinary opportunity to learn from practitioners of political, diplomatic and military policy and from the media who cover international terrorism.”

“Political Islam” will be the topic on March 27, with Barbara Bodine. As U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Bodine was on duty in October 2000 when terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden bombed the U.S.S. Cole. Later, shots were fired aboard her aircraft in a hijacking attempt. She served in the U.S. embassy in Baghdad before the 1991 Gulf War and was number two in the U.S. embassy in Kuwait when Iraq invaded in 1990. She directed the State Department’s counterterrorism office when she returned from the Middle East.

On April 10, Nabil Fahmy, Egypt’s ambassador to the United States, will present “A Delicate Balance.” Egypt’s struggle to combat terrorism and extremist Islamic groups while remaining a strong Arab leader has been a hallmark of its recent history, including its hosting of an anti-terrorism world summit meeting in the mid-1990s. Fahmy played an influential diplomatic role behind the scenes in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations after the Gulf War, leading to the Palestinian-Israeli Oslo accords and to the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty.

Pamela Berkowsky, a terrorism-preparedness coordinator for the Pentagon, will present “A Longtime Challenge” on April 24. Berkowsky joined the Pentagon during the closing days of the Reagan administration. More than a decade and a half as a top military adviser, she dealt with chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism, among other issues.

The series wraps up on May 8 with “Crossfire,” a presentation by E.J. Dionne, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post. Dionne’s work appears in more than 90 newspapers nationwide. He is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Although he focuses primarily on domestic issues, Dionne critiques terrorism policy for American officials and opinion leaders through his columns. Before beginning his op-ed column, Dionne reported for The New York Times and The Washington Post for 17 years.

The program is sponsored by 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.

More information on UD’s Global Agenda series can be found online at [www.udel.edu/global] or by calling 831-2355.

March 8, 2002