Former U.S. Diplomat to Speak at Westminster College

Ann Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who resigned from the Bush administration in protest of foreign policy, will speak at Westminster College Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. at the McKelvey Witherspoon Maple Room.

 The Peace Studies Program engages faculty and students seeking an answer to what causes conflict and how conflict can be resolved or prevented.  Peace Studies hosts various speakers with diverse views throughout the year.

 Wright resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service in March 2003, while serving as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia.  Her resignation letter indicates that she disagreed with the decision to go to war in Iraq without authorization of the U.N. Security Council, the lack of effort in resolving the Israel-Palestinian situation, the lack of policy on North Korea, and what she believed was the unnecessary curtailment of civil liberties in the United States.

 Wright's began her foreign service in 1987, when she served as deputy chief of mission of U.S. Embassies in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, and briefly in Afghanistan.  She received the State Department's Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2,500 persons from the civil war in Sierra Leone, the largest evacuation since the evacuation of Saigon in 1974.

 She was on the first State Department team to go to Kabul, Afghanistan.  She helped reopen the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in Dec. 2001 and worked in Afghanistan for five months, serving the last month as deputy chief of mission.

 Before entering the Foreign Service, she served in the Army and has a combined regular Army/Army Reserve service time of 29 years.  She served primarily in special operations units and attained the rank of colonel.  While on military duty in 1982 and 1983 in Grenada, she was on the U.S. Army's International Law team and participated in civil reconstruction.

 The presentation is free and open to the public.  Contact Dr. Andrea Grove, assistant professor of political science and director of the Peace Studies Program at Westminster, at (724) 946-7254 or e-mail groveak@westminster.edu for more information.

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