Former National Security Advisor Jones to present UMaine Cohen lecture

Retired U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, who served as the first National Security Advisor in the Obama administration, will visit the University of Maine on Thursday, Nov. 17 to deliver a William S. Cohen Lecture.  The talk is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Collins Center for the Arts.

Cohen, the Bangor native who represented Maine in Congress for 24 years and served as Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration, will also participate in the event, joining Jones for a discussion in a moderated Q&A-type format.  The subject will be the Arab Spring, a series of protests in the Arab world during the past several months.

Jones, 67, is a Kansas City, Mo. native who graduated from Georgetown University in 1966 and was commissioned as Marine Corps second lieutenant in 1967.  A Vietnam veteran, he served the Marine Corps in a variety of leadership roles, earning promotion to the rank of brigadier general in 1992.  In 1999, Jones was promoted to the rank of general and he was named 32nd commandant of the Marine Corps, a post he held until 2003, when he became Commander, United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He retired from the military on Feb. 1, 2007, after 40 years of service.  Jones’ term as National Security Advisor ran from Jan. 20, 2009 through his resignation on Oct. 8, 2010.

The lecture series is a function of UMaine’s William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce, established in 1997.  Cohen, who is a former UMaine business faculty member, donated his collection of papers chronicling his Congressional career to UMaine’s Fogler Library when the center was established.  In January of 2001, Cohen gave the papers from his tenure as Secretary of Defense to the university.

Cohen delivered the first lecture in the series in March of 1998; Madeleine Albright, then Secretary of State, followed in October of1999; retired U.S. Senator and former astronaut John Glenn delivered the Cohen Lecture in May of 2001, followed two years later by former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Former CBS News correspondent Dan Rather gave a Cohen lecture presentation in 2005; Washington Post journalist and author Bob Woodward visited UMaine in 2007; Attorney General Eric Holder gave the most recent talk in the series, in October 2009.

The Cohen Lecture was established to bring to UMaine a distinguished speaker with informed perspectives on matters related to international policy and commerce.

Free tickets to the event are available, on a first-come, first-served basis. Those interested in attending should contact the Maine Center for the Arts Box Office at 581-1755 or 1-800-MCA-TIXX. Box office hours are Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Oct. 24, 2011
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571