January 14, 2004

The theme was “Making and Sustaining Peace in the Post 9-11 World.

The World Affairs Council in cooperation with the United States Department of State presented the 16th Annual Town Meeting on January 14, 2004. The theme was “Making and Sustaining Peace in the Post 9-11 World.” This year’s speakers included Robert Bradtke, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs for the United States Department of State; Ambassador Ramiro Cibrian, European Union visiting scholar at the University of Southern California; Peter Hunt, CMG, Consul General of Britain; and Les Janka, president of Les Janka International, an international business, trade, and public affairs consulting firm. Dr. Lawrence T. Geraty and Dr. Graeme Auton presided over the program. This year’s Town Meeting was held at the Mission Inn.

LES JANKA is president of Les Janka International, an international business, trade and public affairs consulting firm. In the U.S. government, he served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger and in the Department of Defense as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and African Affairs. In the White House, he served as Special Assistant to President Reagan and Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In the private sector, he was executive vice president of one of Washington’s premier foreign policy lobbying and public affairs firms. He received a BA from University of Redlands and an MA in International Economics and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Download Janka Speach Transcripts | pdf | 172 kb

RAMIRO CIBRIÁN is currently European Union Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. From 1998 till 2003 he served as Ambassador and Head of the European Union Delegation to the Czech Republic. He began his career as an international civil servant in 1980 at the International Atomic Energy Agency of Vienna under the leadership of Hans Blix. He joined the European Commission and has served in its Directorates General for Environment, International Trade and External Relations. As an EU official he has participated in numerous environmental, non-proliferation and international trade negotiations, including the Kyoto Protocol, the IAEA Protocol on Extended Safeguards and the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization. He has also represented the EU at the Committee on Trade and Environment of the World Trade Organization. He has lectured in the past at Yale University and the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, and, more recently, at Charles University and the High School of Economics in Prague.

PETER HUNT CMG was appointed British Consul-General at Los Angeles in October 2001. He is a career member of Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service. Hunt is British-Consul General for Southern California, Arizona, Utah, Clark County Nevada and Hawaii. He began his overseas career in 1967 when he served in west and southern Africa. He served as Second Secretary Commercial at Caracas, First Secretary, Head of Chancery and Consul Montevideo, Deputy Head of the South Atlantic and Antarctic Department and Deputy Commissioner, British Antarctic Territory. Hunt also served as Minister-Counselor, Deputy Head of Mission and Consul General Santiago. Hunt’s most recent posting was Istanbul where he served as Consul-General and Director of Trade Promotion for Turkey. Mr. Hunt was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George by Her Majesty the Queen in Her Birthday Honors List published in June 2001. Born in 1945, he was educated at the University of London. Download Hunt Speach Transcripts | pdf | 116 kb

ROBERT BRADTKE is Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. He served in the Office of East European Affairs and in the offices of Senator Mathias and Congressman Cheney. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary in the Department of State's Bureau of Legislative Affairs. In addition, Bradtke served as Executive Assistant to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in London, and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council appointed by President Clinton. A native of Chicago, Mr. Bradtke completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, including spending a year in the University's foreign study program in Angers, France. He did graduate work at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and at the University of Virginia. His languages are French, German, Russian, Italian, and Croatian. He has twice been a recipient of the Department of State's Superior Honor Award.

Moderator:

GRAEME AUTON is a Professor of Government at the University of Redlands, and also teaches at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy. A native of Yorkshire, England, Graeme earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and subsequently did postdoctoral work at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs. His professional work has focused on international politics and international security issues. He has been a NATO Research Fellow, and a William C. Foster Fellow at the U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, working in Washington, Brussels and Vienna on European security and non-proliferation. He has written two books, The Foreign Policies of Germany, France and Britain and Arms Control and European Security, and is presently working on a third. He has also written numerous articles in the area of international affairs.