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March 26, 2005

Amb. Nancy Soderberg to Speak at Fletcher on “The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might”

Medford, MA – Amb. Nancy Soderberg, a former foreign policy expert with the Clinton Administration and the author of a provocative new book called The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might, will speak at The Fletcher School at Tufts University this Tuesday, March 29, beginning at 5 p.m.

A strong advocate of the United Nations and multilateralism, Soderberg’s talk could not be more timely – coming in the wake of President Bush’s controversial selection of John Bolton, a fierce UN critic, as the next US Ambassador to the United Nations, and at a time when a some critics charge the UN has become irrelevant.

The book represents a sharp critique of Bush's first-term embrace of what Soderberg calls the "superpower myth" -- the idea that American military might can do whatever it wants wherever it chooses. In a March 19 piece that appeared in the Financial Times, a reviewer wrote: “Part memoir, part critique of current US foreign policy, the book attacks the idea that the US is powerful enough to bend the world to its will, largely through unilateral force.”

Soderberg held several important posts in the Clinton Administration. From 1997-2001, she served as the US Alternate Representative to the United Nations with the rank of Ambassador. Her responsibilities included representing the US in the Security Council on the entire range of national security issues including conflict resolution, arms control, democracy promotion, and trade policy.

From 1993-97, she served as the third ranking official at the White House in the National Security Council as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security. Her responsibilities included day to day crisis management, the development of US national security policy, liaison with the press and Congress, and briefing the President.

Prior to coming to the White House, Soderberg served as Deputy Director of the Presidential Transition for National Security and as the Foreign Policy Director for the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign. Before the Clinton campaign, she was the Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy.

She is now Vice President and Director of the New York office of International Crisis Group [ICG], an independent, non-profit, multinational organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.

For more information contact: Terry Ann Knopf, 617-627-2778; terry.knopf@tufts.edu

WHEN: Tuesday, March 29 at 5 p.m.
WHERE: The Fletcher School – ASEAN Auditorium, Tufts University, 160 Packard Ave., Medford, MA

Posted by jessica at March 26, 2005 03:09 PM