Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, will discuss NATO's new strategic concepts, transatlantic issues, Afghanistan and missile defense in a talk beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 8 in Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, is Rasmussen's first address in Chicago since he took office as NATO's 12th secretary general on Aug. 1, 2009. He had previously served as prime minister of Denmark since 2001.
During the Danish presidency of the European Union from July to December 2002, Rasmussen played a key role in expansion negotiations with 10 candidates for EU membership. As minister for economic affairs and member of the EU's ECOFIN council from 1990-92, Rasmussen was the Danish negotiator of and signatory to the Maastricht Treaty, which led to the introduction of the euro as the EU's single currency.
The speech is part of the World Beyond the Headlines series, a collaborative project of the University of Chicago Center for International Studies, the International House Global Voices Program, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores, and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It is funded in part by the McCormick Foundation.
Registration for Rasmussen's talk is requested. For more information, visit http://cis.uchicago.edu/nato.
—Prof. Chuan He
