UNH Lecture Series Looks at Current International Issues
First lecture Sept. 30 on American presidency

Contact: Erika Mantz
603-862-1567
UNH Media Relations

Sept. 29, 2003



DURHAM, N.H. – The New Hampshire International Seminar Series will kick off its 22nd year of delivering informative and topical lectures and symposia addressing current international issues to the University of New Hampshire and New Hampshire communities Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003.

Whether it is establishing policies which govern trade and commerce, making the decision on how much aid to give another country, or deciding at what point it is necessary to send America’s armed forces into combat, U.S. presidents must make tough policy decisions on a daily basis that carry global implications.

The Center for International Education will bring noted experts to the UNH campus to discuss these topics as part of its 2003-2004 speaker series “International Dimensions of the American Presidency.” Speakers begin at 4 p.m. with coffee and tea served at 3:30 p.m. All seminars are free and open to the public.

Tuesday, Sept. 30, MUB Theater I

J. Mark Wrighton, assistant professor of political science at UNH and scholar in the field of Washington and New Hampshire politics, will be accompanied by Dean Spiliotes, a visiting scholar at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics and noted researcher on the New Hampshire primary. They will provide an overview of the president’s duties in the international realm and address such topics as the so called “two presidents’
thesis,” revealing the duality presidents encounter in balancing domestic and international
agendas. They will also focus on how this thesis and other international dimensions will directly affect the upcoming 2004 New Hampshire primary.

Wednesday, Oct. 22, Piscataqua Room, Holloway Commons

Thanks to the generous support of the Yale Maria Fund, Edward Drachman, founder of the International Relations Program and professor of political science at the State University of New York at Geneseo, will present “Controversial Presidential Decisions on U.S. Military Intervention in the Middle East.” In his lecture Drachman will take a historical perspective on U.S. intervention in the Middle East by examining three presidents’ decisions on the deployment of troops in the region. He will examine what impact these decisions had, and ultimately what they will have on the future of U.S. relations with the region.

Tuesday, Nov. 18, James Hall, Room 303

UNH welcomes Richard T. Cupitt, special advisor to the Under Secretary for Industry and Security and Director of the BIS Nonproliferation and Export Control Cooperation for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Cuppitt’s lecture, "Reluctant Champions: U.S. Presidential Policy and Strategic Export Control,” will look at how and why the U.S. came to adopt its current export policies on military and dual use items by examining the policies of various presidential administrations.

For more information contact the Center for International Education at 862-2398, or visit www.unh.edu/cie.