PSPPI - Hamre

February 13, 2024

SIU’s Paul Simon Institute to host national security expert to discuss global challenges

CARBONDALE, Ill. — John J. Hamre, a former senior U.S. defense department official and an American international relations scholar, will join Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for a virtual discussion on Feb. 20.

Hamre, who is now president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), will join John Shaw, institute director, for a discussion on the nation’s global challenges.

The free, public discussion via Zoom is at 3 p.m.; registration is required. The conversation is part of the institute’s “Understanding Our New World” discussion series. Visit paulsimoninstitute.org/events to register.

“Dr. Hamre is widely seen as one of the most thoughtful analysts of America’s foreign policy and national security challenges. He has led one of the world’s most important think tanks since 2000 and continues to play a critical role in shaping policy debates in Washington and across the world,” Shaw said. “There is no one who is better able to help us understand the extraordinary complexity and severity of the foreign policy challenges facing the United States. His perspective will be invaluable.”

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington, D.C. is a a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges.

Hamre has been president and CEO of CSIS since January 2000. Prior to that, he was U.S. deputy secretary of defense from 1997 to 1999 and the undersecretary of defense (comptroller) in the U.S. Department of Defense from 1993 to 1997, both during President Bill Clinton’s administration. In 2007, then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Hamre as chairman of the Defense Policy Board.

Hamre earned both his master’s degree and doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was a Rockefeller Fellow at Harvard Divinity School.

Attendees are encouraged to submit questions for Hamre on the registration form or email questions to paulsimoninstitute@siu.edu.

More information, a list of the institute’s upcoming events and past speakers and events are available.